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Sunday, March 28,
2004
Monday, March 29, 2004
Tuesday,
March 30, 2004
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Thursday,
April 1, 2004
Friday, April 2, 2004
Saturday,
April 3, 2004
The journey to Iran lead us from Sweden through Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. We did not make longer stops than the schedule determined. This was the route:
| Date | Station | Arrival | Departure | Train number |
| March 28, 2004 | Stockholm C | 10:20 | X2000 529 | |
| København H | 15:23 | 18:54 | EN 483 | |
| March 29, 2004 | München Hbf | 9:03 | 9:26 | EC 63 |
| Budapest Keleti-Pu | 16:58 | 18:10 | EN 371 | |
| March 30, 2004 | Bucuresti Nord Gr. A | 8:25 | 14:00 | Express train 499 |
| March 31, 2004 | Istanbul Sirkeci | 8:27 | ||
| Istanbul Haydarpasa | 22:55 | Exp 11511/11512 Transasya Express | ||
| April 2, 2004 | Tatvan harbour | 11:44 | 13:00 | Ferry |
| Van harbour | 17:00 | 18:25 | Exp 11512/59 Transasya Express | |
| April 3, 2004 | Tabriz | 6:30 |
Now we are finally on our way! Bengt travels from Stockholm, Till from Västerås and joins in Norrköping. The journey goes via Malmö and the Oeresund Bridge to Copenhagen, where we take the oppurtunity to try the recently opened extension of the metro, before we board the nicht train to Munich. We have a comfortable sleeper compartment for ourselves and sleep well on our way southbound.
We have only a short stop in Munich and change to a direct EuroCity-train to
Budapest. It carries convenient austrian cars and a hungarian restaurant car,
but of course, one cannot open the windows to take photos... During the journey,
we have among others compartment mates from Israel. In Austria, there is quite
some snow along our way. The lunch in the restaurant car is delicious and not
too expensive. In Budapest, we buy tickets onwards to Bucharest, which are quite
expensive (approximately 90 US-$ per Person). Bengt talks to the night train's
engineer Bela, who speaks some English and lets us travel in the cab to of the
locomotive of class V43 to Szolnok (we assume that his boss does not read our
homepage). It becomes a very pleasant journey, however extremely shaky. Despite
a good track and moderate 100 km/h (62 mph), the locomotive behaves like a competition
horse. The locomotive is one out of 60 that has received a modified suspension
system with among others rubber elements, which may be visible on photos., vi
förutsätter att hans chef inte läser våran hemsida).
After Szolnok, we go back to our sleeper
which the Romanian Railways CFR has bought used from German Railways. When the
locomotive is changed at the romanian border, we get a locomotive that is built
in license of Swedish ASEA which is indicated on a plate at the side of the loco.
It feels like at home for us as Swedish-German travel companions. Soon after the
short border control, we fall asleep. Now we have received the first stamps in
our passports.
During the night, the train has reversed and got
a new locomotive, also that one of ASEA type. But on the locomotive, nothing is
indicated about license manufacturing. Assumably, no more license fees need to
be paid after a certain number of manufactured locomotives or after a certain
time. Approximately 1000 pieces of this locomotive class have been manufactured.
In the morning, we arrive to Bucharest, where we first buy our tickets to Istanbul.
They cost 1 346 000 Lei per person, which looks somewhat less scaring written
as 40 US-$. People who want to sell oss hotel rooms or city tours are quite
insisting, but that's something we have to stand.
We make a test ride on the metro, where there are new trains with swedish-built
electrical equipment on the line M2. Tills colleagues at work at Bombardier
in Västerås have made the design.
In the early afternoon, we board the Bosphor-Express to Istanbul. There is a compartment
free in a romanian sleeper, so that we change our reserved places in a couchette
on board against better places in the sleeper. The train is short, but very international:
A Moldavian sleeper (with coal heating) comes from Chisinau, a hungarian car from
Budapest, and Turkish TCDD and romanian CFR contribute with a few more sitting
cars, couchettes and sleepers Bucharest - Istanbul. Later, also two bulgarian
cars are coupled to the train.
The train is hauled by a six-axled romanian
diesel locomotives that has boggies of the same type as the about 2200 horsepowers
strong diesel locomotives that have been built in license of SLM, Sulzer and BBC
in Switzerland. The loco has new cabs and probably also a completely new carbody.
Inside, there is an EMD V8-motor, probably of type 710.
Vi reach the Romanian
border station where we get a bulgarian diesell locomotive. It was built in the
Soviet Union, BDZ class 07 or 7, (which is known as "Ludmilla" in Germany,
there among others as classes 232 and 234). This loco pulls us over the impressive
Donau bridge which is, however, in bad shape. Rust is removed manually (!!) from
the bridge before painting.
The bridge is partly in two levels with the road
on the top. Already on the bulgarian border station, we change locos again and
get a bulgarian electric locomotive manufactured by Skoda. It remains unresolved
why the romanian diesel enginge is not allowed to pull us to the bulgarian border
station...
Wi continue our way southbound through Bulgaria and get two direct
cars Sofia - Istanbul coupled to the train. The landscape becomes more scenic,
but unfortunately, it starts becoming dark. The night will be interrupted some
times, which we can see in the timetable - the border crossing to Turkey is not
at a pleasant time.
At half past one, the bulgarian passport control
wakes us in Svilengrad. The controls are still not very thorough, at least for
us, but the border stops become longer. Now, it's nearly an hour. On the Turkish
side in Kapikule, first one guy goes through the coach to check that everybody
has something at least remotely looking like a passport, without looking more
closely. A second one comes a few minutes later, checks the passports thoroughly
and notes the numbers. Then, all passengers have to leave the coach and go to
the passport control counter, where everybody gets his stamp. Back on the train,
it is checked that everybody has received his entry stamp, and finally, the customs
come.
We continue through European Turkey, hauled by a locomotive similar
to the Swedish class "Rb", which has been modernized with thyristor
control by Koncar in former Yougoslavia, untill vi reach the Marmara Sea and Istanbul's
Sirkeci station. Once in a time, the luxury Orient-Express left from here, but
the times for transcontinental trains in Europe seem unfortunately to be over.
A cousin of a colleague of Till meets us at the station. His name is Ertugrul,
and he works as a TV reporter. He has bought our tickets to Tabriz in Iran and
has collected info about Istanbul and our travel route. He has come with a driver
and invites us to a breakfast in a fine restaurant with view over the Marmara
sea. Later, we go over the impressive Bosphor bridge to the Asian side of Istanbul
and the Haydarpasa station. Like that, we get a nice sightseeing trip and advice.
In Istanbul, among others we look around at the jetty where cargo cars are shipped
over the Bosphor. As we later try out the intercontinental urban traffic (passenger
ferry over the Bosphor), we also see a railway ferry in the opposite direction.
Late in the evening, our night train "Trans Asya Ekspressi" to Tehran
leaves. It's actually two night trains on either side of the lake Van in eastern
Turkey with a ferry inbetween. We are going to spend two nights on the Turkish
train to the ferry harbour Tatvan and board the quite modern 1st class couchett
car. It's four beds in the compartment we have on our own. The coaches are in
their way multicultural, they have a european sit toilet in one end and an asian
squat toilet in the other end each.
Till talks to the engineer and is allowed
to travel in the cab. It's good mood with Turkish music and tea, while we rush
through the night. The engineer does not speak English, and hardly any German,
but Russian, so that Tills Russian lessons already have paid off.
The loco
is manufactured in Turkey with axle sequence Bo'Bo'Bo', but probably, it's a Japanese
design that was continued to be built in Turkey.
The next morning, we have arrived at Ankara, where we change from electrical
to diesel traction. The landscape becomes more and more barren and hilly. The
train goes slowly, the average speed on the hole route to Tatvan is only about
50 km/h (30 mph).
In the evening, till gets another oppurtunity
to follow on the cab after Sivas, where the line crosses a mountain pass. The
loco must work hard in the long ascent of often 15 promille. During the time,
there is dinner in the cab with lots of tea and flat bread. The loco personnel
speaks a few words German, otherwise, it's hands, feet and sketches to communicate.
Shortly
after midnight, a Canadian joins us in our compartment, Jean-Claude. He is making
the overland trip to India through Iran and Pakistan.
The next morning, we
are on our way through mountanous landscape along a river with high water now,
when the snow melts in the mountains. At one place, we see wreckages of some coaches
in the river. The weather is turning worse, it's raining, later, the rain turns
into snow. We see more and more armed police or soldiers, assumably because we
are in areas with a high percentage Kurdish population.
With approximately
three hours delay, we reach the harbour city Tatvan. The train reverses and is
pushed several kilometres to the harbour, where the ferry is waiting. As there
is a road along the lake Van, it's nearly exclusively cargo cars and railway passengers
to Iran who take the ferry. Also a luggage car of our train is loaded on board,
but no passenger coaches. Wi have to change and pass the crossing in the ferry's
crowded saloon. With some extra plastic chairs, it works fine.
During the
four hour crossing with nearly exclusively Iranians, we already learn to know
a lot of Iranian hospatibility. We are invited to share the meals with the Iranians
at the table and hear a lot of interesting about their everyday lifes. Bengt ,
who had at least heard about a religion called Bahá'í, learns that
probably most Iranians on board are Bahá'í. In Kayseri in Turkey,
there are approximately 2000 of them. In Iran, they are not allowed to work in
public service, and higher education is closed for Bahá'í. They
have their own internet page: The Bahá'í
Faith
In Van on the eastern shore of the lake, an Iranian trainset is
waiting for us. To our surprise, besides a fine Iranian restaurant car, it is
composed of russian sleepers that the Iranian railways have bought second-hand.
It feels nearly like in the Trans-Siberian...
Directly after the station,
a steep slope with narrow curves begins, and it is raining slightly. Interesting,
so that Bengt observes how the train comes forward. The speed is approximately
15 km/h, and several times, sparking can be seen from slipping wheels, but the
anti-slip system seems to work satisfactory. But suddenly, there is strong sparking,
and the train stops at once without being braked. After a while, the train starts
again very slowly with the diesel engine nearly running idle. After some more
time, there is again very strong sparking around the wheels, the diesel engine
stops, and even the loco's lights go out. The train remains at a standstill even
though the engine re-starts, and we have to wait for a second locomotive coming
from Van to push us over the mountain. Therafter, we continue at normal speed
to the border with the locos 23 318 and 264, manufactured in Turkey with Pielstick
diesel motor and Alstom electrical equipment.
In the middle of the night, we reach the the Turkish border station. All have to get off and leave their passports at a counter. There are no passport readers, therefore, two officers type in the passport numbers manually in computers. In the meanwhile, people can go buying travel needs in a small shop or play table-tennis. When the passports are returned after nearly an hour, the train can continue to the Iranian side.
