From station to station
STATION MOSTAR was built from 27 August 1884 to 13 June 1885, when the section of narrow gauge railway Metković (Croatia) – Mostar in the length of 42.4 km was opened to traffic. The first train on the test run passed on 12 April 1885 from Mostar to port of Metković. Because of the military and technical reasons, it was decided that the railway towards the port of Metković is built on the right bank of the Neretva River. The Austro-Hungarian government chose Karl Schwartz from Vienna as a builder of Southern Line. Construction began in 1884 and ended in 1885. In the reception building in Mostar station the railway administration and railway archives were located until the beginning of 1992 when during the war events building was set on fire. In the station system there was a repair shop for locomotives, wagons and stokeholds, as well as parking space for locomotives.
STATION CAPLJINA Railroad with narrow gauge or narrow gauge railway Gabela – Zelenika was abolished in 1976, while the last Ćiro thundered through Čapljina on 6 November, 1966. Station building in Čapljina was demolished in 1998. There are only four plane trees that keep the memory of narrow-gauge railway.
STATION GABELA is located 6.7 meters above sea level, and it was the starting point for narrow gauge railways (0.76 m) Gabela – Zelenika in Bay of Kotor (Montenegro), Hum – Trebinje and Uskoplje – Gruž in Dubrovnik (Croatia). Those were railways with primarily military and strategic importance opened to traffic in July 1901. This station was converted into a stop on 29 November, 1966, when railway with normal tracks Sarajevo – Ploče (Croatia) was opened for traffic. It has permanently stopped operating on 31 May, 1976, when railway Čapljina – Dubrovnik and Hum – Nikšić (Montenegro) was abolished.
STATION SJEKOSE s located on 146, 7 meters above sea level, it is place where trains crossed and loading of goods was carried out. Former railway transport forwarding office was also called Dardaneli entrance to the valley of the Neretva River. Station building was demolished at the end of the 1980s. The station had three tracks. Dardaneli entrance to the Neretva valley. The station building was demolished at the end of the 1980s. The station had three tracks.
STATION HRASNO (the village of Brštanica) is located 245 meters above the sea, where trains used to cross and load goods. It is located on the plateau of the village of Brštanice in Hrasno. It used to be a very important railway station where locomotives were fueled with coal and water from the reservoir via the feeder ("gran"). The cistern/reservoir is located above the station, in the once landscaped park in the Tsarska ograda. It is a unique building on the railways in Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond. The reservoir is supplied with rainwater that is collected in channels and three open reservoir collectors, and under them a closed reinforced concrete cistern with a capacity of 7,000 cubic meters of water is built. It was the largest construction of applied reinforced concrete in hydraulic engineering in this part of Europe.
MAIN STATION HUTOVO it is located 310 m above sea level. The reception building of typical construction (as in Zavala and Sutorina) also had a water tank. The railway station had four tracks and a military ramp next to the dead-end track and a Heizen (to heat) boiler room, which was later partly converted into a warehouse and a residential area. The station could receive trains of up to 90 axles and two working locomotives. From Hutovo to Čapljina and vice versa, a local train called Boko by personal name Boko common in this area. From Hutov there was also a local from Dubrovnik to Dubrovnik and vice versa.
GUARD OFFICE/STOP ZELENIKOVAC – Here used to be a railway station for local trains. This is the building where the guard and the track foreman lived. The preserved object along the route is a tool magazine and wagonet of the railway party (tenths) of workers who maintained a certain section of the railway. There is an artificial lake below the stop Vrutak/Hutovo. Water is drained from the lake through an 8.8 km long tunnel. to the turbines in Svitava. The lake is filled with water from the river Trebišnjica, which flows through a concrete channel (its former bed) 68 km long to Trebinje. The concrete channel is the largest concrete slab in the world. There are various types of fish in the lake; carp, trout, eel, sea bream, river mussels... There is a kind of fish that is very tasty and enhances sexual potency (...) They say to a potent man: Ah man, you must have eaten fish from Popovo, wrote the Turkish travel writer Evlija Celebi around 1660 when he passed through this part of Herzegovina.
STATION TURKOVICI it is located 278 m above sea level. Trains crossed on it and goods were loaded. The reception building is occupied and has a water tank. The people of the Turkovići village used to be the best fishermen and wild duck hunters, when the water of Trebišnjica flooded Popovo polje. Individuals were able to catch up to 700 ducks in one night. The Turkovics had about 10 boats each called "barćele" and a ship. They also provided transport services across the mud (water) for passengers from Gornji Hrasno to the train to Turkovići. From the other side of the water, they would call "O Ilija (or someone else) come and transport me". That call saved a pea farmer when he got lost in America, in an unknown place, and he didn't know the language. Out of agony, a man shouted on the street: "Oh, Ilija Balić, come and take me home". A countryman approached him and saved the man. This place is also a viewpoint from which you can see a large part of the Popovski field and the two famous caves Crnulja and Doljašnica, and a thousand smaller ones that swallowed the most water while the field was sinking. Their water springs from Svitava and Hutovo blat, to Metković and along the coast towards Neum and Rijeka Dubrovačka near Dubrovnik.
GUARD/ STOP TRNCINA she had a phone. The guard of the railway and the railway foreman, who managed the railway party of workers who maintained a certain section of the railway, lived there. It also has a water tank. On the left side, opposite the guard building, there was also a magazine for the accommodation of workers' tools and railway wagons. Local trains stopped here. Below, in the field, is the votive chapel of St. No.
STATION VELJA MEDA it is located 291 meters above sea level. Trains crossed on it and goods were loaded. The station building was built about thirty meters above the tracks on a stone wall and a rock to which stone steps lead. Recently, a new access to the building was built, which was turned into a residential area that also has a water tank. A smaller room along the route was used for operational traffic tasks. Above the village are hills rich in various medicinal plants, from which bees used to collect wagonloads of honey. The freight train would stop on the open track and the hives with bees would be unloaded, as well as the hives full of honey.
GUARD OFFICE/DVRSNICA STOP she had a phone. The guard of the railway and the railway foreman, who managed the railway party of workers who maintained a certain section of the railway, lived there. On the left side, opposite the guard building, there was also a magazine for the accommodation of workers' tools and railway wagons. Local trains stopped here, receiving passengers from the village on the other side of the field.
STATION RAVNO it is located 319 m above sea level. The station reception building of typical construction is now a catering and tourist facility. During the railway era, the road from the direction of the field crossed the railway on the transition ramp and continued on its way in front of the Burić inn, the post office, the supervisor's office, behind the station building and further to the center of the town and Zavala. The road and civil facilities were fenced off from the track area with railings (iron fence). The station had three station tracks and could receive trains with 90 axles. In addition to the reception building, the building of the cellular goods magazine remains. On the one hand, the narrow-gauge railway from Ravni continued through Dvrsnica and Velja Međa towards Hutovo, while towards Zavala, it descended through Mala Dubravica and the hill Ljuljevac down the longest wall (about 500 m.) on the route, with a drop of 12 per thousand. On that part there is an iron bridge/viaduct that bridges the deep cut of the canyon. From the viaduct, the path enters the Gradina tunnel L= 340.75 m. In front of the entrance to the tunnel is a stone marker for the 224th km of the railway from Sarajevo. The tunnel was broken in a year.
STATION ZAVALA it is located 266 meters above sea level, and is a typical station building like in Hutovo and Sutorina. Station II. category with train dispatcher was later reduced to station dispatching. The reception building and track area was built on a high wall with a culvert that was a village passage for horse-drawn carriages, but was buried when the partisan memorial ossuary was built. When the sub-wall was being built, the emperor in Vienna was told that it could not be built. He answered with the question "Can a kilo of stone, a kilo of gold? It can. And it was built. All local, passenger and high-speed trains stopped in Zavala for the "scaffolding" from the train to the sea in Slano, Croatia. At the entrance to the station area from the direction of Ravno, there was an auxiliary water tank for supplying water to locomotives via feeders (branches) on special occasions. In the water tank (reservoir) coal pump it dumped water from railway tanks. The station received passengers from the vast hinterland and the Dubrovnik coast. It is interesting to mention that until the railroad was abolished in 1975, there was one tourist train every day in the afternoon from Dubrovnik to Zavala in the summer season.
GUARD/STANDARD GRMLJANI she had a phone. The guard of the railway and the railway foreman who managed the railway lived there party workers who maintained a certain section of the railway. Next to the guard building is a warehouse for the storage of workers' tools and railway wagons. Local trains stopped here. They received passengers from the hinterland of Grmljan.
STATION POLJICE it is located 270 meters above the sea, where trains used to cross and load goods. The station building is a typical building above the track space on the subwall, next to the building is a water tank. The goods magazine and the exit signal (traffic light) towards Grmljani are still standing. The station received passengers from both sides of the field. And now there is a road connected to the main road Trebinje - Stolac - Mostar. In the village there are two Orthodox churches and a necropolis with 16 stećaks in two groups. There is also a partisan monument on the plateau of the station.
GUARD/STOP DIKLIĆI she had a phone. The guard of the railway and the railway foreman who managed the railway lived there party workers who maintained a certain section of the railway. Next to the building is a water tank. Next to the guard building is a magazine for the storage of workers' tools and railway carriages. Local trains stopped here. They received passengers from both sides of the railway line.
STATION JASENICA LUG it is located 266.8 meters above sea level, where trains used to cross and load goods. The reception building is of the same type as in Hrasno. The building is located on the flat terrain of Luga, next to it is a water tank. In the tourist guide in 1926, it is written that from this station it was possible to walk 3 hours to the distant village of Grebci, where there are 30 caves.
STATION HUM it is located 270 meters above sea level, and the reception station building is a typical two-block building, as in Trebinje and Uskoplje (one block each). The station area was built not far from the village of Huma on Bjelin dol, a place where caravan routes crossed from antiquity to the Middle Ages. Since 1901, Hum has become the largest railway junction on the railway from Sarajevo to Zelenika and Podgorica in Montenegro. After 1966, it was the largest railway hub, a shunting, distribution and transit station towards Zelenika and Dubrovnik, and a separate station towards Trebinje and Nikšić. The station had 14 tracks (8 manipulative) and exits towards Trebinje and Uskoplje. A triangle was used to turn locomotives, and even entire trains, and not a turntable. Triangl actually connected the Trebinje and Uskopaljska railways. The locomotives received water through two water feeders (branches). There was also a workshop for repairing cars and locomotives in Mostar, and it had an outpost in Hum, a "car" workshop. (There was also a workshop for the repair of cars and locomotives that had an outpost in Hum, the "car" workshop). And the locomotives also received coal. The railway supervision was also working. Over 60 regular and special trains (freight, passenger, local, high-speed, and motor) passed through the station in one shift (in 24 hours). In 1967, a "mini directorate" was established in Hum. It was the headquarters of the Working Unit of the Traffic and Transport Activity (STD) in the ŽTP Sarajevo system for the lines of the unconnected railway network south of Čapljina. While the trains whistled, beat and roared across Hum, a large number of passengers and railway staff were moving around the station. After the railway was abolished and the tracks were dismantled in the summer of 1976, a plant for the production of "threading heads" was built by Industria alata from Trebinje in cooperation with the Czech company "Nažadi" from Prague on the track area in front of the railway station. The factory ceased operations in 1991. During the war, the station administration building was partially destroyed.
MAIN STATION USKOPLJE it was located 350 meters above sea level. The one-story reception building was stone-walled. In addition to the official rooms on the ground floor and the restaurant on the first floor of the building, there were three, and two more apartments in the attic for railway employees. The building had all the accompanying necessary facilities. There were three entrance signals here for three entrances to the station which was a minor hub and marshalling yard until it was abolished zelenicke pruge On July 1, 1968, there was one railroad going in from Hum, and two going east and south from Uskoplje. Zelenica railway from the exit junction, it turned left below the village of Uskoplja and wound up the hill with a 17.5 per mile climb towards Glavska and further to Zelenika in Boka Kotorska. The second railway went out in the direction of Ivanica and entered the Republic of Croatia through a tunnel, then with a gradient of 27.8 per thousand it went down serpentines towards Dubrovnik. Here, due to the large slope of the railway, the freight compositions were divided and with two steam locomotives of the 83 series descended to Dubrovnik. Kolodvor had 7 tracks (the third passing track was for Dubrovnik) with 14 switches. After the cancellation of the Zelenička railway, three tracks and a turner for turning locomotives (11.90) remained, of which only the "headquarters" and the switchman's house remained. Several films were shot here, and Ivanica was the location of the "Cowboy Town" where five films about Winnetou were shot from 1962 to 1966. The city was attractive to travelers who took the train to Dubrovnik and Zelenika and vice versa.
STATION TREBINJE it is located 275.6 meters above sea level, and was an important railway center. The station building along the Trebišnjica river is of the same type as the one in Hum, but one block shorter. It had six tracks and blind 7th and 8th for goods and military magazine. It was the home station for traffic officers of railway stations and accompanying staff from Hum to Bileća. In the past, 4 passenger, high-speed and 2 motor trains, 4 pairs of local trains and about 22 freight trains passed through the Trebinje railway station daily. It owned up to 25 steam locomotives, and since 1970 also diesel-hydraulic locomotives of the 740 series. One steam locomotive of the 83 series remains as a museum exhibit. The station also had supporting facilities: a battery station, a workshop for repairing locomotives and track supervision, a magazine, a turnbuckle (turntable) for turning locomotives, a water fountain with a hand pump. The tall building of the water reservoir from which the locomotives received water through the feeder (branch) is still standing.
