Railway Herald
BDZ (Bulgarian State run Railway) 77009 gets underway from Velingrad with the Ord 16103 morning southbound service to Dobrinishte on 13th June 2017. Almost immediately the climb to the summit of the line at Avramovo begins from the plateau on which the very pleasant town of Velingrad is situated. The Class 76 and 77 narrow gauge locomotives were built specifically for the Rhodope Valley line in Romania by the U23A (2 3rd August Factory) in 1977 and 1988 respectively, the design virtually a direct copy of the Henschel Class 75. Unfortunately the Romanian built locos did not prove as robust as their German counterparts with the Class 75's being regarded as by far the best out of the three classes.
Stephen Ginn
