Bratislava hosts vintage trains, (source: SITA)
THE PREMISES of Engine Depot (or the Old Depot as it is popularly called) celebrated the 14th national reunion of historical railway engines and vehicles called Rendez 2012. The Slovak railway nostalgia club sent five still-operable steam engines, ten vintage locomotive engines and five railcars for the exhibition. Other historical railway equipment were sent by the Strasshof Railway Museum in Austria, by Czech Railways, by Slovak passenger rail company Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko (ZSSK) and by Cargo Slovakia, the freight handling rail company as well as a special train from Hungary.
“Everyone who is interested in vintage railways can find something here,” Zora Vajsochrová Trnková, the spokesperson for the event, told the TASR newswire.
“On the weekend of June 23 and 24 the event, which attracted both children and adults, was livened up when historical trains made the run from the Rendez depot to the main railway station in Bratislava as well as old-time trams operating in downtown Bratislava,” Zuzana Chalupová of ZSSK told TASR.
Visitors were allowed to ride on historical engines or railcars to nearby destinations. Older equipment that was no longer operable was also displayed. “The oldest engine is locomotive No 310 which used to operate around Vrútky,” Vajsochrová Trnková said. “It is more than 100 years old and we hope to find money to restore it and make it operational again,” she stated.
