European Route E70 by Piotrek & Jarek Via Flickr: The railway line between Ниш/Niš and Димитровград/Dimitrovgrad in Southern Serbia has, in recent years, received a rightful amount of attention from railfans across Europe (also me - since january of this year). It belongs to an important transport corridor and is the way for cargo from Turkey and its surroundings to reach South and South-Western Europe. The traffic here is super dense - thanks to the demand for cargo services here, but also due to the short max length for trains, dictated by heavy inclines. The line runs at full capacity at almost all times, but the throughput is not too great. Stations are around 10-15km apart but the max allowed speed for trains oscilates between 10 and 20km/h. Luckily, the line is being modernised right now. It's closed 4 days a week and the rest of the days are totally filled to the brim with traffic. Our first day of the stay at the Sićevo gorge was pretty successful and we started off with this picture of the Sulzer 663-001, as it was passing the station in Ostrovica, with a really nice dispatcher, who kept having a conversation with us as we were waiting inbetween trains. To its right, a boxcar train, bound for Turkey. The Sićevo Gorge (Сићевачка клисура) lies just a few kilometers away from Niš and is a really beautiful nature reserve in itself, very worth checking out in summer. The trains running right through its middle just add to the experience :D. All the pictures with literal walls of rock in the background always amazed me - and my amazement was even greater when I saw those places live. Photo by Piotrek/Toprus
