Rail traffic in Serbia - Tunnels and bridge Parcani and Ralja -- Old Belgrade - Nis mainline [4K]

One of the main railway lines in Serbia, the old Belgrade - Niš line, passes through the hilly areas south of Belgrade. Some of the more photogenic places are Ralja and village Parcani. There are two railway tunnels and one large, old steel rail bridge. The Parcani tunnel is of newer construction. The Ralja tunnel is an old tunnel built in the late 1800s, when the Belgrade - Niš railway line was built. It is similar with the Parcani bridge. The Ralja tunnel is the narrowest railway tunnel in Serbia and perhaps one of the narrowest railway tunnels in Europe, with a standard 1435mm track gauge. Trains pass through it next to the walls, with only a few centimeters from the loading gauge of rail vehicles. Train moving over the construction of the old steel bridge and train passing through a narrow brick tunnel, produced very interesting train passing sounds. The relatively dilapidated railway infrastructure with a lot of old rail track joints contributes to the formation of additional sound effects of passing trains.

Railway station Ralja, with its 232m above sea level, is the highest point on this line. The configuration of hilly terrain and old hilly railway line often requires that heavy freight trains must be pushed by an additional locomotive, which appears in several frames in the video. Next to the Parcani bridge and in front of the old railway tunnels, old German bunkers can be seen. They date from the Second World War and had a guard role in protecting important buildings along this line. During the recording of this video, all transit freight train traffic passed through this route.

All freight trains, that pass through Serbia, on their route between the countries of Eastern and Central Europe and Southeast Europe use this way. That is the main reason why various freight trains of various railway operators appear in the video. An additional diversity is the appearance of different electric and diesel locomotives, and also EMU, DMU and old classic coaches passenger trains.

Some of the freight trains that appear in the video:
0:36 Freight train mix from Bulgaria towards Belgrade, in front of Ralja tunnel
5:45 Short tank cars freingt train for transport of phosphoric and sulfuric acids
7:14 Train with open wagons for some ore transporting above tunnel Ralja
8:50 Mixed freight train from Budapest Ferencvaros towards Bulgaria and Turkey
14:52 Intermodal freight train towards Turkey at Parcani bridge
16:24 Freight train for transporting heavy metal coils
20:37 Mixed freight train from Budapest Ferencvaros marshalling yard towards Greece
25:22 Intermodal train towards Piraeus Port
37:01 Intermodal train with 2 electric and 1 diesel locomotive above concrete portal of tunnel Ralja

This video shows a total of 14 passenger and 22 freight trains. The situations of arrival and departure of passenger trains, as well as the station command table of train dispatcher, are especially shown.

The recordings were made mostly in autumn and winter time during 2020 and 2021.

Видео Rail traffic in Serbia - Tunnels and bridge Parcani and Ralja -- Old Belgrade - Nis mainline [4K] канала dulevoz