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Former Deutsche Heeresfeldbahn 0-8-0T no. 1020, BDZ number 448 (built by Henschel 14268/1916 - carrying plates off 1018, 14266/16) stands on stationary boiler duty in a steelworks yard in Plovdiv on 8/5/1964. She had previously been based at Dupnica on the the longest of the 600mm gauge lines that ran 167km between Radomir & Petric, the final section of which closed in 1969. Photo Trevor Rowe

The first world war left a number of sections of former German military 600mm gauge railways in Bulgaria, a couple of which were quite lengthy and survived into the 1960s. Apart from the section mentioned in the caption above which also had a number of branches, the other survivor up until 1965 was the 57km line from Kaspican to Todor-Ikonomovo with a 11km branch from Ruzica to Kaolinovo. To operate these and a further 5 smaller sections of line around the country, the BDZ also inherited some 105 former Heeresfeldbahn locomotives 93 of which were Brigadelok 0-8-0Ts. In addition there were two 76cm gauge lines in the country both built after WW1, the 102km long line between Cerven-Brjag & Orjahovo which closed to passengers in 2002; and the 124km line from Septemvri to Dobriniste which is still operating. Construction of this line started in 1922 and was not completed until 1945. Also included here are a few shots of the metre gauge tram system in Sofia.

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