TRAIN DE TITO

Still half in ruins since 1992, the village of Oštrelj (pronounced "ochtreille") has only 20 Bosnian-Serb inhabitants. But it has a classified monument. It is not the luxurious Blue Train of Tito, now back in service for tourists between Serbia and Montenegro. This train (Titov Voz) is green and does not run since 1951. Now almost forgotten under a wooden shelter, it served as the Yugoslav leader's mobile headquarters during World War II. From November 1941, six months after the German invasion, a small independent railway network began to operate in the free zone of Bihać with about thirty trains. This one in particular was driven by Tito himself between Bosanski Petrovac and his secret cave in Drvar, Tropolje. This is the original locomotive, a German Krauss-Maffei type 12 from 1904 crossed out with the word Proleterka ("proletariat"). But the rest of the train, including the mail car used as HQ, burned down, now replaced by similar material from the same period. Reaching 25 km/h, the locomotive was used until 1951 between Prijedor and Knin (Croatia) on a narrow gauge line closed in 1975. The visit is quick, but the village of Oštrelj has a restaurant and hiking trails. The village also has a small ski resort. Created in 1984 for the Sarajevo Olympics, it has been operating again since 2018 with 2 km of slopes culminating at an altitude of 1,210 m.