THE RISE AND FALL OF GM DIESEL LOCOMOTIVES IN EX-YUGOSLAVIA PARTI: CLASS 661

摘要

It is important to understand political and railway context in Yugoslavia - the State was divided into six republics and two autonomous regions. The socialist republic of Serbia was divided into Vojvodina in the north and Kosovo in south. All republics had their own railway departments acting almost as independent companies. The umbrella company, JZ, was headquartered in Beograd and acted mainly as an advisory and integration body. The railway departments were called ZG in Slovenian and ZTP or ZTO in all other Yugoslav languages. From 1977 the regions of Vojvodina and Kosovo and the socialist republic of Montenegro had their own departments. Before that time railways in those areas were under control of ZTP Beograd. The Montenegrin capital, now known as Podgorica, was in Yugoslav times called Titograd. Fushe Kosove was known by the Serbian name Kosovo Polje before Kosovo declared independence. All the GM EMD locos, including those produced under licence by Macosa in Spain or by Duro Dakovic in Slavonski Brod, Croatia carried the characteristic dark green livery with yellow stripes, usually called moustaches. The GM EMD locos also all sounded particularly good - with various distinctive sounds from the various types of diesel engines. The important feature of all of them, except Class 666 was the single cab design, requiring two drivers. Also, all locos have three-axle bogies with all or the two outer axles powered. Other JZ diesel electric locos - Classes 662 (built by Duro Dakovic), 665 (MLW), 667 (Briansk), 641 (Ganz), 642/3 (B&L and Duro Dakovic) are omitted from this article.