User:SDZ 362

Sukovo-Rakita 27 km, 600mm gauge (Jerma-Grabernik A.D. colliery) The Jerma anthracite mine was named after the river Jerma and was situated in south-east Serbia near the Bulgarian border, on the north-west slopes of Mount Ruj at an altitude of 844-1103m. This part of Serbia belonged to Bulgaria until 1918. Exploration started in 1922 and a 50-year concession covering an area of 3,000 hectares was granted by the state on 26 April 1926 to the Jerma-Grabernik A.D. company, based in Belgrade. A French contractor built a 27km-long 600mm gauge railway line, which connected the colliery with the state railways at Sukovo/Belopolje. The line was laid with 9 kg/m rails and almost 40,000 sleepers were used. The Sukovo - Rakita line was unusual for its motive power, made up mainly of military locomotives dating from the First World War. Besides the famous Fairlie-type Pechot-Bourdon locos built by Baldwin, the line also used German Brigade 0-8-0Ts, Austrian R IIIc 0-6-0Ts and French Decauville 0-6-0Ts.

no.                   name                                   builder 1778 (1)		Dec 1778/1917, G. Haour, 0-6-0T	à '49  ? † 225		       BLW 43439/1916, ex-French Army, 0-4+4-0T † '34 305		       BLW 44214/1916, ex-French Army, 0-4+4-0T † '34 4274 (2)'Sveti Jovan'	Maff 4274/1926, 0-8-0T, new	†  '64 4275 (2)'Sveti Đorđe'	Maff 4275/1926, 0-8-0T, new	†  '64 4866	'Sveti Ilija'	Maff 4866/1917, ex-DHFB 1827, 0-8-0T	†  '53 943	'Sveti Ranđel'	Hens 14911/1917, ex-DHFB 943, 0-8-0T --> ' 52 Senovo colliery, Slove. † 9763		       Bors 9763/1916, ex-DHFB 746, 0-8-0T --> JDŽ 99.4-013  † '64 99.3-01 'Baba Kata'	Hens 15882/1917,ex-kukHB 446, 0-6-0T -->'52 Jelašnica colliery † '67 127 (4)		Đ.Đ. 127/1947, 0-6-0T, new --> '50 Orašac colliery † 169 (4)		Đ.Đ. 169/1947, 0-6-0T, new --> '50 Orašac colliery †

(1) Decauville 1778 was sent to Niš for repairs in 1949 and was probably cut up there. (2) After WW1 there was a shortage of narrow gauge locos and as the Jerma company was unable to find enough second-hand locos, it was forced to order two brand-new locos from the Maffei factory in Germany. In 1939-40 these locos were reconstructed during repairs increasing their weight from the original 9t to 11t. (3) No. 99.3-017, which came from the state railways in 1945-46, was transfered to Jelašnica colliery in 1952; no. 9763 was transferred to the state railways as JDŽ 99.4-013 in 1947. (4) Orašac colliery had a 1.4km long 600mm gauge line built in 1949; until closure in 1956 this was used to bring coal from the mine to the 760mm gauge Grabovac - Orašac industrial railway (7.5km) gauge (Grabovac was on the Mladenovac - Aranđelovac line of the JDŽ). In addition to the steam locomotives, the colliery had two Bo' diesel locos built by Motorenlokomotivbau GmbH (1927, † '64) and Montania AG (after withdrawal in 1936 the motor of this latter loco was used as water-pump to remove water from pits) and two petrol draisines for inspection and reparing tracks (one was ordered by the contractor, the other came in 1948 during the general repair of the line). For passenger transport eight four-axle carriages and one four-axle saloon were ordered and for freight trains there were 57 10t open goods wagons and one covered goods wagon; 350 0.9t skips were used in the mine). All wagons were built by the Sartid A.D. (Smederevo) and Alat A.D. (Zagreb) wagon factories. There were also six second-hand, ex-Brigade type open goods wagons. After WW2 a few open passenger carriages were acquired, as well as some G type covered goods wagons from the JDŽ.     The main depot and repair shops of 620m² were at Sukovo (Belopolje) on the main Niš - Dimitriovgrad (Caribrod) line where coal was transhipped to the standard gauge wagons of the state railways. A small loco shed of 75m² was also built at the end of the line at Rakita. There were nine stations and two loading points: Belopolje (km 0+000), Sukovo (km 2+900), Držina (km 6+500), Vlasi (km 10+400), Sveti Jovan, (km 12+780), Odorovci (km 17+300), Zvonačka Banja (km 20+400), Ruj - loading point (km 21+600), Zvonce (km 23+000), Rakita (km 26+600) and Bremza - loading point (27km+200). Station loops were between 80 and 120m long, except Rakita (150m) and Belopolje (250m). The loading point at 'Ruj' belonged to a forest enterprise of the same name; used for loading timber, it consisted of a 60m siding. As a briquette plant was built at Sukovo, to solve the problem of separating culm at Bremza, which was at the end of the line, a separation plant was built at near end of the line to sort coal before loading into wagons. As all the mines were in the hills around Rakita (Vučiji Dol, Vražji Kamen, Vodenčičište, Vražja Crkva, Kozarnik i Rakov Dol), a 685m-long double track self-acting inclined plane (600mm gauge) was built up the hill from where wagons of 900kg capacity using only gravity were used to transport coal from the mines to the loading point at Bremza. On the upper section diesel locos worked over some 5km of track connecting different pits. The maximum speed for passenger trains was 15km/h and four hours were required to travel the line’s 27km, an average speed of only 7km/h! Braking was mechanical (with number of brakemen), which was always a problem (expecially in winter) when heavy coal trains were going down the line; the difference in height from Belopolje/Sukovo to Rakita was 445m: Belopolje/Sukovo 420m, Rakita 865m). Fortunately, there were no major accidents. Freight trains were allowed to run only in daylight hours.      As coal production declined some of the locos were transfered to the Senovo (Slovenia), Orašac and Jelašnica mines, leaving after 1953 only the two 'youngest' Maffeis and one Brigadelok (two in service, one as reserve loco) on the line until its closure in the summer of 1963 (the mine had closed the previous year), after unsuccessfully pressure on the state for it take over the line. The railway was lifted in 1964.        The 600mm gague Sukovo - Rakita line was one of the most spectacular narrow gauge railways in Serbia built through extremely difficult terrain. It traversed three narrow gorges (Vlaška, Odorovačka i Zvonačka), 14 tunnels and 13 big viaducts (total number of viaducts and bridges up to 3m was 63). The minimum curve radius was 50m, grades reached 3.1% and the maximum axle load was 5t. It was very costly to build and was also notable in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia for its short period of construction: 27km of railway line, the transhipment stations, depots, the colliery, the briquette plant, power plant, river plant, separation plant, housing for the miners, restaurants, a post office etc were all built in just three years (1924-26) by the Jerma-Grabernik A.D. company, one of whose stockholders was the King of SHS Aleksandar I Karađorđević). It was a great achievement as before the mine in this part of Serbia there were no roads or any trace of “civilisation”; unsurprisingly, the line functioned more as a public than as an industrial railway      The planned capacity was 1000t of coal a day as reserves were estimated at 50,000,000t. Unfortunately this soon was prove to be overambitious projection and the reality was that in the first seven years only 200-400t per day (60,000t of coal per year) were produced; in 1934 the colliery was closed for two years. Total production in the period 1926-32 was 265,031t and for 1932-34 48,936t. The mine was reopened in 1936 but in 1938 total production was only 17,407t; after WW2 only in period 1945-50 was output of any significance (100t a day). During WW2 the Bulgarians ran the mine, but there is no data about production for the period 1941-44. The mine was worked until 1962, but losses were heavy and for many years it only continued to produce due to political reasons: it was the only industry in enite area of south-east Serbia at that time. However, when the state started closing mines at the beginning of the 1960s, Jerma was on top of the list and was one of the first to be closed in Serbia. In its place the state built a road using the former trackbed and opened a spa at Zvonačko Vrelo. Zoran Veresic (Book Steam in Serbia 1882-2007; ISBN 978-86-911587-0-5 Belgrade November 2008)