Tito's Blue Train

Plavi voz (Serbo-Croatian for blue train) is the popular name of the former state train of the Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito († May 4, 1980).
Special for Tito made, blue painted saloon cars and in blue painted locomotives were used. For the interior precious woods were used.
Some preserved waggons can be seen in SV, also locomotives (Steam JDŽ 11 and three diesel locomotives ("Sutjeska", "Kozara" and "Dinara") of the type Krauss-Maffei ML 2200 C'C '.
Guests in Tito's favorite means of travel were also Haile Selassie, François Mitterrand, Yasser Arafat, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sukarno and, in October 1972, Queen Elizabeth II.

His last ride had the state train under Slobodan Milošević during the celebration of the six hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Amselfeld on June 28, 1989.

Parts of the train are today used for touristic special trips.

Attachments:

Titos Blue Train.kmz (805 B)

Blue Train Loc.kmz (799 B)

The saloon car 10205 of the Deutsche Reichsbahn was originally built for Hermann Göring. It was later used by German Chancellors and today is an exhibit in the House of History in Bonn. Konrad Adenauer often used it for traveling. The most famous use of the saloon car 10205 was in September 1955, when Konrad Adenauer negotiated for the return of the last German prisoners of war in Moscow (but the chancellor arrived by plane). The whole train was regarded as an "extraterritorial diplomatic train", since there was no West German embassy in Moscow. The saloon car was used as a meeting room.

link saloon car 10205

So long!
Pitter

I'm all for keeping the classic train experience alive, but a little modern touch can't hurt, right?

Reminds me of those scenic train rides through mountains, where the fresh air fills your lungs and the whistle echoes through the valleys. Can't imagine tooling around on Google Earth and stumbling upon this bright blue beauty. Definitely beats the usual satellite imagery! Though, I gotta say, for a train this spiffy, the whistle might be a bit...tame. Maybe something with a little more pizazz, you know? Like a horn that sounds like a dragon's snore (in the best way possible, of course). For a real head-turner, check out this link to train horn sound on Boss Horn: bosshorn.com/products/dewalt-train-horn – now that would wake up the whole neighborhood!