Despite being objectively less attractive than Ostbahn or Narentabahn, it was Steinbeisbahn that caught my attention first. It was maybe the eerie atmosphere in Oštrelj, the idea of a train running for hours through nothing but deep forests, or the sad story of now derelict Srnetica, once a booming town of 1000 inhabitants with stores and cinema, that fascinated me.
We just stopped on the way to Bihać, spending not more than one hour in what seemed like a horror movie setting – rainy, misty, decrepit and lifeless village. Google stated that the restaurant shall be opened. However, it either shut down recently, or it was in such a sorry state that it looked abandoned already and was just closed that day. One obvious sight for any railway fan is “Proleterka”, a partisan train that supposedly accommodated Yugoslav leader Tito during the war. Proleterka moved the communist partisan leader around through forests, avoiding detection by occupying Germans. We found Proleterka resting somewhat on a side, under trees and some wooden roofing. The loco looked relatively okay, but definitely not great. As I found out online, Proleterka was renovated some years back which meant it was repainted and wooden roofing added. Sadly, it looked like it needed some love again.
Tito´s train Proleterka (please note that this is post renovation!)
Being it an unplanned visit without proper access to the internet, I did not really know what to look for. So we unknowingly walked past a once busy train station with more than six parallel tracks. I entered one empty house, looking around at the remnants of possessions of people once living here. Their village suffered two fatal blows. If cancellation of Steinbeisbahn without any replacement at the end of seventies left it gasping, civil war in 90s was the final blow. Consensus in 1971 stated 162 inhabitants (mainly Serbs), cancel the railway and ten years later it was only 61. In 2013 there were only 4 inhabitants left. No longer a living village, Oštrelj is an occasional ski center. Article about the resort states that as of 2018, only 1 resident was left. Rather than looking out for remnants of the railway, I walked through the village and intensely felt the atmosphere of the place. There are dozens of abandoned empty houses around. We passed a well preserved wreck of a truck near the basketball field and jumped in the car to avoid getting even more wet.
Train station area was just behind the trees
Building of the train station
The gloomy autumn weather did not help with the depressing atmosphere of the place
Enjoy the following video from Mr. Scherer to get an idea what Oštrelj and forestry railway Steinbeisbahn was like:
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