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46242-4 on railway station Iambol with night fast train from Sofia to Burgas , via Plovdiv. Digital photo Veselin Malinov , e-mail: malinov.veselin99@gmail.com More night photos from Bulgarian State Railways you can see in my website: http://nightphotos.fotopic.net/

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Highest railway speeds in Bulgaria are most likely to be achieved by a machine wearing these shades of yellow and blue. This is the livery given to the locomotives of classes 44 and 46 after their modernisation in the Croatian electric locomotive factory Koncar. On the photo is locomotive 46-242-4 whose modernisation was completed at the end of 2003. The grand Romanian zooms past me with the express Slanchev Briag from Burgas to Sofia in the afternoon of 13 April 2004. The photo is made on the outskirts of Yambol. Photo by Miroslav Georgiev (Miroslav_SG@all.bg) Scan by Anthea Themistocleous

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The afternoon version of the express train "Slanchev bryag" (Burgas-Sofia) has arrived at the station of Yambol. The morning express to Burgas is long enough with its 10 cars (the blue ones) but upon departure from Burgas another 5 cars (the red ones at the back) to Plovdiv from the "Rodopi" express (Plovdiv-Burgas-Plovdiv) are attached to this train. As you can see, the resulting 15-car train can barely fit in the station of Yambol and requires a powerful locomotive at the front such as 46 242.4 with its 5000kW-plus power. 3 September 2004 Photo and scan by Miroslav Georgiev (Miroslav_SG@all.bg)

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Yambol is a great place for taking railway pictures. The large flat plain in which the town lies means you get wide open spaces where you can see the train coming from almost as far as a kilometer away. And the view cannot be much better than this one - the last of the modernised 46's 46 242.4 in front of the blue cars of express "Slanchev bryag" (Burgas-Sofia). 5 September 2004 Photo and scan by Miroslav Georgiev (Miroslav_SG@all.bg)

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Electric locomotive 46 242.4 at the station of Yambol with the Slanchev Bryag train (Sofia - Burgas) on 6 February 2005. At the beginning of February the whole country was hit by enormous amounts of snowfall and trains were having a difficult time keeping up with their schedules. On that day 46 242 put in a stable performance with a delay of about 10 minutes for the five-and-a-half-hour trip between Sofia and Yambol. As you can see, the snow in Yambol has already melted even though the weather on that day was still freezing cold. Photo and scan by Miroslav Georgiev (Miroslav_SG@all.bg)

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Locomotive 46-242-4 of the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) arrives in the station of Yambol with an express train Sofia-Burgas called "Express Slanchev Bryag" (in direct translation Express Sunny Beach. Sunny Beach is the name of a sea resort close to the city of Burgas). Having been modernised in the Koncar Locomotive Factory in Croatia, the locomotive now bears the trademark headlights of the factory - also shared by MZ class 442 and HZ classes 1141 and 1142 (on the latter the headlights are horizontal instead of vertical). Picture taken on the beautifully white 5 January 2004. Photo and scan by Miroslav Georgiev (Miroslav_SG@all.bg)

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Just three days after its record-breaking attempt with the White Horse (see photo above) locomotive 46-242-4 could be seen on its regular duty with the express Slanchev Briag (Sofia - Burgas) again. This photo is taken in Yambol some 300 metres away from the railway station in the town. The date is 10 April 2004. Photo by Miroslav Georgiev (Miroslav_SG@all.bg) Scan by Anthea Themistokleous

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There are some things one admires even if they see them everyday. For me one of these things is the Slanchev Bryag express train with its smooth blue cars and locomotive 46 242.4 at the helm. In the case of this photo the day is 21 July 2005. The locomotive is approaching fast the station of Yambol. Photo and scan by Miroslav Georgiev (Miroslav_SG@all.bg)

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30 July 2005. Locomotive 46 242.4 arrives in Yambol with the Slanchev Bryag train from Sofia to Burgas. Photo and scan by Miroslav Georgiev (Miroslav_SG@all.bg)

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COLOUR CODING: The first time a modernised class-46 locomotive got to haul rennovated AyBy passenger cars was after the floods in August 2005 when the Slanchev Bryag train was shortened to Plovdiv and switched its blue cars with AyBy wagons. The blue-yellow colour-scheme was given to the AyBy's in order to match the livery of the Skoda locomotives modernised by Koncar, but since the 46's have similar colours, the effect of the combination was the same. On the photo locomotive 46 242.4 leaves Yambol on 24 September 2005. Photo and scan by Miroslav Georgiev (Miroslav_SG@all.bg)