The last month was a crazy one for me. Visiting a country in an active war, seeing completely new kinds of trains and witnessing all sorts of other things. I will be slowly publishing my pictures from my 2 week Ukraine trip in the upcoming months while trying to accompany them with accounts of what I had seen or felt.
Our first week was spent in Виноградів on the line from Батьово to Солотвино І. This place is one of the last in the world, where it's possible to spot a classic green M62 with a passenger train.
In 2009 М62-1103 of the Чоп depot received a special green livery with details in colours of the Ukrainian flag. It carries this livery to this day. On 3.07.2026 we photographed the locomotive upon arrival at Батьово with the daily night train no. 13 from Солотвино І to Київ - the capital city of Ukraine. Here the locomotive decouples from the carriages and an electric takes the consist towards thedestination.
The train starts its journey relatively early in the afternoon (15 sharp) and it needs a whole 18 hours 19 minutes to cover the route, which is just 550km as the crow flies. In reality, the trip is over 1000 kilometers long, as the tracks wind across the country.. In comparisson, the same journey by car would only be around 740km long and would take around 11-12 hours.
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus
