Post by radovic on Dec 7, 2007 12:26:29 GMT -5
Tito's Blue Train on the auction block
LJILJA CVEKIC
Reuters
December 5, 2007 at 12:01 PM EST
BELGRADE — Part of the Blue Train used by late communist dictator Josip Broz Tito to tour Yugoslavia, receive world leaders and royalty, and which carried his body to Belgrade in 1980, will go on sale this month.
Serbia said on Wednesday the salon car on sale was reserved for the use of Yugoslav People's Army officials travelling with Tito.
It is fully equipped for lengthy stays and emergencies, featuring a luxury mahogany dining room, a kitchen, pantry, six rooms, bathrooms and its own 30kW generator.
"It's been untouched since 1992, when it was used by a Yugoslav secretary of defence," said lieutenant colonel Bela Horvat from the Defence Ministry, which is handling the sale.
Passengers look out from a compartment of Josip Broz-Tito's famous 'Blue Train', prior to its departure in Belgrade on its first commercial trip Dec. 31, 2004. Restored to its past glory, complete with the original locomotive, the train used 30 years ago by Tito began its maiden commercial journey with tourists as passengers to the spa resort of Vrnjacka Banja, central Serbia, where passengers were to stay during the New Year's holiday. Known as the 'Blue Train' for the color of its coaches, the luxury train had carried Tito and visiting foreign statesmen across former Yugoslavia. (Srdjan Ilic/AP)
"Everything is still there, even the oil and vinegar in the kitchen."
A tender notice in Politika daily said the "salon-wagon" would be available for viewing by potential buyers on December 11-12 and 18-20. Bids were due by Dec 20.
A minimum price has been set, but will not be made public. A first tender published last June failed.
Tito's sparkling royal-blue train was built in 1959 to the president's specifications.
He used it to crisscross Yugoslavia's six republics, and host receptions for his Communist Party officials and visiting dignitaries, such as Britain's Queen Elizabeth and French President Francois Mitterrand.
The train is reported to have travelled over 600,000 kilometres on official trips.
Made up of a total 20 cars, it features a fully equipped kitchen, a restaurant car, apartment suites with private bathrooms, as well as a closed car for Tito's many luxury cars.
The last time the train was in Tito's service was in May 1980 when it carried his coffin from Ljubljana in Slovenia, where he died after months of illness, across the country to Yugoslavia's capital Belgrade.
It slowed down at each town it passed, and was greeted by thousands of mourners crying and throwing flowers.
It was taken out of circulation shortly after, and was left parked for years in a depot as Yugoslavia fell apart in war and ethnic strife in the 1990s.
Serbia's railway company started hiring the train out to companies or groups for conferences and corporate entertainment in 2005, but only for one-day trips and only within Serbia.
LJILJA CVEKIC
Reuters
December 5, 2007 at 12:01 PM EST
BELGRADE — Part of the Blue Train used by late communist dictator Josip Broz Tito to tour Yugoslavia, receive world leaders and royalty, and which carried his body to Belgrade in 1980, will go on sale this month.
Serbia said on Wednesday the salon car on sale was reserved for the use of Yugoslav People's Army officials travelling with Tito.
It is fully equipped for lengthy stays and emergencies, featuring a luxury mahogany dining room, a kitchen, pantry, six rooms, bathrooms and its own 30kW generator.
"It's been untouched since 1992, when it was used by a Yugoslav secretary of defence," said lieutenant colonel Bela Horvat from the Defence Ministry, which is handling the sale.
Passengers look out from a compartment of Josip Broz-Tito's famous 'Blue Train', prior to its departure in Belgrade on its first commercial trip Dec. 31, 2004. Restored to its past glory, complete with the original locomotive, the train used 30 years ago by Tito began its maiden commercial journey with tourists as passengers to the spa resort of Vrnjacka Banja, central Serbia, where passengers were to stay during the New Year's holiday. Known as the 'Blue Train' for the color of its coaches, the luxury train had carried Tito and visiting foreign statesmen across former Yugoslavia. (Srdjan Ilic/AP)
"Everything is still there, even the oil and vinegar in the kitchen."
A tender notice in Politika daily said the "salon-wagon" would be available for viewing by potential buyers on December 11-12 and 18-20. Bids were due by Dec 20.
A minimum price has been set, but will not be made public. A first tender published last June failed.
Tito's sparkling royal-blue train was built in 1959 to the president's specifications.
He used it to crisscross Yugoslavia's six republics, and host receptions for his Communist Party officials and visiting dignitaries, such as Britain's Queen Elizabeth and French President Francois Mitterrand.
The train is reported to have travelled over 600,000 kilometres on official trips.
Made up of a total 20 cars, it features a fully equipped kitchen, a restaurant car, apartment suites with private bathrooms, as well as a closed car for Tito's many luxury cars.
The last time the train was in Tito's service was in May 1980 when it carried his coffin from Ljubljana in Slovenia, where he died after months of illness, across the country to Yugoslavia's capital Belgrade.
It slowed down at each town it passed, and was greeted by thousands of mourners crying and throwing flowers.
It was taken out of circulation shortly after, and was left parked for years in a depot as Yugoslavia fell apart in war and ethnic strife in the 1990s.
Serbia's railway company started hiring the train out to companies or groups for conferences and corporate entertainment in 2005, but only for one-day trips and only within Serbia.