People usually ask me: "Why do you like 812s?"
I was born in town of Glina (region called Banija, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia today) but soon my family moved to nearby town of Sisak. However, we continued travelling to Glina and Vlahovic (the village of my grandparents). That line, Sisak Predgradje - Petrinja - Donja Bacuga - Grabovac - Vlahovic - Maja - Glina - Vojnic - Karlovac, was operated by class 812. I enjoyed my trips very much and that's where my love comes from. I loved opportunity to sit in unused driver's seat on opposite end of a railmotor.
Trains operated in 2 and 3 cars set. The timetable was something like this:
Glina - Sisak: 4am, 12pm, 8pm daily
Sisak - Glina: 6.30am, 2.30pm, 11.30pm daily
The service used to opearate to Zagreb, but were cut to Sisak Predgradje due to needs for transport of Zelezara Sisak (Steel Factory Sisak) workers.
With war in 1991 bad days came for eveyone including trains. Services were suspended in 1991 to be re-activated in 1994 on part of the line Petrinja - Glina - Vojnic by Zeleznice Republike Srpske Krajine (Railways of Republic of Srpska Krajina). In 94/95 mine/granade was put under railway bridge between Glina and Vojnic and train was destroyed and many people were killed. The monsters choosed to do so on Wednsday when there is market day in town of Glina so they could kill as many people as possible. The motor was completely destroyed while other car was damaged. The set was displayed at Glina station.
In 1995 many people including myslef had to flee to Serbia or elswere. The line remains closed because there's not many people living there now and it'd be very expensive to reopen the line. I've never been there again.
In Serbia I've seen 812s at Novi Sad and Subotica but never got chances to ride on one.
... yours sincerely lives in Sydney, Australia, where love for railways continues. My favourites are New South Wales CPHs and class 600/700. I am a member of the Railpage Australia Forums under nickname JZ (Jugoslovenske Zeleznice, Yugoslav Railways).
I have great passions for heritage/tourist railways such as Cooma Monaro Railway, New England Railway Inc., Michelago Tourist Railway, etc.
(Please note that QLD class 2000 is bit similar with class 812 sinobus!)
Please note that any pictures from Sisak Predgradje - Glina - Karlovac line are treated like sanity by me. Unfortunately I do not have any. If you have anything; infrastucture, trains (sinobus), stations, the damaged set, disused sets - anything, I would like to have it. If you don't wish these pictures to be publicaly published I will respect it. My email address is info@812.cjb.net