šinobus

(Translation, Yugoslavia)

A vehicle specific to our railway, specially in north flatlands (though I think I saw a couple in Montenegro, on pictures), although probably not invented here nor unique.

It's a bidirectional bus on rails. It's sized like a regular car, but it doesn't have compartments. The seats are for three persons on one side of the aisle (the side where the toilet booth is) and for two on the other. The backs of the seats have a mechanism by which they can swing to the other side of the seat, so it can alternate between facing forward or backward. Two adjacent seats may be facing the same direction, each other (forming a kind of a compartment, or a cubby) or be back to back. This makes for a rather different atmosphere than on other types of train.

Any vehicle may have an engine of its own, but some may have a driver's seat (and those which don't are under cable control). Actually, that one has two driver's seats, on each end, so it can drive in either direction without maneuvering. The controls aren't much - gas lever, break, lights. Haven't seen them shifting any gears, guess that's kind of automatic.

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Mentions: 23-V-1969., 01-IV-1973., Work action in Naftagas, 26-III-1974., Baptism by booze, 04-X-1974., 31-XII-1974., 01-V-1976., december 1976., august 1977., 15-XI-1987., 26-VI-1990., 20-IX-2010., 31-V-2011., 24-VI-2013., 05-VII-2017., 24-X-2025., Bakračevi, in serbian

11-XII-2013 - 2-IV-2026