A Welcome to 62-521 in Serbo-Croat

As the project to acquire 62-521 from Mittal Steel Zenica proceded to the stage where transport was arranged, John Shirley Transport of Dover was selected on the basis of price quotation, experience with moving unusual loads in and around the Balkans, and also because of expertise with the local language.

Some while after John Shirley Transport Ltd was appointed to transport locomotive 62-521 from Zenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina to Alresford in Hampshire, Project 62 discovered that John Shirley himself had a family association with Mid-Hants Railway Trustee, Robin Higgs.

A few weeks after 62-521 arrived in Hampshire, John, a fluent speaker of Serbo-Croat, visited Ropley to read a welcome address to 62-521 in her own language:

Dobro dosao u Veliku Britaniju, dobro dosao u prijatnu Hampshire, neiscrpljivi radnik iz dalekih zelenih Bosanskih planine.
Tebi ce mozda nedostajati gruba buka Zenickog zelezara, ili lepo pjevane sevdalinke; ali ovdje si na dobrom, medu prijateljima.
Tu nema rata, ni kajanje, ni camotinje. Umesto caj mesovite biljke, tu ima "Earl Grey" & "Darjeeling" & to se pije uz kekse suhe.
Mi se nadam da ukus Engleskog ugalja ce ti biti prijatno a vode iz Hampshirskih reke osvezajucki.
Od strane Project 62 & Mid-Hants Railway smatrate ovo kao vase zvanicne docek.

In translation:
Welcome to Great Britain, welcome to pleasant Hampshire, tireless worker from the distant green Bosnian mountains.
You will perhaps miss the rough sounds of the Zenica steelworks, or finely sung love-songs; but here you're alright, among friends.
Here there's no war, nor regrets, nor deep boredom. Instead of tea of mixed herbs, there is "Earl Grey" & "Darjeeling" & they are drunk accompanied by dry biscuits.
We hope that you will find the taste of English coal pleasant, and the water from the Hampshire rivers refreshing.
On behalf of Project 62 and the Mid-Hants Railway consider this your official welcome.

After addressing locomotive 62-521, John Shirley presents Project 62 Chairman Richard White with a bottle of wine to "wet the baby's buffer".............

Which Richard duly did!

All photos are copyright of Project 62 unless otherwise credited. For more information about our locomotives 30075, 62-521/30076 (and of course 62-121 at the National Railway Museum in Ljubljana), assisting with a donation or participating in part ownership by purchasing shares, email us at project62@supanet.com - many thanks.