Yesteryear Yugoslavia

1987: PTT (Posta, Telegrafa i Telefona) Museum Card

An Ericson phone but not one which would happily sit in a pocket. As much a desk ornament as an object to communicate. I would love to wind the handle.  The card says on the back "Desk phone Ericson system from 1900. These devices date from the first period of telephony development and are characterised by a local power source, an inductor and electric bell are used to establish connection. The first installations of telephone sets began in our country Zagreb (1881) and in Belgrade (1883)

Paddle Steamer towed by steam locomotive on Sip Canal

Here we are on the Sip Canal constructed to make navigation through the notorious Iron Gates gorge with its riverbed boulders, whirlpools and rapids easier.  The project was run by the Austro-Hungarian government and opened in 1896 but they miscalculated the fast river flow which meant that ships had to be navigated upstream by a steam powered tugboat and winding cable. Enter the Germans and their occupation of Serbia in WW1 and whose forces built a railway on the canal embankment and locomotives began towing boats instead of the tugboats. After the war the railway was reconstructed and  extended with 11 locomotives in service pulling boats.

1981: 125th Anniversary of European Danube Commission

You cannot see this scene today because of the Iron Gate Hydroelectric Power Station joint venture between Romania and Yugoslavia and the creation of the largest dam on the Danube meant it was flooded by the Derlap Lake in 1969.  Unfortunately this happened six month before it was projected with the waters rushing in flooding everything - the entire railway system and locomotives are now on the bottom of the lake. There was a scheme to try to raise the locomotives in recent times because these JZ Class 30 'Berliners' are the last remaining types but it came to nought.  The stamp was designed by the prolific artist Dušan Lučić(b1937) and the engraver Dušan Matić (b1939) who also collaborated on other Yugoslav stamps.

1951: Iron Gates, Danube

The Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the Letter Y - here for Yugoslavia - See it on a Postcard