The railway station “Jelina“ is halfway between Zenica and Vranduk, and is one of the main railway stations. Abandoned, dilapidated, with the old equipment and good people, it defies times and tells the story about one Jelena.
According to the stories of the local population, the railway station was named after the brigadier Jelena Radmilovic, who died during the construction works on the railway line Sarajevo-Bosanski Samac. However, the train dispatcher, Sabit Doglod, who works on this railway station for 27 years, remembers two more versions of the story by which it was named.
“This station was built around 1947 when the brigadier Jelena Radmilovic died. Population transferred the two more versions of the story from generation to generation, the first one is that she died while fleeing from Chetniks, while the other one tells that she drowned in the river Bosna while she was washing laundry. We do not know which one is true, but what we know is that this station got its name after her because it happened here“, said Doglod.
The railway station “Jelina“ is located around 10 kilometers from Zenica, but nobody invests in its infrastructure for years. In the apartments intended for the train dispatchers, only Doglod with his family lives.
Given that numerous accidents occurred at this station, many train dispatchers considered it as the “penitentiary“.
A young train dispatcher, Armin Banjic, accompanied 24 trains during the visit. Even as a kid, he dreamed to be the train dispatcher, and his dream became true three years ago.
A few hundred meters down the railway station, there is a grave of Jelena Radmilovic that is witnessing her sacrifice. It was built by the constructer of the railway line Sarajevo-Bosanski Samac.
(Source: klix.ba)
