The BDŽ 75 006-7 seen between Marko Nikolov and Tsepina

It is hard to tell which is the most spectacular part of the railway, especially since during this trip we didn't have the chance to travel on the railway, but the gorge of the Chepinska river between Varvara and Dolene is certainly in the top. This first section of the railway between Sarambey and Ladzhene (now Septemvri and a part of Velingrad) immediately had to face this challenging terrain after the few kilometre long stretch on the grassland of the Upper Thrakian Plain, meaning that when the military decided that a railway was needed in this part of Bulgarian during the First World War they had to wait until 1920 until the construction could actually start and until 1926 for the first section to start operating. A short extension to Chepino (the current Velingrad Yug) was opened in 1927 and the now-dismantled branch to Pazardzhik in 1928. The further opening dates were 1937 for Chepino-Yakoruda, 1939 for Yakoruda-Belitsa, 1943 for Belitsa-Bansko and 1945 for Bansko-Dobrinishte. The rest of the planned railway to Golch Deltsev was never constructed.