The first wagon train of the Krajina Express was made of a
General Motors diesel locomotive (
JŽ 664-013, now
HŽ 2062 055) and two cars by local railroad workers at
Knin. The cars were initially protected with sandbags. The first operational mission took place in the area between
Gračac and
Štikada. The usual tactic was to appear suddenly in a pre-established point of the railway, fire its guns and withdraw quickly. The 20-member crew was occasionally re-supplied by small trucks. Following the improvement of the protection with the addition of armor plates, the train provided fire support on the railroad between Knin and
Drniš. It was later sent to
Lika, where the wagon formation became involved in the battles around
Sveti Rok. It is believed that at this time, near the end of 1991, the train was dubbed
Krajina Express. In 1992,
Krajina Express joined the fighting for the airport of
Zemunik, near
Zadar. When the train was not suitable for combat operations, the crew fought in the infantry role, like in the course of
Operation Corridor 92. By the end of 1992, the unit became incorporated to the 75 Motorized Brigade, part of the 7th Army Corps of Serb Krajina. Two members of the crew were killed by Croatian artillery while fighting on foot during
Operation Maslenica, in January 1993. The train provided support during the struggle for
Škabrnja, where the unit was involved in an attempt to destroy an ammunition dump in Zadar by pushing a wagon loaded with 3,650 kg of explosives and five tons of shrapnel through the
Benkovac–Zadar railway line. The detonator would be a land mine attached to the wagon's bumper. The plan was to let the wagon roll down from the village of
Nadin towards the target in the outskirts of Zadar. The results of this mission, if any, remain unknown. In the last days of May 1993, the train was to be involved in Operation "Maslinova grana" (Olive branch), a Serb attempt to break into the Croatian defenses along the Adriatic coast south of Zadar that was eventually called off. In September,
Krajina Express was part of the Serb counterattack in the
Battle of Medak pocket. One of the last and best documented actions of
Krajina Express were a number of fire support missions along the
Una river during the
Siege of Bihać, on 1 December 1994. The train drew fire from Bosnian troops on Ribicka Glavica hill. The unit was attacked with antitank
rocket-propelled grenades and 76mm guns while another says that the hit disabled one of the antiaircraft cannons. In the last months of war, the train's activity was hampered by the deteriorating military situation in Krajina. At the time of
Operation Storm the
Krajina Express was sent to Lika. When its crew realised that the collapse of the Republic of Krajina was unavoidable, they destroyed the train by derailing it into a ravine. ==Armament and armor==