Old Flickr Rail Photos

Ceske Drahy inherited a fleet of Russian bi-level coaches from Ceskoslovenske Drahy, and these are still in service, if old (see my picture of Tynec yard). They're cramped, dirty, somewhat rundown, and very hot in the summer, though, so they're far from ideal, even if the view from the upper deck is cool. Ceske Drahy must have been thinking of this, as well as the better passenger capacity in proportion to tare, when they ordered their fleet of bi-level EMUs, Classes 471 and 971, from a consortium of CKD and Skoda in the late 1990s. The oldest of these is already 10 years old, but surprisingly, they've been kept up enough so that they still seem relatively new. The upper deck is the best part, though. :-) I took this on the way to Karlstejn.

When I arrived in Karlstejn to visit the castle (which I have pictures of in my photostream), I was struck by what nice shape it was in. The underground walkways are dirty and rundown, but for the most part the station is in very good condition, and attractive to look at. It also wouldn't be a bad place to watch trains, as it's reasonably busy, although not the busiest I've seen.

The Lanova Draha, or Funicular Railway, in Prague is one of the wonders of the city, and its ridership has always consisted mostly of tourists. Nevertheless, it's a green and easy way to get from Ujezd to Petrin without climbing the hill. Great for lazy...well...tourists. :-) It's also great for railway enthusiasts. It looks new, of course, but this is because it was thoroughly rebuilt in the 1980s, and so the track, tram cars (trains?), and stations are all new, with the notable exception of the Ujezd station, which is original. The original Ujezd station, and the original Lanova Draha, were built in 1891 for the same exposition that the Petrin watchtower was built for. It has since been rebuilt several times, and actually this latest restoration, surprisingly before the end of Communism, is one of the most successful, as the various rebuilds have been required by the whole system's falling apart again and again.

Dresden used to have a fleet of Tatra T4D-MT trams (and still do, just not exclusively), not unlike the Tatra T3s used in Prague, but in recent years DVB, the Dresden transit authority, have been buying new articulated trams from Bombardier. I haven't ridden any of the new 12-axle TD12DD trams yet, but I have ridden these NGT8DDs, and they're great. They're quiet, smooth, quick, and obviously zero-emissions. In fact, I would venture to say that they should probably be models for future designs, as I've never ridden a better class of tram, although maybe I shouldn't be so enthusiastic without knowing how reliable they are. On the positive side, none of them broke down while I was riding them.

This station must have been repainted just before I first arrived there. It looks really, really nice, so I figured I should take a photo, especially since at the time of day I'm usually there, I get this awesome light on it.

I recently saw the work of Silviu Pârjolea here on Flickr, and remembered I had taken this last summer. It's not in Romania, but in the Czech Republic, but it seems to have similar qualities to some of his shots, I think, even if it's not quite as good.

I took a picture of Tynec nad Sazavou Nadrazi when I was there, of course, but in hindsight this photo has merits on its own, too. Look at the way the sunlight has drawn white stripes along the old cement siding (is that considered stucco if it's flat?)!!!!

I took this photo solely for light and composition. The light was really perfect that day, and I happened to be next to the U Kastanu tram stop in Prague, so I lined this shot up. Since it was never really meant to be a "tram" shot, like some of my other work, the details on the tram are a bit limited, but I really like it as a photo, so I posted it. :-)

I don't actually know the function of these semaphore signals, although they are clearly railway semaphores, as they're in Tynec nad Sazavou Nadrazi!!! :-) They seem too small to be practical, and these ones were also rusted over, so I'm not clear on whether they're still used. The signalling on this line was generally ancient, although my understanding is that it's now being upgraded.

When I took this, I was shooting solely because I liked the light and the composition. I knew that it wasn't going to be a perfect shot of a Tatra T6A5 tram. Still, it isn't too bad for that, either. It's just missing the ends. This was taken on the corner of Ujezd and Vitezna, at the Ujezd tram stop.

I did a few shots on curves when I was on the #434.2186 steam excursion, of course, and this is my favorite.

This was another shot I took, while #434 2186 was being run around for the trip back to Prague. It at least gives you chance to see the drivers. :-)

I took this on a steam excursion that I took from Praha-Branik to Tynec nad Sazavou during the summer of 2005. It was a fun trip, as steam trips are, and I shot both slides and black and whites. I don't have the slides scanned yet, but here's a black and white. :-) This was our locomotive, former Ceskoslovensko Drahy #434.2186.

I really love this shot. I saw these two trains lined up, and thought that it would not only make a good poster or calendar, but that Ceske Drahy would even like it!! I don't know enough Czech to ask them, though, and they're among the few travel-oriented people here who don't speak English. :-(

I was waiting in Praha-Smichov for my train to Karlstejn, and I saw this Class 163 electric with these two coaches just sitting there. It sounded and looked like it was switched on (with electrics it's not always obvious), but with only two coaches it was unlikely that it was waiting to work a service. I figured it was part of a switching move attempting to assemble a train. I really liked how this shot looked, though, so I took it.

This train was an express, or Ryklik, which was running nonstop through Hradec Kralove. It wasn't going very fast, but I still figured this would be a good motion shot, although I didn't pan this one.

During the 1960s and 1970s, when diesel hood units with conventional cabs and sometimes high noses dominated American railroading, Western Europe shunned them. Very few Western European railways used any diesels on the grand scale that American railroads did, with the exception, possibly, of Ireland and Britain, but Eastern Europe was another story. There, the scene could look quite American, especially since much of the Warsaw Pact network was neglected by the various Communist governments. In any case, most of the equipment of the Communist era was inherited by the post-Communist governments and railways, and much of it was sold to private owners. This included many of Ceskoslovenske Drahy's Class 740 hood units, built 1973-1989 by CKD, which largely went to maintenance contractors and heavy industries seeking to switch their own sidings. One of the maintenance (or possibly renewal-only) contractors is the vaguely named Doprava, which is Czech for transport. Given that these ones were working a ballast train, their 70Km/h top speed and 1183 horsepower output apiece probably didn't keep them from performing their duties. Given what they were doing, namely working on an upgrade to the Prague-Vienna mainline (Linka 221 and 220 by Ceske Drahy's line ID system) for 160Km/h operation, it's understandable why Ceske Drahy wanted to get rid of them, though.

A day ago, I had absolutely no plans on posting this...ever. At least, I had no plans to post the original 1994 scan from my Omniscan, but the events of the past hour, with one of my Omniscans getting 18 views, has changed my mind. I've always liked this shot, and I've long had the intention of rescanning it, maybe in color, maybe not, but not like this!!! Maybe sometime when I have it handy. In the meantime, this is faster. :-)