2008

This was maybe the most important station on the route...it actually had a passing siding!! Generally, this line was one of the crudest electric railways that I've ever been on, but there were passengers on the train, to be sure, and there is something charming about primitive branchlines, even if modernization would encourage more "normal" (non-railfan) people to ride.

Here the train is entering the wye at Bechyne Zastavka, a request station that is the last on the line before Bechyne. The wye serves two purposes, however. A locomotive that can only be easily run in one direction can be turned around on it, it's true, but the Class 113 is a unidirectional locomotive, there's a passing siding at Bechyne, and most importantly, there's a freight customer on the wye.

Here's an alternate shot on the wye, with better sky detail. It is interesting how much of a difference exposure control makes.

This is the station at Bechyne, which is surprisingly complete for such a small town. On the other hand, it is a terminus.

Here 113003-8 is running around for the trip back to Tabor.

I almost forgot this one. I took two shots while going over the bridge into Bechyne (which crosses the River Luznice), and two on the trip back to Tabor, and this was one on the way back. Of the four, I thought this one came out the best, which I think was no small feat given how bad the light was. The sky is my favorite detail, but larger versions of this shot have nice detail on the town, too.

Here my train is waiting to leave Hlavni Nadrazi on the first leg of my trip to Litomerice, mostly on advice on my Lonely Planet guidebook. I've been trying to check off the more important historic cities and attractions in the Czech Republic, one by one, and because I was starting to run out of ideas I decided to do some research. This first connection to Vsetaty would actually take me through unelectrified territory, so that's why we ended with with a Class 749 diesel.

The first stop on this trip, while not a change, was Cakovice, a suburb of Prague which I had visited by bus before, but not by train. It's a fair-sized station with a yard, that nevertheless has not yet been electrified.

#740561-6 is no longer painted for Ceske Drahy, so I assume that it is no longer an official CD unit. If I had to guess, it's most likely been bought or leased by a construction contractor.

One of the more surprising things I spotted on this trip were these wooden freight vans, or boxcars in American terminology. These went out of service in the U.S. in the 1950's, for the most part, and in most of Europe by the 1980's, but if you really scout around Eastern Europe it still is sometimes possible to find them.

Another interesting station, and a junction, on this route is Neratovice. Notice the stub end platform with the rare Class 809 railbus awaiting its next turn (the vast majority of Czech railbuses are the nearly-identical 810 Class).

Here we are departing Neratovice, heading over the bridge that crosses the River Labe.

Another relic from the past that I spotted on this trip was this old steam-era roundhouse just outside of Vsetaty.

Nadrazi Vsetaty is a little bit unusual in that it is sort of placed in the middle of a railyard instead of to the side of it. I'm not even sure how people are supposed to get to it to catch their trains other than by crossing the tracks, which seems risky. I didn't have to do this, however, as I was only changing trains.

While waiting for my next train in Vsetaty, I saw a lot of interesting rail equipment, and found that it was an absolutely great place to watch trains, both freight and passenger. This Class 751 diesel, #751382-3, already had the new CD Cargo logo on the nose.

One oddity that I saw in Vsetaty was this light crane. I'm not sure what it would be able to lift on a railway, given how heavy everything tends to be, but it looks like this one was being used to handle track ties (sleepers in British English), which in my experience weigh 300lbs. or less if they're wood. In this case, though, pretty much all of the ties, but in use and disused, appeared to be concrete, meaning that they would be considerably heavier.

Here my train was pulling in to take me the rest of the way to Litomerice, with 163075-5 on the point.

Just after boarding my train, I spotted this Class 753 "Bespectacled" diesel, one of the few times I've actually been able to get a good photo of one. In this case, I especially like it, as the high-contrast black and white film makes it look even more retro.