Rail Photos, Part 2

The title pretty much says it all. This is a beer van, or boxcar, that doesn't appear to be refrigerated. In reality, beer doesn't need to be refrigerated until maybe the time of serving, so that makes sense. I don't know for certain, but I assume that crew shelter is for a security guard rather than a brakeman, as beer theft seems a likely possibility in Czechoslovakia. Does anybody know for certain?

There weren't many dining cars at the museum when I was there, but this one was being used as the museum cafe. It looked to be in very good condition, at least in appearance. I don't know very much about its mechanical state, but nothing seemed clearly missing (I didn't look too carefully).

This is actually not a Czech locomotive or a Soviet locomotive, but a German Kriegslok from World War II (built by Wiener Lokomotivfabrik, Floridsdorf in 1943) that's been disguised as a Soviet locomotive, as it would have later served on RZD in the Soviet Union after being claimed as reparations. These locomotives became the RZD TE Class, and #555.0301 was one of 100 purchased from RZD in 1962-1963 for heavy freight service. With 1178kW ( 1580 horsepower) they had more power than the typical Czech locomotive, and they were also very fast for a Czech freight locomotive, being capable of 80Km/h in service. Of course, they weren't Czech. During their RZD service, they were converted to run on Russian 1524mm broad-gauge track, but obviously CSD converted them back to 1435mm standard-gauge. After serving into the 1970's, the Kriegsloks on CSD were put back into military use, although this time as reserve locomotives. Many European governments stashed steam locomotives away in the 1950's-1990's, expecting an oil shortage should a total war break out, but the Czech government gave up this policy in 1993, at least for the Kriegsloks, thus freeing up this locomotive for historic preservation. Unfortunately, it doesn't still run, in spite of having been kept for service so late.

Here's another shot taken of the Kriegslok's cab, which appears to be a heavy-duty winter cab, which makes sense given that it served in the Soviet Union. The number "T3-3644" must have been the number for Soviet service, unless they had to make one up for display (I don't know if they have the records).

I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure that this is a camp car for MOW service, given the configuration of the windows, and the small baggage door. It could also be a combine or a brake van, but a combine would have a bigger door, I think. Again, more research might uncover something interesting.

This is an old open-platform wooden coach, which appears to be in pretty good shape, good enough to be serviceable. It's possible to see coaches like this on excursion trains in the Czech Republic, and my understanding is that they were used quite late in mainline and branchline service, too. Some were in fact built as late as the 1940's, in spite of being 50 years out of date by that point.

This is a second shot of the same car. I note that the destination board appears to be from a very recent excursion.

I don't know anything about these scrapped cylinders other than that they're a bank of three, which is somewhat unusual, and that some parts appear to be bent, suggesting a wreck rather than scrapping. I could have just been a sloppy scrapping job, too, but for some reason these cylinders were saved, and ended up in this museum. The most interesting question to ask might be simply why?

Here's a rear view of the cylinders.

This is the fully-active coal bunker used at the CD Muzeum for supplying operable steam locomotives. The narrow-gauge mining track into it is an interesting touch, I think.

Here's the Albatros being watered for its return trip to Praha Branik. This water spout is the one located within the museum grounds, next to the coal bunker. In the lower left corner of this photo you can also see an ashpit, which might double as an inspection pit. It's cramped, though, so probably they would be better off using one in the shops.

Here's a fairly-modern 2nd Class smooth side streamline coach, of what vintage I don't know. Streamline equipment generally didn't come into use on CSD until the 1960's, so it's probably from sometime around then. Again, a spotter's guide for passenger cars would be good to have.

Here are some older coaches again. These ones have 1890's-style closed platforms, depressed a bit from the rest of the carbodies, but in all likelihood these are of much more recent vintage.

The first time I spotted this locomotive was in Decin, where it's based. It's fully operational, but wasn't in steam when I visited the museum. It's a 475 Class 4-8-2, a generation later than the 498 Class (except for the actual record-breaking Albatros, which was a 498.1 Class from the 1950's), which means that this class was built from 1945 until 1951 by Skoda. Power is 1480kW (1985 horsepower), and the officially recognised maximum speed is 100Km/h, although these locomotives are almost certainly capable of going faster.

This is a nicely-restored Class T669 diesel road switcher, although I don't know if it's operable. I'm assuming it is, since it wouldn't make sense to go to this much trouble without restoring it completely. Maybe I'm wrong. In any case, these locomotives were introduced in 1963, being built both by CKD and SMZ Dubica, and stayed in production until 1979, according to Wikipedia. Total production was 109, although not all of these survive today. The original power rating for them was 993kW (1332 horsepower), and the maximum speed was 90Km/h, adequate for freight service but not really ideal for passenger service. These locomotives were particularly liked as very heavy switchers. Note the C trucks, which aren't as common on Czech diesels as on American diesels. Some were rebuilt in 1967-1969, and some still run in regular service today, although most of them work for companies other than CD, as CSD and later CD lost interest in them as electrification was extended. Some were also built for export to the Soviet Union, Iraq, Syria, Albania, Poland, and India.

Here's a head-on shot of #T669.0085. I like this shot, but I realise that the top of it is a bit overexposed. Cameraphones don't have much flexibility when it comes to this problem.

This is an alternate shot that I took of the roundhouse.

Here's one of several shots that I took of the turntable for the roundhouse. This head-on view is my favorite.