2010

This shot was taken from just outside the Vysehrad Metro Station. The structure barely visible on the far right is Nuselsky Most, I think. The domed building in the distance is the largest Russian Orthodox church in Prague.

In January, a lot of City Elefants were still working the Praha Hlavni Nadrazi-Benesov u Prahy locals, although I haven't seen them much lately.

Here's an alternate shot of the City Elefant.

There's also a lot of freight traffic through Hostivar, mostly consisting of container trains. The next stop south is actually Urineves, which has an intermodal facility.

Here's another shot of the container train.

There's usually a Class 742 diesel idling in Hostivar as well, handling local switching and freight as needed.

A number of express trains don't stop in Hostivar, so I've been able to get quite a few action shots there. The snowy days are the best, though, since powdered snow exaggerates the sensation of speed.

Nadrazi Senohraby was recently modernised, and so I've been taking more photos there this year than in the past. The trains, however, are often still ancient, like this Class 451 "Pantograph" EMU from the 1960's.

Here's the newly modernised mainline south of Senohraby, albeit obscured by snow.

This was just a random, lucky shot with the Contina. When I saw the scene, I knew that I wanted it.

This was another random shot, taken at the Narodni Trida tram stop. The Metro station is hidden back in the construction site. During the 1990's-2000's, that construction site was home to a number of additional shops next to Tesco's, on the far left, although now it's reverted to its Communist-era appearance as a mudpit. I'm not sure exactly what the plan is for it, but it probably won't be left in this state for long.

Once the snow started to melt, at least the first time around (It came back in a major way within a week or two), it melted so quickly that it created unsafe conditions on the sidewalks as heavy packs of wet snow fell off of rooves. As a result, the police closed a lot of the sidewalks, as here on Pstrossova.

Here's the offending snowpack.

And here's the warning sign on the police tape.

I've got some older photos of Depo Hostivar from when it opened in 2006, but I'm saving them for a more special occasion. This is how the station looks today, and it's still the newest A Line station since the A hasn't been extended to Ruzyne airport yet. Originally it was a normal part of the depot, as far as I know, so basically the trains still run into the former depo buildings above ground, with the throat being the only aboveground part of the Prague Metro currently used for revenue service.

Neratovice is a mid-sized town near Prague that's sort of a suburb, although it's not officially part of Prague. Here a northbound (I think) local is worked by a Class 854 DMU, with the yard mostly buried in snow.

I can't tell if that black stuff where the station sign used to be in mold or soot, but in any case the old Neratovice sign is gone, I'm assuming soon to be replaced by one of the new blue ones.

Neratovice yard also hosts freight services, and some of the locomotives are private or leased. ex-CD #753718-6 and 753721-0 are owned (or perhaps leased) by Unipetrol.