2010

About a week after I went to Neratovice, I went to Hostivice, a smaller town also close to Prague. The trains there are often even smaller, appropriately enough for the town, often consisting of mere railbuses.

On my way home from Hostivice, I accidentally got stranded at Unhost, which really annoyed me at the time, but in hindsight gave me some excellent photo opportunities, making me regret the fact that I didn't bring a real camera. Unhost is even smaller than Hostivice.

"Hospodarske Druzstvu" means "Economic Cooperative," suggesting that the lettering is Communist-era. Whether this means this building is a mill, a warehouse, or both, is less clear to me.

Unhost has at least some serious traffic, albeit all of it diesel. Here an 854 Class runs express through the station.

Nadrazi Unhost, in spite of serving a small town (village?), is a staffed station that's also nicely equipped. This is the waiting room, complete with a stove, schedules, posters, and a table for cards, eating, reading, or whatever while you wait for your train.

Here's another view of Unhost yard in the snow.

This was a lucky pan shot gone bad that nevertheless gave me a nice shot of an express train passing Nadrazi Hostivar in Prague.

The Vltava, that is, the boat called "Vltava," is one of the older-looking boats in service on the River Vltava, although I don't know exactly how old it really is, or even if it's actually steam, the way its appearance suggests. I don't think I've ever even ridden on it. In this picture, it was docked for the winter.

Due to the immense disruption caused by the Tunnel Blanka construction, Nadrazi Dejvice has often been closed, with Gymnasijni serving as an alternate station. Gymnasijni is a very new station, and has a temporary appearance, so whether it will be shut down once Tunnel Blanka is built I don't know.

Here's the station sign at Gymnasijni.

Nadrazi Ruzyne, in spite of sharing a name with the nearby airport, is nevertheless not the best way to get to the airport. In that case, you would be better off getting the Metro to the north end of the A Line at Dejvicka, and then getting either bus #119, or bus #AE, which is more expensive, but an express. Nadrazi Ruzyne actually serves the Prague suburb of Ruzyne, and is still very steam-era-looking, complete with upper-quadrant semaphore signals. It still has its interlocking boxes, too, although I don't know if they're actually what's controlling the signals.

Here's a signal at Ruzyne dropped to stop after the departure of a train.

I did a little bit of research on this car, and concluded that it's probably a 1934 Chevrolet Master Sedan. It was parked in Sidliste Opatov, of all places, where an old Tatra of about the same age was being unloaded from a truck. I didn't ask what it was doing in Prague, but seeing a pre-war American car other than a Ford is quite rare in Europe, especially since pre-war Chevys are rare even in America.

Traditionally, straps for transit users to hang from are rare in Prague, although the unrebuilt Tatra KT8 trams have them, as well as some of the old (retired) Metro trains. They've been making an appearance lately on the Tatra T3 fleet, though, as a form of advertising, as those grey sleeves on them can take ads.

This is the same location as Example 9, only taken several months later after the snow had melted. I appears that regardless of the time of year, many Prague drivers have no consideration for others, although in this case the BMW can get out if it backs into the intersection in a somewhat dangerous manner. The car in front of it can't.

I shot this more or less on a whim, and got exactly what I wanted. This is one of my favorite semi-abstract shots this year, shot out the window of Centrum Chodov, and capturing Sidliste Chodov in the process, along with the motorway.

Here's my first shot of a Skoda 15t, as I was promising some people. There are two that I know of right now, both in testing. 9200 entered testing late last year, although I haven't seen it yet, and this is 9201, the newest tram in DPP's fleet as far as I know. I caught it on Spalena with my cameraphone.

This isn't a special subject, but I liked the composition. The bike and the electric trains are sort of a nice eco-theme as well.