Czech Republic

This is the JHMD station at Obratan, with the brick station in the background being the Ceske Drahy station. I've made two trips on the JHMD narrow-gauge so far this year, but only one of them included the line to Obratan, or Linka 228, the newer of the two former CD narrow-gauge lines taken over by JHMD, having been built in 1906.

This is the station at Sudkuv Dul, one of several that the JHMD has surrounded by trees that dwarf it. Like many stations on the line, it's just a shanty with a sign.

This is one of the smaller stations in the Czech Republic, although many of these smaller stations are standardised on the JHMD. Notice the obviously narrow-gauge track. This is Linka 228 between Jindrichuv Hradec and Obratan, originally built in 1906.

Here's one of the very sharp curves on the line, which aren't as severe, relatively speaking, if a line is narrow-gauge.

This is the freighthouse at Cernovice u Tabora, with the construction date of the line on it.

This is one of my favorite photos of this year, although it was really just a lucky accident. I've edited it to bump up the contrast a bit, but I've left the saturation alone.

This is the yard at Kamenice, which is one of the most elaborate on the JHMD.

As Linka 228 approaches Jindrichuv Hradec, the roadbed is briefly shared with the CD standard gauge line, thus requiring dual gauge. These lines were fairly common in the 19th Century, but today they've become quite rare throughout the world as narrow gauge lines have either been upgraded to standard or abandoned.

This was after we arrived in Jindrichuv Hradec. This T47 Class diesel represents the most common class of motive power on the JHMD, for both passengers and freight. Also classified as CD or CSD Class 705.9 (because of the period of CSD and later CD ownership of JHMD trackage and equipment, and the later CSD renumbering scheme which JHMD abandoned, as T47 was the original designation), these 8 diesel-electric locomotives (according to a 2005 spotter's guide) have 346 horsepower (258Kw) going to four axles, and a maximum speed of either 40Km/h or 50Km/h, and weigh between 30.5 and 32 metric tonnes. Two of them, #T47.015 and T47.018, were rebuilt in 2002-2003, and ended up with even less power, at 325 horsepower (242Kw), so the unit pictured above, T47.015, would be one of those depowered units. The units that weigh 30.5 tonnes and can only go 40Km/h are #T47.005 and T47.006, both of which were from the original production run of 6 units in 1954-1955. The subsequent 15 units, which the other 6 active units are part of, were the heavier and faster units, and were all built in 1958. Their electrical system is traditional DC/DC due to their vintage, although the rebuilt units are AC/DC. I haven't been able to find the voltage anywhere. All 21 of the original T47's were built by CKD. In spite of their low power and low maximum speeds, it's important to remember that they're narrow-gauge units that pull trains of only one or two cars (typically), with six cars being a long train. In addition, 50Km/h would represent the fastest sections of the JHMD lines, so most of the time these units don't even run at their maximum speeds.

This is another class of locomotive that I have relatively few photos of. It's a CD Class 230 electric, which is a mixed traffic locomotive that nowadays is used primarily for freight. This one is painted in the new CD Cargo livery. Originally Skoda built 110 of these between 1966 and 1967, but they're far rarer now. I've been unable to get a full roster anywhere, however. They have 4,130 horsepower going to four axles, and can achieve only 110Km/h, which might explain their relegation to freight duties. They're also limited to using 25,000 volts AC at 50Hz, unlike many CD electrics that can use multiple voltages. Each unit weighs 88 metric tonnes. The later Class 240 electrics from 1968-1970 are similar, and some 230 Class electrics have been rebuilt to make them 240's.

Other than the identity of this building as a Franciscan Monastery, I've been unable to get much more information about it. Does anybody know anything?

When I've asked my Czech friends what a "Mestsky Urad," is, they've told me there's no such thing, but as you can see here, they're simply wrong. "Uřad" means "office" in Czech, but it means more specifically a government office or authority, such as a Financni Urad (finance or tax office), Zivnostinsky Urad (business office), Kadastralni Urad (Cadastral Office), and so on. Having visited more than one Mestsky Urad, my understanding is that these buildings are meant as support buildings to the city hall, or radnice, where additional offices can be located, including those mentioned above.

This passage leads off the town square in Jindrichuv Hradec, and eventually takes you to the zamek, or chateau or castle, if you follow the street beyond it.

This is the Zamek, or castle or chateau, of Jindrichuv Hradec. When I was there, it appeared to be undergoing a renovation. Oddly, this zamek is also classified as a hrad, the other class of Czech castle, possibly because of its age. Hrads are more combat-oriented, so they tend to be older, whereas zameks resemble chateaus or palaces, and are more administrative in nature, mostly dating from the renaissance period to the 19th Century. This zamek dates to 1220, and retains a medieval tower that you can see in the right of this picture, but was rebuilt in the 16th Century by the Lords of Hradec to roughly its present form, so this is probably the reason for the dual classification. Additional changes were made in 1678-1696 and 1709-1735, and in 1773 some of the renaissance interiors had to be rebuilt after a fire. In 1851, the zamek was restored again. Finally, it passed to full government control when it was seized following World War II, and in 1976-1993 it was restored as a tourist attraction. It is still open to the public, although as I said it was undergoing a further reconstruction when I was there. More information is available here: www.zamek-jindrichuvhradec.eu/history/

Here's another shot of the zamek. I've cropped the bottom to eliminate the mess caused by the reconstruction.

The zamek, due to its age, still has a moat, although now it's as much decorative as anything else. I'm not aware of whether it's used for something else now, but I noticed that it is as well maintained as a narrow canal.

This is a scene of Jindricuv Hradec seen from the zamek.

This is a view pointing towards the passage, but from the opposite direction of the previous photo of the passage.