Czech Republic

Here's a shot of the zamek that perfectly captures the gloomy weather on the day of my visit. This one is unedited.

Here's a courtyard shot of the zamek, although I don't count it as a true interior shot. The courtyard is accessible in the winter, even if the interiors of the buildings are not.

This is my favorite Nachod shot. I hope that you agree.

This was one of several shots that I took of the sunset over the Rybnik, or pond. I've been unable to find a name for this pond other than the generic one.

This photo isn't of anything special, but is the better of two shots I took from the train in Chomutov on the way to Karlovy Vary, a city I had always wanted to visit as it's one of the main Czech tourist destinations that I've so far missed. I kept this one and uploaded it mostly because I liked the composition. This is also my first shot posted to Flickr (I think) taken with C41 black and white film, or at least the first taken with Kodak BW400CN.

This snowplow, technically a snowspreader, if I'm not mistaken, was parked in Chomutov waiting for the winter. Normally, these types of plows have much higher blades, but this one may be too light for them. It isn't clear whether this one is steam or diesel powered, as I don't know much about it, but I'm assuming diesel. Note that it has CD, and not CD Cargo or SZDC, livery. This photo has been heavily edited due to the setting sun overexposing the original, the negative being damaged and/or dirty, and graffiti fouling the original scene. The CD livery is, however, real.

Here's a generic, color photo of Nadrazi Chomutov, in contrast to the black and white posted earlier.

This coal train, headed by a Class 127 electric locomotive, is dedicated soley to the MUS mining railway. The 127 Class is exclusive to this line and the SU mining railway in Sokolova, as it runs on 1,500v DC current, and is dedicated solely to heavy freight service, with a maximum speed of only 65Km/h (40 m.p.h.). Power is surprisingly low, at only 2,937 horsepower (2,190Kw). This rail line carries lignite from the surrounding mines, which are among the only coal mines still active in Bohemia. They've been so active historically, in fact, that numerous towns and villages, and even the city centre of Most, have been destroyed by strip mining and subsidence. The world record was set for the largest building relocated on wheels, when the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was moved from the original Most centre to the new one in 1975. See these links for more details: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Assumption_of_the_Virgin_Mary_ (Most) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most

Here's the passenger station for Most.

Here's an alternate shot that I liked better, with a mixed freight in the background. Indeed, Most yard hosts passenger trains, coal trains, and mixed freights.

I'd still like to fiddle with this shot in Gimp a bit more, as I feel the colors could be a lot more brilliant. This was the last film shot I took on my Karlovy Vary trip before the sun went down.....at almost 9:00 p.m. Yeah, no kidding. It stayed light very, very late.

This is the station in Rokycany, near Plzen. Rokycany is also the location of a small airport for microlight and ultralight aircraft.

This is one of the hangars at the Rokycany airport. For a sport airport that can only service the smallest aircraft, Rokycany has ampler facilities than average, including a tower and snack bar.

This is a view of the runway at Rokycany airport, which is grass, although some of the taxiways have been trampled to dirt. Because it's a grass runway, it's hard to see in this photo.

This was the radnice in Rockycany, with the typical clock tower. The clock appeared to be out of maintenance when I was there, though.

The Fieseler Fi 156 Storch was originally a Nazi German spy plane, but remained in production long after the fall of the Nazi regime, with a number of variants and manufacturers. It is often credited with being one of the first purpose-built STOL aircraft, simply because it has enough lift to take off and land in a very short distance, in spite of its conventional design. I don't know the background of this particular aircraft, but I noted that its cockpit appeared to be fully modern. The newest version of the Storch that I found online was this one: www.slepcevstorch.com The Slepcev is only 3/4 the size of the original, which looks close to the size of the aircraft in the photo.

This was the World War II memorial in the main square Rokycany. In the final push into Czechoslovakia, Plzensky kraj was taken by the U.S. 3rd Army, famous for their commander General George Patton, as well as for the fact that many exiles from many occupied countries served in it.

This was my train back to Prague at Rokycany. This 363 Class electric has the new CD blue and grey livery.