GrumpyPenguin Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 4 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said: The next day mainly involved railcar travel over a variety of secondary and branch lines in order to visit a couple of interesting local transport operations, although it was rather damp for the first part of the day. This 754 in yet another livery variation was at Brno in the morning...... As is usual, anything resembling an "interesting" passenger working, such as this loco hauled set of trailers at Viseli nad Moravu..... ....always involved a service other than the one I was travelling on, which in this case was the usual "Bouncy, Bouncy" 810..... First port of call was the Zlin-Otrokovice interurban trolleybus operation where I managed to locate the depot without much of a problem..... One of the fairly recently delivered CD railcars is seen at Otrokovice.... At Prerov this 0-6-0T in rather nice condition was plinthed at the station..... More mundane traction at Prerov...... Nice to see the 0-6-0 teaned up with WAGON. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted May 7 Author Share Posted May 7 Next port of call was Olomouc, home of an interesting but compact tram system. A few views at the station first..... ...before venturing outside and buing a DPMO day ticket ..... Most of the fleet appeared to be Tatra T3's, but a few Skoda low floor cars had been purchased....... The tram depot was mainly an open-air parking area situated in the centre of Town...... More livery variety back at the station....... The plan was to return to Brno via various secondary lines, which started off well until I reached Prostejov, as shown below...... .....where what seemed to be the statutory bus replacement of the trip meant that I missed out on one section of line I wanted to do! 13 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium readingtype Posted May 7 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 7 On 12/04/2024 at 07:50, Johann Marsbar said: Looking rather lost amongst the European stock, this appears to be one of the SR vehicles that were converted to generator vans by the WD to power rail mounted searchlights and, presumably, was left behind after Dunkirk. It looked in a very sound condition, so where it had been in the ensuing 66 years (to 2006...) was anyones guess! On 13/04/2024 at 14:00, EddieB said: I have a fairly comprehensive stock list from the Österreichischer Museums- und Touristikbahnen (2018), but cannot find an entry for the SR van. I'm wondering whether it may have spent time at the Wien Arsenal/Military Museum before going to Strasshof. Sadly I don't think it has survived. Clearly the provenance and history of the van is likely to be of more interest than its rarity, though its status as an "erratic" (to use a geologist term) ought perhaps to have conferred its preservation. People here may already know that a photo of that van (demonstrably similar: missing end ventilator, square hatch on the roof) is in Beier, R and Slezak, J: Lokomotiv-Schicksale 1938-1955 Displaced Locomotives [a bilingual title, and the text and captions have a parallel English semi-translation] published by Verlag Slezak, Vienna, 2001. The photo is on page 75 and shows the van in Penzing Rangierbahnhof on 15 October 1954. It's being shunted by 77 230 so it must have made itself useful even in peacetime. According to the caption, the wagon had a 'departmental' [to use the British term] number, 659003, and was the only English wagon to remain in Austria. The caption notes it being stored at Strasshof at the time of publication. I didn't see it in 2016 -- and I went a bit crazy with my camera when I discovered just how much there was to see in Strasshof! Thanks for sharing the photos and memories. Ben 1 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted May 8 Author Share Posted May 8 The last day of the rail ticket provided some more interesting travel opportunities as my first journey of the day, from Brno to Pardubice was undertaken on one of the new CD Pendolino units..... ...with one of them seen at Pardubice...... This 151 is also seen at the station there....... ...whilst a quick look outside at the bus stands produced these........ A little bit further down the road some work was underway on the overhead..... Continuing to Usti nad Orlici behind a 162, I was surprised to discover that my next train was actually hauled by one of the centre-cab 111 electrics......... ..which took me to Lethorad. It was there that I found my next service was actually hauled by one of the 749 diesels, a class that had avoided me all week, and this took me on to Jesenik. As we left Lethorad these were seen from the train........ ...and the journey to Jesenik passed through some nice scenery heading up towards the Polish border...... 14 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted May 9 Author Share Posted May 9 At Jesenik I caught a connecting onward service to Ostrava (or that was the theory...) formed of an 853 class railcar, the route actually passing through Poland for about 15 km - another one of those lines which have been affected by Country and Border changes over the past Century. At Mikulovice we passed this 751 on a freight....... ...and after traversing the section through Poland we passed through Tremeszna where there is an active CD 750mm gauge line...... The "through train" of course turned out to be anything but as there was yet another rail replacement bus for the section from Opava to Sitina. The only bonus was that the replacement train for the Sitina to Ostrava section was loco hauled behind a 754. This private owner 770 was at Ostrava... (the pantograph is on a train behind!) Unlike the "flying visit" on the first day of the rail ticket I had allowed some time to do a bit of travelling on the local transport (tram & trolleybus) so bought a day ticket and set out to cover a few of their routes.... ...though discovering this parked up next to a tram stop was a bit of a surprise..... No display boards or indications of what it was there for anywhere near it! I've had a search online and can't find any mention of it now or even find it on Google maps. 14 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted May 10 Author Share Posted May 10 Whilst the railrover ticket had completed its validity, I still had the best part of 3 days to go in Brno with the next day, a Saturday, being the Airshow. I can't remember whether it was a 2 day event or not, but I certainly picked the best day of the weekend weatherwise to go there. Obviously there wasn't a lot of railed transport on offer that day, though I did have a Brno day ticket - needed to get out on the bus to the airport - so I did some exploring before and after visiting the show...... Service to the show was given by duplicating the normal route 76 from the City Centre to the Airport, this lineup of waiting buses being seen outside the station...... The Airshow had a decent representation from a number of Air Forces - including the RAF who showed types now long gone in 2024. It wasn't all aircraft either as the Czech army had quite a display there...... Polish AF.... Czech AF.... Slovak AF.....(with the ubiqutous Lakenheath based F15 behind...) RAF..... French AF..... Some more from the show in the next post as well..... 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted May 11 Author Share Posted May 11 A few more from the Airshow on the Saturday, starting with some Czech AF Soviet era helicopters..... Hungarian AF..... Low viz at its finest.......I think it was an Italian AF machine, but you wouldn't know from this photo....... ...and finally a rather OTT paint job on an Austrian aircraft....... On the Sunday I had another Brno area day ticket to explore the local tram/trolleybus network...... ...and found this depot fairly early on in the day which had at least one preserved car (over on the left) parked outside..... I then called in at the Station and got a peasant surprise........ 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted May 12 Author Share Posted May 12 Whilst the chap that I knew who had moved to Brno had told me that a steam special would be operating that day, I wasn't expecting it to be a double -headed operation. The paring of a 4-8-4T and a 4-8-2 made an interesting combination as well. I assume the steam portion started from Brno and I was able to take several photos before it departed - it seemingly being "open house" as regards wandering over the tracks, as seen by the chap with the tripod in front of the 4-8-2 ! There were a few preserved passenger coaches bringing up the rear as well...... A few others from the station at that time...... Then it was back to exploring the local transport system.... The following day I visited a local model shop and was able to purchase an HO scale plastic kit, made in the Czech Republic, of one of the more recent Skoda trolleybuses on the 30xx batch, as shown in the last photo. A final look at the station that day..... 15 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted May 13 Author Share Posted May 13 The final day of the trip was spent touring round some of the local area by car, before being dropped at the Airport for the flight home to Stansted. First port of call was a yard which had a conveniently positioned footbridge from which photos could be taken. Some of the freight servies were being worked by locos in somewhat less than pristine condition - unlike my experience with the pasenger services during the previous week...... This "Laminatka" was particularly rough with the fiberglass showing through in places...... We then moved on to a depot - not the CD one - parts of which seemed to be semi-derelict and where there were a rather odd selection of shunting/trip locos, some of which may be preserved....... 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 From its livery the penultimate picture (FAUR diesel) looks like an ex-Bulgarian BDZ class 55 sold into Czech industry. Were any numbers visible? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted May 13 Author Share Posted May 13 1 hour ago, EddieB said: From its livery the penultimate picture (FAUR diesel) looks like an ex-Bulgarian BDZ class 55 sold into Czech industry. Were any numbers visible? I didn't make any such notes at the time, but if I enlarge the original photo file there are some very small and hardly readable numbers on the bottom of the drivers cab door. They could read 447 727-6 but it's difficult to say exactly. The small JCE sticker on the door is presumably the owning firm. I did wonder if it was ex BDZ having seen the real things there a few years later.......and we'll get to those photos......eventually! 7 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted May 14 Author Share Posted May 14 Last batch from the Czech trip today. After the depot visit we headed off to a local un-electrified line and a station that still used semaphore signalling...... ...and then on to a Cement works which was served by a short industrial branch line from Blazovice.... Final stop was a suitable overbridge close to the Airport which had a wide variety of passing traffic - diesel and electric..... This freight had some overhead wire maintenance and p/way stock amongst the vehicles... The Czech Republic (and Slovakia) will appear occasionally in future installments, but this was the last of the holidays actually spent staying in those places, other visits being carried out whilst staying in adjacent countries. For the next 7 years worth of trips you will mainly be seeing images of Germany (with the odd trips over the border to adjacent countries) as I decided to concentrate mainly on that location for those years, though there are some notable exceptions to that. Posts on here will be now be infrequent until the end of this month due to other commitments (plus I've got to sort through a load of image files) resuming as normal in June..... 12 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Vecchio Posted May 16 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 16 On 11/05/2024 at 06:53, Johann Marsbar said: ..and finally a rather OTT paint job on an Austrian aircraft....... It is interesting that the Austrian Pilatus Porter has the Austrian roundel which identifies it as a plane of the Austrian air force. Would like to know what they are using that for... probably paratrooper training... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrails Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 Pretty good steam for 2024! in Bosnia 2024 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Lamb Posted May 18 Share Posted May 18 I can play that game.😃 Bernard 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted May 20 Author Share Posted May 20 A fairly easy one to sort the photos for today, a day trip on a Saturday in September 2006 to Berlin to tie in with an Open Day at Potsdam tram depot. The availability of information about such things in advance via the Internet or local contacts being a distinct advantage, plus the Ryanair flights to Berlin at that time were fairly easy to get seats on cheaply, even close to the departure date. A couple of views at Potsdam Hbf of then current and preserved stock...... A preserved Gotha built tram/trailer set was on display at the depot..... ...along with the driver training car...... ...and this Combino in an odd livery, which may have been a demonstrator on loan...... Problems were still being experienced at that time with metal fatigue on this type of car across several operators so that may have been the reason it was at Potsdam, though I don't think they were as badly affected as some places. There was also an interesting display of maintenance equipment as well..... I was actually off to Berlin a week later than this trip as well, though for a full holiday covering a lot of rail interest in the area, so that will be the next posting in a couple of weeks time, but this can act as a taster in the meantime.... 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrails Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 Bit of Wolsztyn's last operable loco this month. Though I understand the TKH is coming out to play on the 25/5. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted 12 hours ago Author Share Posted 12 hours ago (edited) The next trip, which was at the end of September 2006, was based in Berlin for 7 days, during which time I used a weekly Berlin/Brandenburg Season Ticket which was purchased from a station ticket machine at Schonefeld Airport when I arrived on the early morning Ryanair flight from Stansted. The plan was to cover all of the regular passenger lines in the area in those 7 days which I had not previously covered, plus there were a few other attractions which had been worked into the trip as well. After arriving on 28th, I made my way by S-Bahn to Lichtenberg for 628.659 out to Templin Stadt...... .....from where I caught the connecting ODEG unit in the form of VT650.69 on to Eberswalde - a route mostly closed since...... This 232 passed through Eberswalde whilst I was waiting for my 114 hauled service back into Berlin..... I was staying out in the eastern Berlin suburbs again on this trip and the following morning, whilst waiting for my train at Friedrichshagen S-Bahn, the preserved 2-car set of 1920's stock passed through as ECS....... One of the main destinations for that day was the Prignitzer Eisenbahn, previously visited on the ADL trip in 2000, though they had gone over to low-floor units by this time, as seen at Pritzwalk.... A run was taken up to their HQ at Meyenberg... Meyenberg had an interesting selection of stock dumped in the sidings, so as the place was deserted, I went for a wander around after the train had departed. The rape seed oil powered railcars, as used on the ADL trip, were parked out of use...... ..along with some shunters..... . Edited 10 hours ago by Johann Marsbar 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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