Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: ceskoslovenske drahy

Unfortunately I don't have the number of this coach handy, but it was one of the old 1940's-era 4-wheel coaches pictured earlier. Note that in Europe even the steam excursions have destination boards!! :-)

The title is self explanatory. Otherwise, it only makes sense to explain this in response to questions, which would as often as not pertain to steam locomotives as Skoda 4-8-2s. :-)

Here you can get a better look at the valve gear and...uh....piston rod assembly on 498.022. Otherwise, questions would yield better info that my continuing to write this. :-)

This is was an injector looks like in the Czech Republic. :-) This one was made in Brno, as you can see stamped on it, although I don't know if SBS is a manufacturer or a model of injector.

I wasn't able to get a proper "firearms" view of the drivers on 498.022 because of all the people around, but I was able at least to get this shot.

This is 498.022's builder plate, indicating that it was built at Skoda's Plzen works in 1947. The winged arrow logo above it is the Skoda logo.

This was after 498.022 had buffered up to the train again and was being coupled for the trip back out.

This was at the time that 498.022 was back further on the bridge out of Branik, but I don't know exactly what order this one is in. I'm fairly certain that the previous shot was of it pulling out, and this was after it was stopped or nearly in place before heading back in.

I took this after I was able to get a bit closer to 498.022, basically by running at it as it moved.

I took this as 498.022 was pulling back into Nadrazi Branik as an unidentified 810 Class railbus was departing south.

This is a closer crop of Picture 2. I'll reiterate that these shots capture the feel of the Czech Republic's rail system exceptionally well, and indeed they remind me of some of the prettiest photos (and movies) shot here.

I had high hopes for these photos from the very beginning, and now that I can see them with my own eyes they're some of my favorite color photos of the year, dramatic in their own special Czech way.

I noticed the composition of these photos at the same time that I noticed that I could get more shots of CSD 498.022 before I left Branik. Incidentally, the Branicky Most, the bridge overhead, is a railway bridge that carries freight traffic across the River Vltava, and helps to keep Branik a busy station most of the time, even if the station itself only hosts local passenger services, a few freights, and a few excursions like this one.

Here's another shot that I took of 498.022 in Beroun, on the way back to Prague. Trains from Krivoklat to Prague have to be turned here, as the track layout forms a wye, so here 498.022 was being turned.

Ceskoslovenske Drahy used coal stoves for heating trains until surprisingly late in their history, and this particular passenger car wasn't built until the early 1940s, although it looks 100 years older because of all the wooden construction, and if you could see the outside, it's 4-wheel undercarriage, devoid of modern trucks or bogies. Rolling stock like this could be seen in Czech movies as late as the 1980s, although I don't know the precise year that they were pulled from regular service.

Here's our train back to Prague, although in reality it's passing through Krivoklat on the way to pick up our train. In the end the train was closer to 42 cars, rather than 3!! That's a record for my train travels, actually. The locomotive, ex-CSD 498.022 is a Ceskoslovenske Drahy Class 498 4-8-2, the same class as 498.106, "Albatros," which set a Czech speed record for steam locomotives at 162Km/h in 1964.