Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: Linka 011

These were blocks of flats on the final curve as Stara Linka 011 heads into Hlavni Nadrazi. The yellowish coloring is from the setting sunlight.

When I did my second walking tour of Stara Linka 011, I decided to go as far as hikers are currently allowed (the line isn't fully converted yet, I found out). I took some photos, and did a video (I can't decide whether to post it yet), but some of my most interesting shots were of buildings. I shot this one because of the old Redua Cokolada (Chocolate) ad. I've never seen Redua in stores, so I'm assuming the company is out of business. In addition, because the Communists placed substantial restrictions on advertising (with many exceptions like Skoda, Bata, and so on), I was wondering if the company predated 1948.

This is a shot that I took walking back towards Hlavni Nadrazi from Linka 011, on Hybernska. This shot is heavily edited, because the negative was damaged in scanning. I think it looks alright now. This is Tatra T6A5 #8744.

This is as far as I hiked on this trip, as far as Cajirna nad Vokem, a tea house that now has an entrance on the ex-rail line. I don't know if it predates the conversion of the line, but now it is well integrated with it.

This is a concrete staircase that I'm fairly sure is of new construction, that helps hikers and bikers on the old Linka 011 bike trail to climb further up Vitkov (or whatever mountain this is).

This is another soft focus (again because either of the eyepiece or because of the shutter speed) shot that still looks good in small size. This is the view of Husitska from the opposite side of the Pendolino shot, so in other words we're facing away from Hlavni Nadrazi here. This illustrates the extent to which Husitska is narrow in comparison to the buildings on it, even if it generally isn't a narrower-than-average street.

This is a crop of the previous shot, illustrating the advantages of film, although I feel like I could have focused it better. I'm a little bit skeptical about the adjustment of the eyepiece of my camera (it adjusts to your glasses prescription, and I don't know how to set it 100% right).

This is a shot I got from the old bridge on the old Linka 011. Obviously, when I saw the chance for a shot of the Pendolino I didn't turn it down.

This is one of the bridges on the old line, crossing Husitska, which if I'm not mistaken I saw trins running over in my early years of living in Prague. For that matter, I'm fairly certain that I've been over it many times on trains.

This is the new Linka 011, which is much straighter than the original line, and is double-track all the way, in contrast to the old line, which was oddly single-track over much of its length, maybe a legacy of lower-traffic times. This new line, in order to achieve its more favourable grade, is constructed over a series of viaducts over Karlin, and through tunnels, until finally levelling out on the ground slightly out of town. On the old line, there is one tunnel that's being converted to be part of the bike trail, but the use of tunnels isn't as extensive on the old grade.

For some reason, this hi-rail ditch digger has been parked here on the old line for some time, in spite of the fact that a regular ditch digger will now do. I don't know how long it's been here, but it's clearly not abandoned.

This is the first serious photo of my walking tour of the old mainline "Linka 011," or the Prague connection to it via the East throat of Hlavni Nadrazi, which was recently, and very quickly, converted to a bike and hiking trail. Actually, the trail is so new that Google Earth still shows this line as it was before conversion. I formerly listed this as Linka 171 by mistake. 171 is actually for westbound traffic, whereas this line is for eastbound traffic towards Kolin, Poricany, Pardubice, and so on. I'm fairly certain also, given my travels, that I was over this line many times in its last years of operation, which might make it the first rail line that I rode prior to abandonment, unless the abandonment of the old DL&W Utica-Chenango Forks pre-dates it. They were both abandoned around the same time, although the DL&W was only abandoned Norwich-Chenango Forks (unless I'm mistaken). I've also done a video version of this, shot several weeks later, but I haven't released it either online or on DVD, as it's sort of unpolished. I haven't decided whether I ever will release it, so this photo series will be all for now.