"Yes Sir!"

Locomotives shown on a yellow background are those which I have scored for haulage.

Introduction:
Christmas is one time of the year that really bores me! Two days of vegging around the house watching telly and stuffing yourself silly with food and drink didn't appeal to me half as much as a few days "on the bash" in the Czech Republic. Phil Marsland (Blackwater) was also up for some Christmas nonsense and we booked flights via www.expedia.co.uk as early as August for a very reasonable £115 return (using Lufthansa and Czech Airways).

At a late stage Pete Callaghan (Newport Onion) e-mailed me to ask if he could join us...so then it was 3! Pete booked his flights with KLM from Cardiff via Amsterdam for a whopping £259 - I'm glad I booked early!!!

FRIDAY 21ST DECEMBER 2001
Phil was working early turn so I first made my way to Reading to meet him. A fast tram into Padd and the Heathrow Express saw us arrive at Terminal 2 well early for our 1505 flight. Oh well, we were forced to waste the time sitting in Wetherspoons! Earlier direct flights to Prague were heavily delayed due to adverse weather conditions in the Czech Republic, but our Lufthansa flight to Hamburg was on time.

There was nothing to do whilst waiting for our connecting flight at Hamburg, in fact it was a rubbish airport with nothing "to do". The check-in clerk at Heathrow had been unable to allocate us seats for the CSA flight, these were obtained at Hamburg but we couldn't sit together! On the bus out to the stand Phil declared "Why can't we have one of those prop beasts?", moments later we pulled up alongside OK-XFD, an ATR-70 propeller machine!

The flight was rather bumpy to say the least, the landing at Prague being particularly hairy! For the journey I'd been sitting next to a large Asian gentleman who did nothing but read his copy of the FT, whereas Phil had been entertained by a nice young Czech 27-year old female!!

We arrived at Prague about 15" late, our bags taking an absolute age to appear! Checked the screens for Pete's flight, which should have arrived at 2045 (5 mins before us) and it was showing 2210, we decided it wasn't too long to wait. While we waited we chatted to a German girl called Monica who was waiting for her Spanish friend to arrive from Paris, how cosmopolitan!! 

We waited and waited and waited, the screens showing the flight having arrived at 2214. By 2330 Pete still hadn't appeared and we were forced to abandon the wait as the last number 119 bus departed at 2340. We took this to Dejvicka then the Metro to our pre-booked room at the Pension Brezina.

SATURDAY 22ND OCTOBER 2001
Pete never showed at the hotel either, so we were wondering if he had made it at all! Nevertheless we had arranged an 0700 rendezvous at Praha Hl.n if anything went wrong so we ended up meeting there. Our plans had been to make our way to the Hradec Kralove area, but a recent visit by Anthony Flynn revealed a lot of Goggles working so we altered the move to get to the Chomutov area earlier. A short walk over to Masarykovo and we were caning in our first ČD loco - albeit an electric!

We bailed at Chomutov Město and followed the directions to the Sport Pension (details available on request) where we secured a room. Back out on the bash and before long we were behind our first 749 in the shape of 749.234. For anyone who's never been to the Czech Republic 749's are hellfire! The unsilenced examples are very British-sounding locos and thrash well!!

At Karlovy Vary Dolni we went to photograph our locos and ended up wading around in 1½ feet of snow! Phil nearly came a cropper on a set of points!!

Pete went for a mileage move on the 749's whereas myself and Phil decided to cane in some 242 electrics. At Sokolov we viewed a 742 on the Viamont privately-run line to Kraslice (line 145), so naturally we bailed off and caned it in, getting charged 16kc for the privilege! Not signing the geography of the line we decided not to risk the dead connection at Olovi, so did the "safe" move of leaping off at Hřebeny on the single line - this was a deserted shack in the middle of a forest, where Blackwater decided to create some yellow snow - rancid! After a couple of minutes standing on the snow-covered platform it started snowing big time and soon we were covered in the stuff!! We spotted a group of men walking down the track towards the station - one of them starting gibbering to us and when he found out we were English we couldn't get rid of him! It turned out they were some sort of hunters and after a while they ventured off back into the forest! As booked when the other train on the branch appeared it was a rancid Bzmot!

Back at Karlovy Vary we met back up with Pete and followed the directions (kindly provided by a text message from Anthony Flynn) down the very steep and slippery hill to a restaurant near the town centre where a very tasty steak was consumed and washed down by a couple of bottles of decent beer.

Staggering and sliding back up the hill to the station was interesting, especially dodging the impromputu snowfalls that happened everytime Blackwater shook the branches of the trees! Anyway the Cheb-Kosice overnight appeared, booked for a pair of Grumpies, but a rancid Goggle backed on instead - bowled!

749.102 having arrived at Karlovy Vary Dolni.

Viamont's 742.507 waits departure from Sokolov on two Baafx trailers.

SUNDAY 23RD DECEMBER 2001
Pete's plan today was to do some "mileage moves" on 749's, whereas Blackwater and I had different ideas! We wanted to get a few more Goggles in the book so headed for the Plzen area, getting up at an unearthly hour of the morning.

On arrival at Plzen we headed straight for good old Tesco's to stock up on provisions for today and also for the overnight. Being 2 days until Christmas the place was packed, but the biggest queue was the one for trolleys!!! 

We scored a fair few locos today, most of them were electrics though! The most annoying part of the day was watching DB 232.411 arrive from Marktredwitz on the Praha IC and having to flag it! The overnight tonight wasn't much better with a Goggle and a 749!

750.363 arrives at Stankov in the winter sunshine.

MONDAY 24TH DECEMBER 2001
Had a fairly good night's doss, but was rather frustrated because I woke up several times while we were being shunted around (particularly at Česke Trebova) but I couldn't get out of the train to view the locos as the doors were all locked! Didn't realise when matey gave us back our FIP passes but either him or the conductor had altered the date on our boxes - we had already dated the lot of them to avoid one being dated wrongly for us but we didn't expect that!!

It was absolutely bitter cold at Ostrava Svinov and the only train in the station was a Bzmot which everyone was piling into. So where was the 749 and stock that should be on the 0645 to Opava Vychod? Blackwater went and bellowed at the redcap who told him it was the Bzmot but that he would make an announcement - we were all withered when the recorded English announcement came out over the PA! Hoping for a 749 on the other diagram we got on the Bzmot and had to stand up in the vestibule as it was so wedged. Luckily the train back was a Grumpy, albeit silent 242!

Pete decided to stay on 242 to see what was happening around the Opava area. Blackwater and I did an electric cart over to KBS323 which was meant to be almost solid Goggle territory. Needless to say the diagrams had obviously changed and we only managed 2 Goggles, the rest being units! By lunchtime we were well fed up so decided to head for Olomouc. We purchased IC supplements at Frýdek Místek

Managed a new 130 out of Olomouc but had a dud one back. Decided to bale off at the suburban shack before Olomouc Hl.n as there was a scratch move available, except the train didn't show up......and neither did the back-up move! Cheers ČD for not running the trains that were definitely shown as running Christmas Eve! Looking at an 80 minute fester until the next train we started to walk but it was obviously going to be a long way. It's at times like this when Blackwater usually excels himself. This time was no exception as he accosted a family arriving back at home in their car from doing their food shopping and whipped up the Bert into giving us a lift to the station - hellfire!!

Only time for an out and back electric scratch move (we kept our fingers crossed this time!) and were still cursing ČD until a new Grumpy appeared on our train to Sumperk! Checked into the misnamed Penzion Grand, still very much stuck in the Communist era. Ethel behind the counter came out with the quote "I am told that every Christmas three English men come and stay but they get up very early!". It took us a while to explain that while that statement was probably true it wasn't usually us!

We had already got the gen that all the restaurants in Sumperk would be closed this evening and had eaten well during the day. However we did manage to find a bar so had a few beers before a relatively early night.

754.048 at Ostrava Hl.n about to work train 3112.

749.242 at Ostrava Svinov having arrived on train 3423.

TUESDAY 25TH DECEMBER 2001
Christmas Day and what better way to spend it than on the bash! ČD run a near normal train service all over the festive period with just a handful of (mainly early morning and late night) trains not running on 24th/25th/31st December and 1st January. Thus it was an 0530 alarm for a very hot shower as the settings were freezing cold or boiling hot!! It had been snowing during the night again but the temperature wasn't too far below zero. 

749.258 again greeted us at the station for the run to Olomouc where we picked up R901. This was booked to be 749 hauled from Zàbřeh with the possibility of a banker over the hills to Jesenik. As we left Olomouc "What's that on the back?" exclaimed Blackwater. It turned out that they had attatched 749.107 on the rear at Olomouc and the set was to run 'Top & Tail' with 749.246 put on the front at Zàbřeh - double scratch!

We sat in the platform at Jindřichov waiting to pass a train in the opposite direction which according to the timetable should have been in about 5 minutes. After 15 minutes the gripperess came through telling everyone we'd be there at least another half an hour - farce! The snow was mega deep and at one point I was up to my waist while photting '246. Pete warned us to keep an eye out for the other train as the unit could be dragged because of the snow. Just as well because 751.335 rolled in on top of the unit and trailer - My Lords! 

Blackwater and I bailed at Hanušovice whereas Pete stayed on to Šumperk for the mileage. While waiting for the next train we festered on the platform as the bar was shut. We were totally withered when the station staff started playing the Silent Night ringtone off their mobile over the PA! Anyway the next unit rolls in with 751.041 (dud - we'd both had it on our last visit) but we took it anyway. But where was Pete, we knew he needed it but he wasn't on the train! It later turned out he had leapt at Bohdikov but missed it! A good thrash over the hills and at Horni Lipová we were somewhat unusually backshunted into a siding to allow the T&T 749's to go through the other way (I think the other through line was blocked with snow).

At Lipová Lázné we looked out on the offchance that the unit on line 295 was hauled. We couldn't believe it when 751.119 was sitting there on top of a single Bzmot and neither could the driver of said device when he saw me wading across 4 snow covered tracks to phot it! Not knowing whether all trains on the branch were hauled or what we decided to play safe and leap at Vapenna. After a good fester the train in the opposite direction arrived and was also a 751 on Bzmot, except it was '119 again! They must have been piloting as far as the crossing shack.

We took the Goggle to Jesenik for the scratch but then decided to stick with it through to Letohrad as we had exhausted the potential for "lines in the book" in this area today. Had a mega UK-style farce back at Hanušovice as the Goggle couldn't run round due to all the through roads being occupied by units, snow and a JCB! Finally departed about 45" late which meant we were on a somewhat dubious plus at Letohrad. 

Luckily the connections had been held - we were expecting a 111+Stock on the Ústi train and a 749+Stock on the other. Well the 749 turn was a single Bzmot and the Ústi was a 749+Stock - weird! Anyway we bailed onto the 749 (which turned out to be dud 749.019) but still had fairly rare track for a Grumpy down the electrified line to Ústi nad Orlicí. Here required 110.028 was attatched to the rear, so it was back to Letohrad with the 749 for the 110 straight back again!

Back at Šumperk we spent Christmas evening firstly in the Gastro beer house getting the bloke behind the bar whipped up, every time we wanted more beer he kept leaping around the bar shouting "Yes Sir!" at the top of his voice! Blackwater wound up the old fossil sitting next to us at the bar by quoting phrases off of our Czech phrase sheet such as "I'd like to play skittles" and "Please give me two tickets for the ballet"!!!! We were meant to meet Vaclav, one of Anthony Flynn's driver friends at 20.00 but he didn't show up so at 21.00 we made a move for some food. On the way Blackwater managed to throw a snowball straight at some baglet walking with her boyfriend, needless to say he didn't look too impressed!

The restaurants we thought would be open (and had been open in previous years according to the gen) were all closed. I was beginning to get p***ed off because I thought I was going to go hungry (yes enough of the laughing please!) but we eventually found that the Postillion was open and had a decent meal.

Back at the hotel there was a very loud disco going on. We planned to get up early the next morning so decided not to partake. It took me a while but I eventually drifted off to sleep, although Blackwater wasn't quite able to muffle the sounds of Kylie and the Bee Gees and went to rant at the hotel manager!

749.107 on the rear of R901 at Jindřichov na Moravě.

Phil and Pete having just photted the 749 at Jindřichov na Moravě.

751.335 having arrived at Hanušovice on train 3400.

751.119 on top of a Bzmot at Lipová Lázné

WEDNESDAY 26TH DECEMBER 2001
Same move as yesterday morning, with the same loco! '258 produced yet again for the run to Olomouc but this morning we covered the Šumperk unit turn that we had seen with 749.259 yesterday. It was the same again so we went back to Šumperk to connect with the train that had been 751.041 yesterday. It was an 831 cart so Pete went to gibber at the driver to see if he was expecting to be piloted from Hanušovice. He said he thought so, so we leapt on and were joined by a group of kids off for a day in the mountains. When they realised we were British they tried withering us with their English phrases, including one we had already heard last night! They were also shouting "Yes Sir!" at the top of their voices - what is it with these Czechs?!!!

We ran to the front at Hanušovice to be greeted by the sight of Anthony Flynn's last Šumperk-allocated 751 (338) being attatched and of course some withering text messages were sent! Couldn't believe our luck at Lipová Lázné when 751.067 was in a pair with 749.107 on R900 - a quick leap ensured our place in the front coach but the only free compo was in the FC. The gripper looked at our passes muttering the words "Zwei Classe" after everyone but then he grinned and walked on!

Bailed at Branná for the phots and had the Goggle back to Jesenik where we took a walk into town for some excellent fodder at a hotel restaurant. Dud 749.248 was on the 1442 but we took it anyway to enable us to reach Praha at a reasonable hour. Some skiing veg got on and ranted at us for having the window slightly ajar, Blackwater withered them saying they had been standing around for fun in the cold all day so what was the difference!

Did some electric spin moves on the way back into Praha then took the Metro out to the  Pension Brezina again.

751.338 at Horni Lipová.

751.067 and 749.107 departing from Branná on R900 - Clag!!!

During the fester Blackwater gets a bit carried away in the rather deep snow!

750.333 seen on arrival at Jesenik.

THURSDAY 27TH DECEMBER 2001
Said our farewells to Pete at 0430 then took the night tram out to Dejvicka for the first 119 bus to the airport. The CSA flight was half empty but that didn't stop us getting sat next to some Chinese bloke who attempted to eat his Refreshing Towel!!!!!! Caned in the Frankfurt Airport people mover for the first time and the Lufthansa flight was mega wedged but on time.

All in all a decent Christmas. I like the Czech Republic but the amount of units and the unpredictability (plus the shit out factor) do sometimes take their toll. As ever the company, food and beer were excellent. I'd recommend it to anyone but make sure your tolerance levels are quite high!

Matthew Reeves    13th January 2002.