Keeping In Czech

Introduction:
This bash had been planned since about July last year, as the flights were booked during an EasyJet sale (£40.98 each return - bargain!)  I was joined by Keith Hookham and validity for both of us was F.I.P. free passes for rail staff. Credit must be given to Karl Sherman and the contributors to ERG and CzechSlovakGen for all the information and diagrams provided, which no doubt helped immensely with the planning of this bash.

New engines are show in reverse type.

Tuesday 13th January 2004  
Having felt really poorly for the previous 2 days I'd already booked sick for today. Feeling all the better for a long lie-in I left the house at 1400 for the 45 minute drive down the M6 and M69 to Keith Hookham's house at Hinckley. I left the car here and we travelled by pre-arranged taxi to East Midlands airport.

On arrival the place was deserted except for a big group of Asians who were checking in for an Amritsar flight. We were among the first to check-in for our EasyJet flight. We'd booked these flights back in July for the princely sum of £40.98!!

The bash got off to a promising start with a winner plane which would have been ready to leave almost 15 early had it not been for a wheelchair-bound passenger. Due to this becoming somewhat of a farce we left 25 late.

The flight was only about a third full and with a strong tailwind we arrived on time. Rapid collection of the bags saw us straight on a no. 100 bus and thence the Metro to Hlavni Nadrazi just in time for the overnight. A very comfortable Slovakian sleeper berth was secured from the Bert for just 256Kc each!  

Wednesday 14th January 2004
Woken up by the border Zoll at 0530 so just dozed until Bert came to wake us up and return our tickets to us.

No Slovakian bibles available at Zilina, so did a basic leap out for our intended train back. This morning's main move was to cover the new 140 turn that works through to Poland. The revolving timetables confirmed that if it worked we might as well do it through to Katowice as the service on table 129 had been recast, making for rather long festers!

Plenty of snow on the ground this morning, although surprisingly mild. On returning to Zilina the 140 turned out to be the only ZSR example that i'd had before, 067! So the move was quickly flagged and we decided (since none of the stations had new timetables) instead to head towards Ostrava.

Intending to do the Grumpies we spotted a 742 on Bzmot trailers, so jumped on that to Frydek-Mistek for a Goggle back. Keith was in mega doss mode due to lack of same on the overnight!!

Made our way to Olomouc and booked into the excellent VFM Hotel Sigma across the road from the station (1180Kc for room incl. Breakfast). With nothing else about we called it a night and caught the tram into town for some food and beer at one of the restaurants on the main square. I had never been into the centre of Olomouc before, it really is very pretty.  

A very juicy looking 770.533 stands at Ostrava-Svinov.

742.045 at Frýdek-Místek

749.178 was on one of the Olomouc - Unicov diagrams.

A tram in Olomouc town centre

Thursday 15th January 2004
A fairly early start this morning in order to cover the booked shunt move. Keith still hasn't managed to have a loud Grumpy as both the ones we have this morning are silent too!

Wasn't looking too promising so decided to head for Brno. This all changed though when we spotted a 742 on unit trailers at Prostejov, so leapt off to scoop the track via table 275 back to Olomouc (and the lok in Keith's case!). Back at Olomouc a 731 appeared on the return working, so we did that round to Olomouc Mesto for a fast tram back.

After an out and back sparky leap we had the choice of 749.264, 742.367 or 130.011, so we took the latter on table 301 back to Prostejov. This line has seen various types of loco in the recent past but has now acquired some "Stingray"  ex-Praha EMU's. The 130 was working a peak hour additional. 

731.027 presented itself to us when we returned, on 2 unit trailers heading for Hrubá Voda. We did this all the way and back, then decided to call it a night, heading into town on the tram for food and a few beers.  

731.030 departs from Olomouc Mesto

131.011 in a right state at Prostejov hl.n!

3rd 731 in one day! 731.027 having run round at Hrubá Voda.

Friday 16th January 2004
Up to cover the shunt again this morning, but all the engines were the same as yesterday. Decided instead to head over to Brno.

A good morning was had covering the 3 known 742 turns and a couple of Goggles on the Jilhava line, then a relatively long ride on the Berlin-bound EC to Pardubice.

Checked into the usual Hotel Amber Cernigov at Hradec Kralove (chingy at 1600Kc per night, but well worth it). A few more 130 leaps and we called it a night at 2015, retiring to the excellent hotel restaurant.  

704.001 shunts stock at Brno Horní Heršpice - not available for scooping unfortunately!

750.063 waits departure from Hradec Králové hl.n with train Sp1951.

Satuday 17th January 2004
Richard Morrison had been due to arrive at HK at 0036, having flown into Praha from Glasgow! His flight was late and he missed the last train, meaning he did a rancid overnight to Ceska Trebova and back! We leapt out for the 0600 down to Pardubice and met up with him there.  

Pleased to find at least 1 of the 2 coathanger turns was new. Silent 749.256 was on the Jesenik, but we took it with the intention of leaping off at Lichkov for the other turn. This wasn't to be, however, as just prior to Jablonne nad Orlici we ground to a halt with '256 out of coolant.

After about 40 minutes a pair of Goggles arrived from the Lichkov direction and hooked onto the front. We passed 749.011 on R254 on the way, blowing that plan out of the water, so we were stuck with R757 to Jesenik.

At Lichkov the Goggles (which we now found out were 753.229 and 753.187) came off and '256 had it's coolant replenished, leaving there 65 down.

No further riots ensued and on arrival at Jesenik we went to the excellent Laguna for lunch. 749.265 (silent again!) was on the Prerov with 749.248 on the Olomouc. Typical! We couldn't really do the later one without getting back late. We decided to stick with '265 to Zabreh, the train filling up with "Ski-froth" at Branná.

Back at Hradec a quick leap on a required 130 before dinner in the hellfire hotel restaurant, washed down by Primator Weizenbier, brewed in nearby Náchod. Keith was not feeling very well, so flagged dinner for an early night's doss.  

753.229 and 753.187 at Lichkov, having earlier rescued 749.265 - my lords!

Sunday 18th January 2004
Up early to view the 6 o'clock departures. No new 130's about, so did the dud 163 to Tyniste to cover the diesel lines. This proved to be a good decision with a 742 producing on trailers!

A few more leaps produced new examples of 714, 130 and 749. Did the kart back to HK as wanted to cover the Mezimesti 749 turn - it was 750.346, but I decided to do it anyway. En route we didn't pass any winners and at Mezimesti the only winner was PKP diesel SP32-149! This was on the 1140 to Walbrzych Glowny. The services on this border crossing were supposed to have been withdrawn on 4th January, but have been given a life extension until at least 31st March.

A poster on the wall confirmed the return time of the train (only 2 trains per day) and helpfully included an A&D sheet for Walbrzych which showed some out-and-back scratches were available!

Only 2 punters (including me!) on the train from Mezimesti - the border guards/custom berts were withered by the UK passport! 4 more normals joined at the intermediate shack of Moroszow, which was staffed by a redcap! Speed on the branch was limited to about 20km/h due to the sorry state of the track.

With the return train being at 1558 there was time for a few can leaps between Walbrzych Glowny and Miasto (20 minute journey time!). Not pleased with a dud EU07 on one of them! Sat in a compo with some young guy who was listening to "Brown girl in the ring" by Boney M on his Walkman - very strange!

Same loco back (as expected) and I was the only person on the train for the entire journey! Back at Mezimesti I was pleased to find required 749.253 on the Sunday extra train to Praha, even though it was silenced.

Leapt for a winner 714 then made my way back to the hotel and met back up with Keith who was feeling much better for a day spent in bed!  

750.346 at Mezimesti, having arrived with train R743.

Also at Mezimesti, Polish SP32-149 with one of the twice daily cross border services.

EP07-356 waiting to depart from Wałbrzych Główny with train 222 to Wroclaw.

Wałbrzych Miasto this time, with EU07-037, also bound for Wroclaw.

Monday 19th January 2004
Last day today and not quite such an early start. Went out to cover the Ex from Trutnov but the Goggle we hsd had yesterday had stuck to diagram. Back at HK a 742 produced on the 0807 to Jicin. This was taken and moves being in the process of devised when we stopped at the first shack and Keith bellowed "There's another 742 on trailers here". Mad leap to get all our traps together and bail off for it!

Another vice was then spotted (750 vice DMU) and this was taken to Pardubice for the EC into Praha.

After a few leaps on the Cercany line (until an 810 appeared!) we headed over to Masarykovo and managed to rake in a few diesels and a heritage 141 electric! Back to Hlavni for a few leaps before the flight home, however the wires had been brought down in the Beroun area and a farce was ensuing!

EasyJet flight home was in right time but due to a severe blizzard we required to be de-iced prior to take off. New Street PSB must have been controlling the movements at Ruznye that night as we were put at the back of a queue of planes waiting to take off and the de-icer iced up! Back round the airport again to be de-iced, finally taking off at 2355, 90 late. Arrival back into East Midlands at 0056 was a bad finish to what had been a very good week away!

Vice unit Sir? 750.163 at Pardubice.

Matthew Reeves
26th January 2004