Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: draha

I don't remember exactly when I took this, but I'm fairly certain it was in late 2005. One way or another, it's one of my better shots of Hlavni Nadrazi, the main train station for Prague, with a little bit of the "Sherwood Forest" yard. If you need to ask why it's called that, you don't want to know. The locomotive doing switching is, if I'm not mistaken, a CD Class 111 electric.

I'm pretty sure this was a coach based on a Class 810 railbus, rather than a real railbus. Some of these are powered railbuses, while some are pulled by small diesel locomotives or by 810s. They're used on branchlines, mainly, although I've ridden in an 810 at up to 80Km/h on the Decin-Prague mainline before.

Class 111 electric locomotives are used a lot in Ceske Drahy stations for switching coaching stock, but I have occassionally seen them on locals and freights. This one had just brought in a cut of coaches that would be ultimately pulled by a 363 electric.

Class 363 electric locomotives work passenger and freight trains on all of the electrified mainlines in the Czech Republic, and I've of course posted photos of them before. This one was sitting on one of the outer sidings of Praha Hlavni Nadrazi waiting to pull an express to Ceske Budejovice, which was being made up by #111011-9, which I've already posted a photo of. Note that 363127-2 is painted in an advertising livery instead of the standard Ceske Drahy green and yellow.

451s are very common on local services on electrified lines on Ceske Drahy, and I've already discussed them in detail elsewhere. This one is arriving from Benesov U Prahy with a local, and will also form the return service after unloading.

Cercany is so busy it's actually possible to line up an EMU, a diesel-hauled freight, and a railbus all at once if you're careful and lucky enough. :-)

Here's...yet another Class 452 shot!! #452014-4 is waiting in this picture to work a service Praha Hlavni Nadrazi-Benesov U Prahy.

This is one of the express trains for Ceske Budejovice, and on this particular day (January 26th, 2007) it looked like it was all set to be packed to standing room only with skiiers, in spite of having over 10 cars on.

Here's a shot of train #R641 for Ceske Budejovice, waiting for it's locomotive at Praha Hlavni Nadrazi. There are so many coaches on to accomodate unexpected ski traffic that you can't see to the end!!!

I took this just as the sun was finally coming out after several days of snow and storms. I liked the way the buildings were illuminated.

Although the station has too many tracks for it to cover all of them, the inner platforms of Hlavni Nadrazi have a fair-sized train shed.

Praha Hlavni Nadrazi, while much-maligned today because of its dilapidation, was nevertheless originally built in a spectacularly monumental style, in keeping with other big city stations of the time. Much of it is still there, too, but above street level and off to the side of the tracks, where there are offices. This part, though, is open to the public, as it houses the landmark Fantova Kavarna coffeehouse.

In spite of Fantova Kavarna being open to the public, this shot illustrates how difficult it can be to get the right range. I actually shot this from the pedestrian tunnel that leads to the tracks, as there's a huge hole in the ceiling to remind you of what's upstairs. That's understandable, since the tunnel system under the station used by most passengers is more or less universally considered ugly, whereas Fantova Kavarna, flaking plaster notwithstanding, is a whole other story.

It's hard to see in this photo, but we're actually looking down the north throat of Sherwood Forest (Hlavni Nadrazi) Yard. Praha Hlavni Nadrazi, while a major terminus, is nevertheless a run-through design, with trains north to Decin, Dresden, and Berlin going this way, and trains to Benesov, Ceske Budejovice, Plzen, Brno, and Wein going the other way (please correct these directions if I got them wrong, I'm shooting them off by memory :-)).

This is an alternate shot to Picture 1, which is easier to see because it's shot on the outer tracks outside of the train shed, making a good exposure much easier.

I took this as I was boarding 810103-2, which was running completely light (one car only) working a service to Praha-Liben. I would get off at Holesovice, where I would photograph the Pendolino for the first time.

810103-2 was working a service arriving from Praha-Liben, which I would take back as far as Holesovice for a connection with the Prague metro. Like the Masarykovo Nadrazi sculpture, I didn't get around to posting this until now.

This is one of my only successful photos taken inside the funicular railway station at Ujezd. I got it using my Lomo 135BC, but with the help of my Gossen Polysix light meter, since the Lomo doesn't have any specified settings for indoor shooting.