Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: railway

I took this on New Year's Eve, after getting to Cardiff in the nick of time to meet my friends. I took several other cameraphone shots along the way, although nothing to speak of. I originally had hoped to get the number of this unit, but again I was using a cameraphone, so the exposure from the headlights was too much. This had been my first trip on Great Western after it reverted to its pre-1948 name, after having operated as "First Great Western" (in reference to First Bus) since privatization, and the creation of the train operating companies (TOC's) in 1996.

I didn't end up buying this railroad-themed board game, but the name is obviously a reference both to "Mogul" meaning a rich business person, in this case a railroad tycoon, as well as to the 2-6-0 Mogul steam locomotive type under the Whyte classification system.

Built in 1850, this viaduct spans 1.1 kilometers from Bubny to Masarykovo Nadrazi (southbound), meaning it actually traverses a large part of Prague, at this portion in Karlin (if I understand the boroughs correctly). The street under this arch of the viaduct is Sokolovska, although the viaduct crosses 5-6 streets along the way, depending on what you're counting. One of the most interesting streets, not seen here, is Rohanske nabrezi, which used to be a railway line, meaning that until the 2017-2021 reconstruction, coal soot from steam locomotives was still visible on the arches: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negrelli_Viaduct#/media/File:Northwestern_Railway_Negrelli_Viaduct_eastern_side.jpg In any case, getting back to my own photo, when facing west through the Sokolovska arch, it is often possible to get good sunset pictures, as the sun aligns quite well with the arch, without any buildings blocking the view. I still haven't been able to get a good camera to get this shot (I've been having technical problems with my cameras for a number of years, with a minimal budget to address the problem), but I have even been able to get the shot with my cameraphones, as you can see here. For this shot, I was using my Nokia 301.

Built in 1850, this viaduct spans 1.1 kilometers from Bubny to Masarykovo Nadrazi (southbound), meaning it actually traverses a large part of Prague, at this portion in Karlin (if I understand the boroughs correctly). The street under this arch of the viaduct is Sokolovska, although the viaduct crosses 5-6 streets along the way, depending on what you're counting. When facing west through the Sokolovska arch, it is often possible to get good sunset pictures, as the sun aligns quite well with the arch, without any buildings blocking the view. This is the second attempt posted from this shoot my Nokia 301 cameraphone.

I took this shot because, as far as I can remember, this was my first, or possibly second, visit to the Veleslavin Metro station. I had neglected to route bash this extension of Linka A when it had opened several months earlier, so this was my first meaningful chance to get some cameraphone shots of it. This extension actually extended Linka A from Dejvicka to Nemocnice Motol, with the Nadrazi Veleslavin and Petriny stations added in between. The original plan was to extend to the airport, but politics prevented this happening for the meantime. The project, as it was, took many years. The official date when the plan was finalized was April 15th, 2010, and the project was completed by the 6th of April, 2015. I seem to have memories of contruction dating back further, but this could be my imagination.

As you can see, Nadrazi Mirosovice u Prahy was in very good condition as of 2015, and as far as I know it still is today. Mirosovice is two stops south of Strancice (with Mnichovice in the middle), and on this particular day, for whatever reason, I concluded my cameraphone shoot for the day. It may have been the battery, in hindsight, as I didn't want to be without a phone.

The Mnichovice station isn't visible in this shot, as it's out-of-frame to the right. What you can see is that interesting Baroque-style building, in the distance, with the bell tower. That's the Church of the Birth of the Virgin Mary, or the Kostel Narození Panny Marie, in Czech.

Nadrazi Strancice is actually two stops south of Ricany, as Svetice is in between. For some reason, I didn't get a shot of Svetice on this trip. Strancice is mostly notable for being where some of the locals from Prague terminate, rather than continuing on to Benesov u Prahy. Whenever I've had to go further south, I've had to be mindful of this. There's also a freight-only branchline to Velke Popovice from Strancice, but this was cut short in around 2013, so it may have been left mostly in place as insurance for the future. I'm not aware of any current services on it, although it still had some working signals the last time I saw it.

When southbound one Linka 220, Ricany is the first station outside of Prague. As you can vaguely see in this shot, as of 2015 it was in decent condition, and my understanding is that it's been maintained well since. It's notable for the spiral ramp for passengers, especially those with bikes, just barely visible behind the platform canopy. The station building is on the other side of the tracks, behind me in this shot. The building dates to the 1880's, if I'm not mistaken, although services began stopping here in November of 1871, in line with most other stops on Linka 220.

Kolovraty is the southernmost Prague station on Linka 220, the next station south being Ricany, which is technically outside of Prague. When I first started regularly traveling this route in 2005, Kolovraty still had a small concrete station, but this was removed around 2006 during the reconstruction. Judging from the shape of the building, there does appear to be an older station building, long since repurposed, further to the west on the north side of the tracks, although I can't confirm this. One way or another, Kolovraty has never been a major station, and only became a Prague station in 1976, after the city limits expanded to include Kolovraty in 1974.

This is the second station building to stand on this site, being built in 1915 to the same design as the 1882 station in Hostivar. This station's name is one of the hardest to pronounce by foreigners, with the correct Czech spelling being "Uhříněves." I usually omit the Czech diacritics on iPernity for the sake of full compatibility, but in reality Czech words make wide use of diacritics distinct to Czech and Slovak. In any case, as you can see, this is one of the stations in the best condition on this route, and has been for a number of years. I don't actually remember when it was in its pre-2005, heavily-vandalized state.

Horni Mecholupy wasn't radically different before the 2005 reconstruction, although the speed limit was notably lower. Although I've rarely, if ever, ridden through this station at the full 160 Km/h (99 m.p.h.), it is supposedly good for it. There isn't any station building there, and these shelters added a few years after the reconstruction (I think in 2009 or so) were originally made mostly out of tempered glass, with a metal frame, as on bus stops. These survived only about a week, as I recall, first being covered in graffiti, and then being destroyed entirely. The construction contractors didn't attempt to rebuild the shelters in their original form, instead putting metal sides on them, as on the 1987-era shelters at Strasnice. These then were covered with graffiti, posters, and other debris, making them look just as horrible, but at least now they provide some shelter from the weather. I don't remember if I've ever used Horni Mecholupy, but it's possible I used it once, when a connecting bus was better from there than from Hostivar. I've taken similar shortcuts through Praha-Uhrineves, at least. Horni Mecholupy seems, from the vandalism, to be so insecure, though, that it I wouldn't consider it a very safe station to use, even in the daytime. This is unfortunate, because there are many examples of similar station in Prague and abroad which don't have this problem. For example, Uhrineves seems perfectly usable, and it's only one stop south of Horni Mecholupy. Incidentally, the storage area in the background of this photo had, until shortly before I took this, been a go kart track.

This is actually the new Nadrazi Hostivar, which was under construction as I took this photo in 2015. It's about 144 meters east of the older station, which was built in 1882 to replace a smaller station from 1871, which was the first Prague station built specifically for the Kaiser Franz Josef Bahn, now Linka 220 to Ceska Budejovice. I used to regularly use Hostivar, and this continued for many years, meaning I used both the older and the newer station. The older station still survives, if for no other reason than that it has a popular pub in it. The new station was initially vandalized almost as soon as it was opened, when construction wasn't even complete, but it's subsequently become no worse than other larger stations on this route. The station building, unusually, is built out of what looks like unpainted steel, so it also rusted over before it even opened. It has also since been badly vandalized, being one of the worst damaged structures on-site. It isn't actually visible in this shot, as it would have been behind me, on the other side of the train.

"Zastavka" and "Nadrazi" can be synonymous in Czech, although "Zastavka" usually indicates a more minor stop. In this case, Strasnice Zastavka had not been staffed since 1987, and the vandalism visible in this shot makes this obvious. The metal shelters date to that era, as they had replaced the original wooden station buildings from 1905. The pedestrian bridge, however, did date to 1905. Having said this, the heavily-vandalized state of this station was probably a factor in its closure in 2020, to be replaced by the new stations at Eden (opened in 2020) and Zahradni Mesto (opened in 2021). Eden has the advantage of being adjacent to a major shopping centre of the same name, as well as the Fortuna Arena.

By the time I took this photo, Nadrazi Vrsovice's renovation was already more or less complete, having been renovated in 2007-2008, making it one of the earlier stations on the Prague-Ceske Budejovice route (technically Linka 220) to be completed. It was also one of the older stations on this route to be completed, in 1882, albeit under the name Nusle. In reality, Nadrazi Praha-Vrsovice is immediately on the border between the boroughs of Vrsovice and Nusle, so either name would be appropriate. The station was finally renamed Vrsovice, after a series of name changes, at the end of World War II in 1945. Getting back to 2015, just as significant as the 2007-2008 renovation itself was that Praha-Vrsovice also was one of the better-maintained stations after the 2008 rebuilding, as many of the stations on the route were quickly vandalized to the point where the renovation was irrelevant, sometimes before the stations were even reopened. I took this photo as part of a series on the route, although on this particular day I didn't make it to the end of the line (I ended up stopping in Mirosovice u Prahy). Today, Praha-Vrsovice remains in good condition, so careful supervision of the station has continued since I took this photo.

The original Prague Vytopna restaurant was actually this one, on Vaclavske Namesti. I've actually forgotten if I've ever been inside, but I don't think so. There was also a location in Brno, which is said to have been the original location in 2009, but it has since closed. The Vaclavske Namesti location was still open when I researched this caption in 2024, however.

There are actually two Vytopna locations in Prague, one here, in the Palladium Shopping Centre, and another one on Vaclavske Namesti (plus another one in Vienna, in Austria). This is a railway-themed restaurant, with mostly American-inspired food like burgers (even if the trains are mostly Czech and European), and a large G-Scale model train layout integrated into the restaurant. This is the case in both the Palladium and Vaclavske Namesti locations. The trains are computer-controlled, using a similar system to that used on the (real-life) Docklands Light Railway in London, with a signal wire down the middle of the track. This is so that they can be used to deliver drinks to the tables, although they are too small (in spite of being G-scale) to deliver food. One thing their small size doesn't impact much is their speed, as they can operate at up to 20 Km/h, comparable to real 19th-Century freight trains (at least in the United States). This means that they're hard to photograph without a good camera with a fast sensor or film. This is one of my better shots from this visit in 2015, where I managed to catch one of the gondolas loaded with two full 500ml beer glasses. Empty beer glasses also generally return to the bar via rail.

The model railway in Vytopna also has station buildings, although they're purely decorative. This station is for "Stare Brno," which is probably a reference not so much to the city of Brno (as Brno doesn't have a station by that name), but more likely the Starobrno beer brand. Despite this, when I was there Vytopna was mostly serving Krusovice, which is brewed in the city of the same name (historically, from 1581 to 1685, Krusovice was the royal brewery of Bohemia, and has passed through various owners since).