Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: skoda

This is DPP's second-newest tram, #9111 (their newest is #9112). It breaks from previous Prague tradition in that it's not a Tatra or CKD, but a Skoda. Skoda have, over the years, built cars, trains, trams, and just about every other kind of durable and capital good that you could think of. I've even seen Skoda anvils!!! Today their main business is in cars, as Volkswagen own the company now and produce Skoda versions of the various VW models. They still build trams, though, and this one's a 14T Class, with the carbody designed by Porsche. Apologies for the scanner lines on this photos. I don't know why they're there since the scanner used for this photo didn't do this on any other photos.

Ceske Drahy inherited a fleet of Russian bi-level coaches from Ceskoslovenske Drahy, and these are still in service, if old (see my picture of Tynec yard). They're cramped, dirty, somewhat rundown, and very hot in the summer, though, so they're far from ideal, even if the view from the upper deck is cool. Ceske Drahy must have been thinking of this, as well as the better passenger capacity in proportion to tare, when they ordered their fleet of bi-level EMUs, Classes 471 and 971, from a consortium of CKD and Skoda in the late 1990s. The oldest of these is already 10 years old, but surprisingly, they've been kept up enough so that they still seem relatively new. The upper deck is the best part, though. :-) I took this on the way to Karlstejn.

I saw the abstraction and beauty of this shot immediately, so I took it, although I've burned the sky in here using Photoshop. The train itself is a Ceske Drahy Class 971 bi-level EMU (built by a consortium of CKD and Skoda), identical to the Class 471 in nearly everything but length, if I'm not mistaken.

I saw this coming from a long way off, but didn't get the classic angle of it bearing down on me, although I regretted it somewhat later, as I never got the number. This Ceske Drahy Class 371 electric was pulling a MAV (Hungarian State Railways) Eurocity from somewhere in Germany to Budapest, via Prague, so it obviously wasn't going to stop in Roztoky, and I wanted to be sure that I got this pan shot. I set my camera up, passed up the offset head-on view, and swung my body around for the pan. It worked perfectly, and now I have this, which may be my best pan shot ever. I hope you like it.

This is the 1434 departure that I was going to take to Berlin, on the first leg of my journey to Cardiff. The train's number was EC172, and was a named Eurocity, "Vindobona." Because it originated in the south, it had a Zeleznicna Spolecnost, or Slovak Railways, Class 350 electric locomotive on the point. In reality, though, it's being worked by a Ceske Drahy crew, and of course is using CD rails. :-)

Here's the new Skoda 14T out and about again. This was one of the first times I had seen it deal with snow, and it seemed to be doing as well as the other trams.

Here's another shot that I took of 498.022 in Beroun, on the way back to Prague. Trains from Krivoklat to Prague have to be turned here, as the track layout forms a wye, so here 498.022 was being turned.

Here's our train back to Prague, although in reality it's passing through Krivoklat on the way to pick up our train. In the end the train was closer to 42 cars, rather than 3!! That's a record for my train travels, actually. The locomotive, ex-CSD 498.022 is a Ceskoslovenske Drahy Class 498 4-8-2, the same class as 498.106, "Albatros," which set a Czech speed record for steam locomotives at 162Km/h in 1964.

This was the first time I saw #9113...ever. It was also the first time I had ever seen a Skoda 14T in service before I saw it in testing, and the first time I saw a 14T working service 9. I was also lucky to have my Lomo, as the other camera I had with me that day was the Ikoflex, and I was certain that I wouldn't have it ready before the tram pulled out of the stop.

Here's yet another shot of the prototype Skoda 14T tram, #9111. As is now well known, the fleet are now entering service, and I've now spotted the entire current fleet 9111-9122 in regular service.

While I was in Masarykovo Nadrazi taking my February snow pictures, I finally got around, also to photographing one of the 971 EMU's builder plates. I obviously like builder plates since they're a very reliable (usually) of knowing the straight historical facts about a piece of rolling stock, provided the plate is original, anyway. I especially like plates that are exotic, although it's debatable whether Skoda or CKD would fall into that category.

During the recent snowstorms (actually back in February), I couldn't resist taking some train photos, so I walked and rode trams around Prague to see what I could get. I took this shot in Masarykovo Nadrazi.