A Morning at Prague's Main Train Station, Part 2

Here's the second half of my railfan morning at Prague's main train station (hlavní nádraží). (First part)

Here's a different angle on the train station, showing the old city in the distance. The spires on the left horizon belong to the Týn Church, which was right beside our hotel. In fact when I looked out our room's window, I was looking at the side of the church.  The spires closer to the centre belong to several buildings, including the Old Town Hall Tower, home of the famous Astronomical Clock.

Hlavní nádraží, Praha

Here's a pretty versatile engine, a class 380 loco. This is capable of running up to 200 km/hr (125 MPH) under three different electrical systems: 3000V DC, 25 kV AC (50 Hz), and 15 kV AC (16.7 Hz).

CZ locomotive 380 015-8 at Prague station

I spotted sister locomotive 380 018-2 at one of the platforms later that morning.

Czech engine 380 018-2 at Prague station

Here's a Railjet coming into the station - a train much like the one we took between Vienna and Prague.

Railjet train arriving in Prague

I promised a diesel locomotive, and here it is. Czech 714 023-9 was working on the "back side" of the station, shuttling cars back and forth. I saw it had an empty autorack beside it, maybe as a reacher car? It was shuffling both passenger cars and full autoracks.

Czech locomotive 714 023-9 at work

 I walked around to get an overhead view of the locomotive. For a diesel locomotive it has a small stack.

Overhead view of Czech 714 023-9 locomotive

The class 714 locomotives are diesel-electrics capable of 80 km/hr (50 MPH). They have pretty low pulling power by North American standards, rated at 469 HP and weighing only 64 tons. You might say they are equivalent to the old 65-ton GE centre cab locos.

There were a couple of other switchers around, albeit electric switchers. Both are class 111 locomotives, essentially 1000 HP switchers. 111 011-3 is very very worn.

Czech locomotive 111 011-3 in Prague

The other class 111 was on the far side of the station. I reached it with my long lens... with some stuff in the way.

Czech locomotive 111 006-3 in Prague

I guess I have one more diesel to share - an RDC-like self-propelled car. It's a class 854 diesel hydraulic unit, with a Caterpillar prime mover and a top speed of 120 km/hr (75 MPH).

Czech class 854 railcar in Prague

The below is a class 680 high speed train built by Alstom using Pendolino (tilting) technology. The seven car trainsets are capable of 230 km/hr (140 MPH). This train reminded me of the Eurostar trains, although Eurostar can reach 300 km/hr.

Czech 682 001-3 in Prague

I'll close with a locomotive with an interesting paint scheme, decorated for the Euro.cz web site.

Czech 382 086-1 in Prague

So. Many. Trains. I was in railfan heaven!

PS - I want to share a few Czech freight cars that I saw.

Open autoracks! Who would imagine this in North American any more?

 I loved how these logs were stacked in gondolas:

Logs in gondolas

 This is a more "North American" looking bulkhead flat car:

Czech bulkhead flat car

Thanks for reading!

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Related content:

• Back to Vienna
• Start in Prague