European Railroad Discussion > Slovakia round 2

After April's first visit to Slovakia I had the opportunity of a few days away from work, and with my partner otherwise engaged, hopped on a Ryaniar flight to Bratislava for a few days to chase trains across Slovakia again. No steam this time but the opportunity to see some of the things I missed last time.

On Thursday evening, just as the sun set a CKD 757 heads south down the Hron Valley from Banska Bystrica to Zvolen on a local.

The following day a pair of 746 switchers on a mixed freight, south of Plesivec

Yesterday train 441 the overnight Excelsior from Cheb, Karlovy Vary and Prague to Zilina and Kosice approaching Kosice, along with the CD coaches it carries both sleepers and couchettes (the four cars on the back of the train), two CD and two ZSSK.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/14 09:00 by 86235.

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Slovakia's capital, Bratislava, and second city, Kosice, both have extensive tram networks, and both use CKD-Tatra built cars. Here are some pictures of both networks. Kosice is standard gauge, Bratislava is metre. Plenty of Totalitarian Revival architectire on show :-)

This link will take you to more train and tram shots http://nick86235.smugmug.com/Trains/2014/Slovakia-Round-2-July-2014/i-jZKvCnq



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/14 14:43 by 86235.

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That freight train has link & pin couplers! Do they still use those??? Why not knuckle couplers???

coach Wrote:
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> That freight train has link & pin couplers! Do
> they still use those??? Why not knuckle
> couplers???

Not link and pin, but hook and loop which is the standard in Western Europe.

coach Wrote:
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> That freight train has link & pin couplers! Do
> they still use those??? Why not knuckle
> couplers???

We call them screw couplings and we have been over this question many times. It's part history, part necessity and part inertia. On specific heavy flows, such as iron ore from Rotterdam to the Ruhr, and here in Britain on coal trains operated by DBS you will find knuckle couplers, indeed in Slovakia the iron ore trains from Ukraine to US Steel in Kosice use the Russian standard knuckle. But by and large for the relatively light freight trains which are the European norm, screw couplings are standard.

On photo 1, is the middle car painted with an odd lettering style, or is that graffiti? Great view, there.

Unfortunately it's grafitti, it's an endemic problem on Slovak trains, even some long distance cars get tagged but the local trains seem to receive particular attention.

Nice Goggle Cab shot!

Posted from iPhone

86235 Wrote:
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>Plenty of Totalitarian
> Revival architectire on show :-)

He he. Nice photos!

Andy

Thanks.

In your slide show, you state " ... But Slovakia is a poor country (by European standards) ...". And yet, what appears to be lots of electrification, second main track, and concrete ties and welded rail. Plant looks to be in great shape.

All of that is true, but most of the equipment is 20+ years old and dates back to the days of Czechoslovakia, indeed to the days of Communist Czechoslovakia. Local trains and stations can be very dowdy, with poor facilities. And by Western European standards it is a poor country, in rural areas you see people drawing water from wells.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/14 10:38 by 86235.

JGFuller Wrote:
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> In your slide show, you state " ... But Slovakia
> is a poor country (by European standards) ...".
> And yet, what appears to be lots of
> electrification, second main track, and concrete
> ties and welded rail. Plant looks to be in great
> shape.


This all just goes to show that it is all a matter of priority and choices. Rich nations may choose to spend their affluence in different ways, or distribute it in various proportions between the public and private sectors. Slovakia is a nation that chose (rightly or wrongly) to devote resources into public rail infrastructure, as a a consequence it has to do without some other things. The US is the richest nation on earth on a per capita basis, and yet chooses to spend its affluence on things like private healthcare that give it a rather low international rating on measures such as infant mortality or overall life expectancy. France has hourly earnings about the same as the US, but chooses to work shorter hours and take more vacation time off. No one can say that one is automatically better than the other, it's all to do with culture and values. As the Chinese have shown it is possible to grow the market sector of an economy very rapidly but there is a price to be paid. Are all those iPhones and trainers worth it? Who knows?