European Railroad Discussion > Ústí nad Labem - railfan paradise

dwatry and I are currently railfanning Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic. It's an astonishingly busy spot with lines on both sides of the Elbe, a major freight yard and a never ending parade of loco hauled and MU trains, passenger and freight. Here are a few.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/22 12:36 by 86235.

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Three more shots from Ústi and around

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Unipetrol Vectrons on a company train

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Hope you guys are having fun.  Nice video -- always helps to have a castle perched on a hill in the background!

Gordon

Thanks for sharing.

All photo scenes are truly excellent.
The Video is absolutely awesome!
Thanks for your great posting.
ALLEN

Wonderful scenes!  What is the castle?

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/22 17:08 by bandob.

bandob Wrote:
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> Wonderful scenes!  What is the castle?

Thanks everyone, the castle is Střekov Castle, a local visitor attraction.

https://www.lobkowicz.cz/en/strekov

Regarding the first photograph:  Is that 80 ft [ 20 + 40 + 20 ] of containers on that first vehicle ? Does a flat in Western / Central Europe fully loaded like that have a restricted [ well, from a main freight lines standpoint ] route availability ?  Is this something 'new' -- new in my frame of reference = the last ten or so years -- vs the 60 ft standard.  ?

SZ

Steinzeit2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Regarding the first photograph:  Is that 80 ft [
> 20 + 40 + 20 ] of containers on that first vehicle
> ? Does a flat in Western / Central Europe fully
> loaded like that have a restricted [ well, from a
> main freight lines standpoint ] route availability
> ?  Is this something 'new' -- new in my frame of
> reference = the last ten or so years -- vs the 60
> ft standard.  ?
>
> SZ

Yes it is an 80' flat, type sggnss or sggrss. I've not seen them before, although I've not been in this part of the world since 2019. They can carry 68.5 tonnes with a maximum speed of 100 to 125 kph depending on axle load. They seem pretty widespread.

86235 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> dwatry and I are currently railfanning Ústí nad
> Labem in the Czech Republic. It's an astonishingly
> busy spot with lines on both sides of the Elbe, a
> major freight yard and a never ending parade of
> loco hauled and MU trains, passenger and freight.
> Here are a few.

Were you using a car to get around the town?  From Google Earth, the railway layout seems quite extensive.  What would be possible with public transport or walking? 

86235 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Steinzeit2 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Regarding the first photograph:  Is that 80 ft
> [
> > 20 + 40 + 20 ] of containers on that first
> vehicle
> > ? Does a flat in Western / Central Europe fully
> > loaded like that have a restricted [ well, from
> a
> > main freight lines standpoint ] route
> availability
> > ?  Is this something 'new' -- new in my frame
> of
> > reference = the last ten or so years -- vs the
> 60
> > ft standard.  ?
> >
> > SZ
>
> Yes it is an 80' flat, type sggnss or sggrss. I've
> not seen them before, although I've not been in
> this part of the world since 2019. They can carry
> 68.5 tonnes with a maximum speed of 100 to 125 kph
> depending on axle load. They seem pretty
> widespread.

The oldest cars of this Sggns(s) type I've seen here in Rotterdam are from Swiss Hupac, built in the late 1990s by Talbot in Aachen. Czech CD/Metrans has a lot of them, too.
And we see some new, already overloaded ones we have to 'warm' back into shape...

BTW: According to this ERA document about letter marking for wagon https://www.era.europa.eu/sites/default/files/registers/docs/appendix_6_p12_en.pdf: Sggns(s) = 4 axle // Sggrs(s) = articulated car.

railsmith Wrote:
------------------------------------------
>
> Were you using a car to get around the town? 
> From Google Earth, the railway layout seems quite
> extensive.  What would be possible with public
> transport or walking? 

We had a car but I think you could certainly railfan around Ustí itself by foot or on public transport. From Ustí we were off to Brno and Ostrava so a car was pretty essential.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/22 05:37 by 86235.

Steinzeit2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Regarding the first photograph:  Is that 80 ft [
> 20 + 40 + 20 ] of containers on that first vehicle
> ? .............
> ?  Is this something 'new' -- new in my frame of
> reference = the last ten or so years -- vs the 60
> ft standard.  ?
>
> SZ

Well, if I had read my March 2013 issue of Eisenbahn Kurier a little more closely, or had a better memory, I would have been aware that the Czech firm Metrans had placed 250 of these 25.94 m long Sggnss cars in service;  so they've been around for 8 years, and I never noticed -- perhaps because they are  primarily used on the CZ - Rotterdam/Hamburg/usw axis, not North - South, Austria, etc

SZ