European Railroad Discussion > A Day at Praha-Libeň, Czech Republic: Part 1

Saturday, September 28, 2024 was a free day and I bought my 24-hour transit pass to use the subway and a tram line to get to the suburban Prague station of Praha-Libeň. Believe me or not, but in seven and a half hours I logged 160 train movements, mostly passenger, fourteen freights, and a few light engine moves. That is a train less than every three minutes on average. At Praha-Libeň there are four main tracks and a yard lead or industrial access track. The weather started out beautiful, got increasingly cloudy, got cool and rained lightly, before improving towards the end of the day. I did not photograph all 160 movements and will only post the best and/or most interesting shots in two parts, morning and afternoon.

1. The first photographed train of the day, right at 9:30 AM, was this arriva 945-class DMU pair. arriva is a private Czech transportation company that has been winning contracts to provide service on various routes in the Czech Republic. Given the small capacity and non-electrified equipment I will guess this is serving a secondary line.

2. Four minutes later we have a meet between two passenger trains. The RegioJet is led by a leased Vectron from Czech lessor LokoTrain, sublettered Powered by EPCargo. Poland is involved somehow because the registration is PL for Poland. The other train is a Ceske Drahy (CD) but with Slovak locomotive and several Slovak cars mixed in with CD cars.

3. And here is that Slovak locomotive, a 383-class Vectron leased from Rolling Stock Leasing (RAILL). The lettering says "National Carrier."

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4. I really like these Škoda-built 380-class locos but this is the only one I saw all day.

5. There were many CityElefant bi-levels throughout the day. This appears to be the oldest scheme currently in use.

6. The first freight of the day was a METRANS container train with a 383-class Vectron sublettered for HHLA.

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7. Followed four minutes later by another METRANS/HHLA container train coming out of the yard trackage with a Bombardier 386-class TRAXX locomotive.

8. A modern CD 660-class InterPanter EMU.

9. There seemed to be no limit to the variety of passenger equipment. Here is a little rail diesel car, a RegioSpider, built by Stadler. This one says Lower Silesian colleges.

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10. Your basic CD passenger train with a standard 162-class Škoda electric.

11. On the industrial lead was this 742.7-class shunter which has been modernized from a 742-class where the only thing I can recognize are the trucks.

12. leo express is another private passenger operator in the Czech Republic and this black Stadler-built FLIRT EMU says "powered by renfe" the Spanish rail operator. The map on the middle car indicates service from Prague to Krakow in Poland and Kosice in Slovakia.

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13. A four-unit light engine move of CD Vectrons, three in mostly basic white and the fourth in a special scheme that says "RUNCZECH," the Prague-based marathon. For some reason I did not grab a shot of that one.

14. Another passenger variant in the form of an 854-class DMU, looks like one powered RDC and two trailers in suburban service. These were modernized by Pars Nova from the 1968-1970-era 852- and 853-classes.

15. Another RegioJet with another leased locomotive. This 193-class Vectron is leased from European Locomotive Leasing (ELOC) and lettered for CZ Train, a Czech company. Even the Internet seems a bit confused as to what kind of company CZ Train is. Not sure what kind of business plan it is to sublease a leased locomotive.

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16. I always enjoyed seeing one of the Slovak locomotives for a nice change. Škoda-built 362-class.

17. And here is yet another style of passenger train, a 682-class Pendolino tilt train built by Alstom Ferroviaria.

18. I am calling this a heritage locomotive. It is a CD 362-class but wearing a wild paint scheme and showing its original ES499-class designation.

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19. Finally another freight train and it was led by a vintage CD Cargo Škoda-built (1971) 123-class electric with a unit train of tank cars, many of them ermewa tank cars. Several of the freight trains arrived on the close track and crossed over all four tracks to enter the yard trackage.

20. Another CD passenger with a CD Vectron leased from Rolling Stock Leasing (RAILL). I'm not sure what the stylized script says ('milion'?) but the other lettering says "I read every month." This unit, 6193 683-0 seems to have worn at least two different special paint schemes.

21. A well-worn 111-class shunter rolls by at 11:54 AM. These were built by Škoda in 1981-1982 and have the nickname Flatiron.

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NMlurker Wrote:
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> 1. The first photographed train of the day, right
> at 9:30 AM, was this arriva 945-class DMU pair.
> arriva is a private Czech transportation company
> that has been winning contracts to provide service
> on various routes in the Czech Republic.

Arriva was a long-established British company acquired by Deutsche Bahn in 2010 and purchased last year by an American private equity firm called I Squared Capital. It provides bus and rail services in various countries.

Great spot for trainwatching!

NMlurker Wrote:
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> 6. The first freight of the day was a METRANS
> container train with a 383-class Vectron
> sublettered for HHLA.

Metrans, which is a Czech company, is owned these days by HHLA (Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG). Their operational HQ is at Českà Třebovà, between Prague & Ostrava, I'm guessing this train was headed too or from the terminal at Praha-Uhříněves.

Nice set, still plenty of variety in Czechia, although like almost everywhere MUs are rapidly replacing loco hauled trains.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/25 08:54 by 86235.

NMlurker Wrote:. I did not photograph
> all 160 movements and will only post the best
> and/or most interesting shots in two parts,
> morning and afternoon.

Parts 1 and 2 have been so good, perhaps you would consider posting some of the less interesting ones as a Part 3.   Sometimes those less interesting ones become more interesting as the years go by, too.

Best regards, SZ