There was some blue sky outside very early but it had gone a few minutes later and showed no sign of coming back. Photography seemed pointless so I set off towards Praha via some more new track, not entirely successfully as it turned out.

From Usti, my route took me to Most then to Louny, Rakovnik and Praha Masarykovo. The Most to Rakovnik section was all new track except for the short section from Louny to Louny predmesti that I’d covered a couple of days earlier. The fly in the ointment was the replacement autobussy from Hrivice to Domousice. Oops, should have checked on the CD website.

At Usti, EN459 arrived on time behind ÖBB 1216.240, followed ten minutes later by EN457 running around 90 minutes late with DB 180.013 dragging dead 371.005. This was the second time in three days I’d seen a failed 371 being dragged on an international service. No wonder ÖBB want to run 1216s through to Dresden.

Os6850/6851 was a 471 unit but the other two Decin - Most trains seen were 163 hauled. My train from Most to Rakovnik was an 814 unit and I was disappointed to find that it was as noisy and rough riding as an 810. Previous trips on 814s had been on brand new units that gave the impression of being a big improvement over the 810s. Maybe they’re not such a big improvement after all. No locos were seen between leaving the main line east of Most and arrival at Rakovnik.

There was some sort of event at Luzna and the museum was crawling with visitors. A steam loco (looked like a 434) was passed a couple of stations out on a train of 4-wheel coaches.

After arrival in Praha, I spent an hour at Hlavni Nadrazi, finally getting a shot in full sun, albeit of a light engine. Then it was off to the airport for the flight home. It appears that we just missed the ash cloud, which had already closed most of the UK’s airports and shut Heathrow a couple of hours later.

Loco	Train No.	Train Details	Notes
1216240	EN459	19:44 Zürich HB - Praha hl.n. Passenger	09:36 Usti n/L hl.n.
162037	R779	09:24 Decin hl.n. - Praha hl.n. Passenger	09:39 Usti n/L hl.n.
371xxx	EC176	05:35 Brno hl.n. - Hamburg Alt Passenger	09:40 Usti n/L hl.n.
642646	Os17275	08:24 Dresden Hbf - Litomerice mesto Passenger	09:43 Usti n/L hl.n.
180013 371005	EN457	04:57 Berlin Ost - Praha hl.n. Passenger	09:46 Usti n/L hl.n.
753716		SB Gas Tanks	09:52 Usti n/L hl.n.
163259	Os6810/6811	09:28 Decin hl.n. - Most Passenger	09:56 Usti n/L hl.n.
163075	Os6848/6849	09:04 Most - Decin hl.n. Passenger	09:57 Usti n/L hl.n.
163092	Os6409	10:03 Usti n/L zapad - Lysa n/L Passenger	10:00 Usti n/L zapad
123010		EB Freight	10:01 Usti n/L zapad
753066		Dumped	10:02 Usti n/L Depot
471xxx	Os6850/6851	10:04 Most - Decin hl.n. Passenger	10:25 Duchcov
363129	R613	08:12 Cheb - Praha hl.n. Passenger	10:34 Bilina
121030		WB Coal	10:59 Most
742362 742369 742153		Stabled	13:11 Rakovnik
742165 714216		Stabled	14:14 Kladno
162054	R624	10:46 Vsetin - Praha-Smichov Passenger	15:23 Praha hl.n.
749162	R1252	15:34 Praha hl.n. - Crake Budejovice Passenger	15:35 Praha hl.n.
371001	EC175	08:17 Hamburg Alt - Budapest k p Passenger	15:40 Praha hl.n.
151007	EC144	07:26 Zvolen os. st. - Praha hl.n. Passenger	15:50 Praha hl.n.
M262056	Os	15:54 Praha hl.n. - Praha-Zlicin Passenger	15:54 Praha hl.n.