Just when things appeared to be settling down to a steady pattern, the Jesenik line sprang another of its surprises. 749.265 went south with the morning train to Brno, as expected, and no surprise as it had worked every Brno train over the past three days. However, it was 749.259 that came back with R903 and, having got to Jesenik, it refused to come back, at least under its own power, and CD Cargo’s 749.247 eventually worked R902 south 105 minutes late and with a dead 749.259 in tow. Finally, 749.246 worked R901 north in the late afternoon, making four different 749s on the four Brno trains.

851.021 behaved impeccably on the Jesenik - Zabreh semi-fasts but Os3653 to Branna turned up with an 810 that continued ECS to Jesenik instead of turning and forming Os3658 back to Sumperk. An 843 eventually arrived, tacked on the back of northbound Sp1703, and then returned south as Os3658, almost half an hour late.

In contrast to the chaos on the passenger side, the freights worked very much as expected. 751.141 sounded superb storming up to Ostruzna on a long train of empties forming Mn83401 and 751.374 took advantage of the disruption in the wake of 749.259’s failure to run south very early on 45264, passing Ostruzna only ten minutes after it was booked to leave Lipova Lazne. 751.149 was in the loop at Ostruzna as I left, probably waiting for a path to return north after banking 45264 over the summit.

If I’d stuck to my original plan and gone to the Olomouc - Unicov line, I’d have missed all the fun. For the first time since I arrived, the weather was clear at dawn and it was early afternoon before any serious cloud arrived. The latter part of the afternoon was almost completely overcast but I had a few shots in the bag by then.

S of Ostruzna

Loco	Train No.	Train Details	Notes
749.265	R900	06:40 Jesenik - Brno hl.n.	07:20

Ostruzna

Loco	Train No.	Train Details	Notes
851.021	Sp1700	08:40 Jesenik - Zabreh na Morave	09:15

S of Ostruzna

Loco	Train No.	Train Details	Notes
749.259	R903	07:18 Brno hl.n. - Jesenik	10:50
843.029	Sp1702	10:40 Jesenik - Olomouc hl.n.	11:32

S of Jindrichov na Morave

Loco	Train No.	Train Details	Notes
843.019	Sp1701	10:56 Olomouc hl.n. - Jesenik	12:25
810.262	Os3653	13:06 Sumperk - Branna	14:06

Branna

Loco	Train No.	Train Details	Notes
851.021 843.002	Sp1703	13:40 Zabreh na Morave - Jesenik	14:39

(843.002 dropped off at Branna to form Os3658 back to Sumperk.)

Ostruzna

Loco	Train No.	Train Details	Notes
749.247 749.259	R902	12:40 Jesenik - Brno hl.n.	15:00
751.141	Mn83401	10:37 Zabreh na Morave - Mikulovice Freight	15:20

N of Horni Lipova

Loco	Train No.	Train Details	Notes
810.508	Os3612	15:39 Jesenik - Bludov	15:53
751.141	Mn83401	10:37 Zabreh na Morave - Mikulovice Freight	15:56

Ostruzna

Loco	Train No.	Train Details	Notes
751.374	45264	16:38? Lipova Lazne - Hanusovice Freight	16:49
749.246	R901	13:18 Brno hl.n. - Jesenik	17:16
851.021	Sp1708	16:40 Jesenik - Zabreh na Morave	17:22