Luzna u Rakovnik Railway Museum

Based at the old Luzna Lisany loco depot this is both an operating and repair centre for several preserved steam and diesel locos and the home of the largest museum collection in the Czech Republic. It’s run as an outstation of the country’s National Transport Museum and many of the exhibits belong either to the NTM or to the Hercules KHKD organisation which is responsible for some of the country’s preserved steam operations. In addition to the numerous steam locos there are more than a dozen elderly diesel locos and railcars, mostly stored in the open away from the steam collection, and at least one electric loco.

Most of the locos are housed in or around an old half-roundhouse which is divided into two main sections. One part is open to the general public and has received some basic health and safety treatment – removal of oil spills, levelling of floors etc. though in many respects it retains the character of a steam depot and hasn’t been “prettied” up too much. As often with museums converted from roundhouses there’s not really room to look properly at the larger exhibits or to take adequate photos of any but the smallest locos. The other part is kept locked though the staff are friendly and were very happy to open it up for me. Most of the day-to-day maintenance of the working locos is done here and it is in every sense a working loco shed. All the locos face towards the turntable.

There’s a third part which I couldn’t enter although the staff told me that it contained no locos. A separate building some distance away houses a repair shop where 434.2218 was receiving a heavy overhaul. Outside there’s a circuit of 80cm gauge track with a diesel loco available for providing children’s rides though this wasn’t in use when I was there. Two preserved industrial 80cm gauge 0-4-0T from the SONP organization, 7 (ČKD 1724/1938) and 21, (Krauss, Linz, 6682/1912) are here though neither looked to be in working order. They’re the only narrow gauge locos in the collection.

Luzna is about 30kms west of Prague and considerably closer to the airport which is also to the west of the city. The drive from the airport takes about forty minutes. The journey should become much quicker when the extension of the Prague-Karlovy Vary motorway to the airport is opened. Construction work on the extension appeared to be nearly complete when I was there. Luzna station is next to the depot. It’s on a secondary line and doesn’t appear to be served by many trains – I didn’t see any during the two hours or so that I spent there. The whole site covers a large area – so much so that it’s worth looking out for it from planes coming in or taking off to the west of the airport as the site and the outdoor exhibits are clearly visible.

The exhibits form a good representative collection of Czech steam power and it was particularly enjoyable seeing them in such an authentic environment. Highly recommended! For the past few years the museum has opened at weekends and holidays in May and September and daily from 1st June to 31st August. It doesn't appear to be open at all the rest of the year.

The following is a list of the locos I saw. It’s by no means a complete list of all the locos which have been here. I may well have missed some of them and there appears to be a significant interchange of locos between Luzna and preservation sites elsewhere in the country.

A general view of the roundhouse with 534.0432, 556.0254, 555.0301 and 524.159.  555.0301 is an ex-Russian Kriegslok, SZD no. TE-3644 and lettered as such on the cabside.

423.094, one of the active locos, with a short freight train.

SONP, Kladno 21

SONP, Stiavnicka 7

310.0337

442.002

434.2218 in the repair shop.

354.7152 and 434.1100, both active locos

434.1100

Kladno Steelworks no. 6.

Cehernice sugar factory no. 3624. 

477.043 and a selection of Czech railwayana