I visited three railway museums in during a holiday in the Czech Republic in August 2011
I visited the museum in the old steam depot at Luzna u Rakovnik on Saturday 13th August having established from the museum web site
(http://www.cdmuzeum.cz/en/ ) that there would be morning and afternoon steam excursions from Luzna to Kolesovice. The museum is relatively easy to find but the existence of two villages called Luzna within two kilometres of one another did cause some confusion.
The 2009 report by James Waite does provide a lot of interesting background and, as a result, I have focused on the steam locomotives. Comparison of what I saw with the list given by James confirms his view that there is a significant level of rotation of locomotives between different locations.
A pair of Class 555 2-10-0 (0301 and 3332) were on static display at the head of rakes of freight stock at the western end of the museum. Five steam locomotives were on display around the turntable outside the half-roundhouse - 433.049 2-8-2T, 464.008 4-8-4T, 354.195 4-6-2T, 464.053 4-8-4T and 324.391 0-6-0. A team of museum staff and/or volunteers were working on the motion of 324.391.
The following locomotives were inside the operational part of the shed - 387.043 4-6-2, 524.159 2-10-2T, M124.001 steam railcar, 477.043 4-8-4T, 313.432 0-6-0T, 300.619 0-6-0T, 556.0271 2-10-0 and 555.0153 2-10-0. It was not possible to gain access to the non-operational part of the shed or to the separate building housing the repair shop. There are also a number of diesel locos and railcars scattered around the site.
An industrial diesel was working a passenger service on a small circuit of track in the museum grounds. Two narrow gauge steam locos were on display outside the narrow gauge shed - No. 21 Krauss 6682 0-4-0WT (800mm) and No. 32 0-4-0WT. No. 7 CKD1724 0-4-0WT (800mm) was inside the narrow gauge shed facing the back wall.
423.094 2-8-2T was working the summer Saturday passenger service from Luzna to Kolesovice. The 2011 timetable showed departures from Luzna at 09:52 and 13:52. The steam train uses the line to Zatec and Chomutov as far as the next station at Krepa where the locomotive runs around to take the train on to the otherwise disused Kolesowice branch. The train pauses at every station, but the roads do not lend themselves to a chase. The reversal does mean that the locomotive is boiler first for part of the journey in each direction, giving the possibility of four lineside photos in a day. On the return working, the train stops at Kneseves for an hour to enable passengers to visit the small railway museum and patronise the even smaller buffet. The whole trip takes around two hours and 45 minutes.
I photographed the return working of the morning trip at Krepa and the outward afternoon working at Knezeves. 423.094 worked boiler first on outward trips between Krepa and Kolesovice and from Krepa to Luzna on the return workings. Both trains seemed fairly well patronised and the museum at Luzna was quite busy.
We walked from our hotel in the Old Town through the Jewish Quarter and across one of the river bridges reaching the museum in late morning. We had to queue to buy admission tickets and found the main exhibition hall to be crowded.
The railway exhibits share space in the main exhibition hall with cars and planes. The locos were No. 103 Kladno 0-6-4T, 375.007 2-6-4, 252.008 4-4-0 and narrow gauge No. 4 0-4-0WT.
