Prague railway junction
The Prague railway junction (Czech: Železniční uzel Praha ) is the largest and most important railway junction in the Czech Republic . It links five double-track and four single-track main lines as well as a branch line . Three of the routes are part of TEN corridor 22 from Athens , which branches off here into branches to Nuremberg and Dresden .
history
electrification
Electrification begins in 1924
In 1924 the Ministry of Railways of the First Czechoslovak Republic (ČSR) decided on a project to electrify the Prague urban junction. The aim was to reduce steam traffic in the urban area and in particular in the tunnels of the Prague connecting railway - with the exception of long-distance trains, which were still hauled by steam locomotives due to the loss of travel time when reloading. At the same time, electric locomotives were legalized on the routes where electrification had been decided.
During the construction of the project one was guided by the experience of the previously constructed electrical lines Prague – Dobříš, the railway line Tábor – Bechyně and the Hohenfurt Local Electric Railway . Accordingly, it was decided to operate with a direct voltage of 1500 volts and a negatively polarized contact line.
The electrification was carried out on the following inner-city routes (see sketch):
- Wilson train station - Libeň horn. nadr. ,
- Wilson train station - Vysočany ,
- Wilson train station - Vršovice ,
- Wilson train station - Smíchov ,
- Smíchov –Vršovice.
Early on during the work, it was recognized that not all tracks in the stations could be spanned with overhead lines. Therefore, it was decided to move the station to procure battery-powered locomotives . And so the first electric locomotive in the Wilson station was a battery locomotive of the ČSD series E 407.0 , with which the operation of the electrical network in the Prague node was opened in May 1926.
- Construction work and technical description
The companies František Křižík , AEG , ČKD and Škoda were involved in the construction of the electrical connecting line . A transfer point was built at the Wilson train station. The catenary masts were set up every 50–70 m, depending on the position of the track and the possibility of tensioning the supporting cables. The choice of materials for the suspension ropes is also interesting. Double ropes with a cross-section of 100 mm² were required on the main tracks, otherwise the companies chose cross-sections and materials based on their experience. The Křižík company and its work partner AEG chose suspension ropes made of 50 mm² steel, the ČKD company selected 200 mm² made of soft bronze and the Škoda company selected 95 mm² ropes made of hard bronze.
- Vehicle use
| model series | Years of construction | Use in the Prague node |
used number |
|---|---|---|---|
| ČSD series E 203.0 | 1913 | 1945–1952 | 1 |
| ČSD series E 407.0 | 1926 | 1926-1962 | 2 |
| ČSD series E 416.0 | 1943 | 1943-1962 | 8th |
| ČSD series E 417.0 | 1931 | 1931-1962 | 1 |
| ČSD series E 225.0 | 1906 | 1906-1962 | 1 |
| ČSD series E 423.0 | 1927 | 1927-1962 | 2 |
| ČSD series E 424.0 | 1928 | 1928-1962 | 2 |
| ČSD series E 424.1 | 1927 | 1927-1961 | 2 |
| ČSD series E 436.0 | 1927 | 1927-1962 | 4th |
| ČSD series E 465.0 | 1927 | 1927-1962 | 2 |
| ČSD series E 467.0 | 1927 | 1927-1962 | 5 |
| ČSD series E 466.1 | 1927 | 1927-1962 | 5 |
| ČSD series E 666.0 | 1927-1939 | 1951-1962 | 3 |
Further development of electrification from 1957
On November 7, 1957, long-distance rail electrification reached the Prague area with 3 kV. In order to simplify the locomotive run, the polarity was first changed in the Prague node. This allowed the locomotives designed for operation with 3 kV to continue driving in the city with reduced power. On May 15, 1962, the contact wire voltage was adjusted to the rest of the long-distance railway network.
Expansion of the route network after 1945
Among other things, with the following expansions of the route network (connecting routes and route relocations), the performance of the Prague railway junction has been significantly increased:
- Railway line Praha-Vršovice – Praha-Radotín as part of a freight train bypass (opened in 1960)
- Railway line Prague-Libeň – odb. Stromovka to accelerate international passenger traffic by bypassing the terminus at Praha Masarykovo nádraží (commissioned in 1980)
- Nové spojení (new connection) for the improved connection of the main train station to the north (step-by-step commissioning from 2008)
literature
- Jindřich Bek, Josef Janata, Jaroslav Veverka: Malý atlas Lokomotiv 2. Elektrická a motorová trakce. Nadas Publishing House, Prague 1969
- Ing. Ondřej Linek, Csc: The Prague railway junction . In: Railway Yearbook 1982 . transpress VEB Verlag for Transport , Berlin 1982, p. 51-62 .
Web links
- Bc. Marek Binko: Schéma vývoje železničního uzlu Praha. (PDF) Scheme of the evolution of the Prague railway junction. Retrieved March 7, 2016 (Czech, 33 MB).
- Description of the Prague electrical link on the digital railway photo archive