20. únor 2010: Koupaliště / Open Air Pool

(for English see below)

 

Máloco vystihuje Podkrušnohoří tolik jako tyhle končiny. Přeložka, kterou postavili v 80. letech, aby se uhelný důl mohl posunout zase o kus dál a sežrat další kus krajiny. Nenávratně. Masivní betonové stavby, tehdy asi moderna. Jenže to za tu dobu stihlo obrůst a zpustnout tak moc, že to vlastně vypadá skoro idylicky.

 

Koupaliště v Chabařovicích, na půli cesty mezi Teplicemi a Ústím. Zajímavý, ale strašně blbě fotitelný motiv; oficiálně se tam nedá moc dostat a je potřeba mít buď vyřídilku, nebo schopnost obejít plot jinudy. A když už tam člověk je, stejně je to trochu oříšek. Za odměnu dostane člověk neotřelou fotku a v jiným úhlu i výhled na Krušný hory za vlakem. Doba dronová to samozřejmě staví do výrazně jinýho světla...

 

Je 20. únor 2010 a i tady ještě pořád leží sníh. Od Ústí duní další náklad, prázdné Wapy zpátky do pánve. Kus vyrvané krajiny odjel vydělávat jinam a je čas jet pro další. Mašině nejde přečíst číslo, ale to v týhle době zas tak nevadí. Patina, praskliny na laku a detaily jasně prozrazují 122.018.

 

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This area seems to be pure essence of the North Bohemia. Let me explain it: in the 1970s and 1980s the communist regime still heavily relied upon thw low quality coal, or even lignite. And that need resulted in further expansion of the mines. Well, mines... here in the northwest of Czechia it is nothing like classic mines with guys in a black suit and a lantern on a helmet. No. It is rather a huge hole in the landscape, dotted with big machinery.

 

In the mid 1980s amongst those in need of expansion was also the mine west of Ústí nad Labem and a railway track from Teplice to Ústí was really no hurdle for it. So they have built another one, a lot longer and a typical example of the engineering of that era. A huge amount of concrete, no level crossings... However since then, all that brutality had quite merged with surrounding nature. Pretty challenging environment for a railway photographer.

 

This picture is taken from an open air pool that runs only during summer, you may find it in the western part of a little town called Chabařovice, just between those two bigger ones mentioned above.

 

It is early afternoon, 20th of February 2010 and here she comes. One of two or three locos of Class-122 from the late 1960s. We, locals, gave them a nicknme Uhelka or Čtyřkolák (literally - "The Coal One" and "The Cart"). Those unambitious but very distunguished locos that have been pulling all those trains fully laden with coal from the region, at first building socialism and later earning money to all those corporations and their owners. They may easily be the most profitable locomotions in Czechoslovakia. And as of 2020 still in regular service. More specifficaly it is 122.018, you could tell that very easily as there were just three of them in this paint and some spots on her surface were pretty disctinctive.

 

An empty train going for another few thousand tons of coal, brutally taken from the landscape - in a place created just for the same purpose. How ironic is that?

Done