Abandoned railways

A change in transport methods, the loss of markets, or even armed conflict can turn a booming investment into a pile of scrap and empty buildings into ghost factories overnight. Abandoned railways – carriages, locomotives, stations, turntables, workshops and bridges – can be found across all continents, including the Czech Republic. Delve into these mysterious places with us.

Many things, including very large ones, can become completely forgotten due to circumstances. In “Abandoned Railways”, the reader will see many of them, mostly from Europe and Asia, but also from North and South America, Africa and the Middle East, as well as from Australia and New Zealand. These are locomotives and carriages, station buildings, and sometimes entire tracks that served for years and then, almost overnight, lost their purpose.

These situations are relatively common in the railway industry. In the best-case scenario, these “unnecessary things” are treated against corrosion; in the worst-case scenario, they are left unprotected under the open sky and gradually reclaimed by nature. Nothing and no one protects them from rust, moss, invasive plants, playing children, vandals and scrap thieves.

There are many similar examples here in the Czech Republic, and we have included a few interesting ones in the book. One of them is the dilapidated building of the Vyšehrad station in Prague, which, although declared an immovable cultural monument, is being left to decay by its current owner. Another example is the Prague-Bubny station, where a double-track line from Kladno to Prague is currently being built, and where workshops with a capacity for 140 carriages have been demolished, with the landowner planning new construction. The former Duchcov station has a similar fate, where the original track was rerouted and the old station building was torn down.

We don't want to reveal any more; this lavishly illustrated book will uncover the secrets of abandoned railways.