A Happy RTO Snowbus seen at our former Chlumec base in 2003. Photo.Dave Griffiths

The Annual General Meeting organised - January 30th 2005.

It was decided at our January  meeting that the AGM for 2005 will be held on 26th February at either the Motorest Prestanov, our normal venue for such meetings or at an alternative venue in the Usti suberb of Dobetice on trolleybus route 53/54 which is easy to get to for those without cars. In addition to reports from the different sections - buses & road vehicles, railways and model railways, important plans will be unveiled which will hopefully see a change in management for the better to improve the current situation.

Dr. Michael Grimes visits Zaluzany - Thursday 16 December 2004

Making his second visit to our collection, Dr. Michael Grimes, the driving force behind the Kells Transport Museum in Ireland made an official visit to Zaluzany on Thursday, the first time he had seen our new home and future museum site.

   Dr. Michael Grimes beside Dave Griffiths´s Routemaster.

Michael was suitably surprised at the scale of the venture and what had been achieved so far, especially the work on clearing the railway branch line. Regretably at this time of the year, most buses are parked up for the winter making photographs difficult, and also with buses in Jablonec nad Nisou, Prague and Lovosice he was unable to view the full collection.

Interestingly in our everyday lives, we take things for granted, and Michaels special interest in the Christmas card frosty white trees and the humble , but ugly Trabant highlighted this for us.

A Report with photos has been posted on the Kells Transport Museum website , look what Michael has already written on the NEWS Page....."Had a very pleasant visit to the museum and received wonderful hospitality from David Griffiths.  They have a site that makes me envious and the photos taken will go up within the next few days"   So check out their web site soon at    www.kellstransportmuseum.com/

First Snow of the winter - 9 November 2004

Today, Tuesday saw the first snow of the winter season at Zaluzany and the late morning sun highlighted the buses against the white carpet. Outside working has now most likely ended until March 2005.

Work continues at Jablonec nad Nisou on the complete restoration of the RTO, and at Borec , the Aero  continues to receive restoration of the hotel bus body. Also at Borec is Routemaster RM798 which is receiving  pre.winter maintenance of the engine, while a plan to bring the Bristol  open top VR reg. PKM 111 R back from Slovakia for restoration in Hradec Kralove has faltered and another plan to sell this vehicle to a cultural organisation in Bratislava might now go ahead.

We host first outside event - 25 October 2004

The weekend of 23-24th October saw part of the site turned over to modern cars when we hosted the Tuning Show organised by a local group.  This was the first time that the site has been rented to outside clubs or organisations,  but it is cetainly something that we plan to do again in 2005.

Saturday was really slow to get started,  but this was as a result of poor promotion of the event on posters or press advertising, but during the afternoon the local radio who were a sponsor hotted up their own promotion which had been directed towards the evening session and many cars arrived from mid afternoon.

The Saturday evening party with Big Sound Disco brought a large number of cars and low riders,  underside illumination , and terrific light displays created the appearance of a mini Blackpool Illuminations to the site.

Start on narrow gauge railway - 16 October 2004

Since we took over the site at Zaluzany in May 2003 we have had a small narrow gauge tipping coal wagon on a short length of rail at the entrance to the site to remind members and visiters of the links between the site and coal mining.

Now, it is pleasing to report that we have taken the first steps in establishing a working narrow gauge industrial railway on the site. During the first week in October we received a delivery of  20 trucks of different types and the first lengths of rail which will allow the first phase of the eventual narrow gauge railway to be laid down.

Under the guidance of Vaclav Kostenec who is in charge of the railway side of the Zaluzany site and who has also played a leading role in the establishment of the Zlonice Railway Museum near Slany, the narrow gauge system will start adjacent to the standard gauge track and one working line will run off into the birch wood passing the proposed picnic and childrens play area and on to the secure site where a temporary loop will be constructed to allow trains to return.  Eventually the line will continue towards the lake which is currently outside the site.

It is also proposed at the same time to build a reconstruction of a flourite mine entrance near the terminus which will include a section of underground working for the narrow gauge tracks.

Buses - latest news - 10 October 2004

Following the sucessful participation by several of our buses at the Liberec-Jablonec  "Day without Cars 2004" action, we have had several buses in action at other events.

At Jablonec we had  the ex. Halton Leyland National no. 23 and two Ikarus 280.08´s and the Leyland PD2 "Coachlines Party Bus" with our drivers Mirek Hrzan, Milan Jiros, Milan Slejtr, Jiri Jirek and Petr Mikula who gave up their weekends to drive non stop from 9.00 on Saturday throughout the weekend.

No its not London, its Dave Griffiths RM798 Routemaster masquerading as an RML !! for a TV commercial for T-Mobile in Prague outside the city maternity hospital.  Needless to say, it caused a lot of interest for hospital visiters.  The TV commercial will be seen on TV throughout Europe towards Christmas. Although the film company brought over a bus conductor from London specially for the weekend, they decided to let Dave be the driver and despite 30 minutes in make up, he still did not look any younger, and the wardrobe department did not have a suitable uniform big enough !  Memories of our Chabarovice Bus 2002 when the newspaper headline describing the action referred to the organisers -us, as the XXXL boys !!!!

And finally last weekend the Warrington PD2 was on display at the Globus supermarket in

Trmice, Usti nad Labem to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the opening of the store. Also in action was the preserved Skoda 9Tr trolleybus 105 which was operating the new 62 line from Globus to Mirove namesti in Usti nad Labem. The new line opened in June and this was the first operation of a historic trolleybus on this line.  Photo courtesy Miloš Musil