The Moravia Silesian Explorer 2025

Arrival day. There are no planned rail activities, but a welcome meeting will be held in the evening where everyone will receive an update on visits and any changes to our itinerary. Overnight - Grand Hotel Brno.

Departing from our usual location at Dolni, the outward journey is via Prerov where we break to visit both DPOV and CMZO. Continuing, the second CMZO location at Hranice na Moravě will be next prior to our arrival in Ostrava. First up will be a visit to Liberty Steel. This is the plant acquired from Arcellor Mittal in 2019 and has since declared itself insolvent! Its future remains uncertain, but our last visit did go ahead in 2023. We conclude the day in Bohumin with visits to both the CD Depot, CD EM Depot and Vrbice Kovostrot. Overnight - Mercure Hotel Ostrava Centre.

Great excitement today as we make the short journey to the Chalupki border crossing into Poland where the action begins straight away. Another short journey will take us to Rybnik. Here, three locations will interest us. We start with a run through Towarowy yard and follow that with visits to the PKP Cargo Depot and the CD Cargo Polska S.A. Depot in Boguszowice. Pressing on we include Zabrzeg Czarnolesie PKP Cargo Tabor. This is a wagon works at the back of a freight yard that has a stabling point and a small store of inactive locomotives, mostly Class 41’s. We follow with Czechowice Dziedzice PKP Cargo Depot and the Rail Polska Depot at Wlosienca. We arrive finally at Krakow where we visit the PKP Intercity Depot at Prokocim. The last visit of the day will be to PKR Krakow Plaszow Depot. Our overnight stay for the next two nights is Hotel Wyspiański Krakow.

The day starts with a lengthy run to Jaworzno Szczakowa PKP Depot. There follows two locations at Sosnowiec, namely Kol-System works and CTL Logistics Depot. We continue to the private Kolprem Sp. z o.o. Rail Services Depot. Lazy PKP Cargo Depot will be visited next despite reports of its closure. There are two good reasons to include it. Firstly, some locomotives still stable here. Secondly, the large private Works of Mega-Met are situated next to the depot and a visit will be requested here. Into Katowice and a visit to the Koleje Śląskie depot (Silesian Railways). A visit to the narrow gauge at Bytom Gornoslaskie Koleje Waskotorowe will be our final act of the day before returning to our hotel.

The previous two days will have flown by all too quickly, but there is still a day to go as we return to the Czech Republic. Another day packed full of interest and enjoyment. We start, as we did yesterday, with a long run to our first depot. However, the journey will not be a boring one as we will be passing countless locations of interest en route. That first visit will be Tarnowskie Gory PKP Cargo Depot. This will be followed by the Repair Shops of ECCO Rail at Zabrze Rokitnia. Our attention is then turned to two locations in Pyskowice which contrast the very old and the very new. We step back in time with a visit to the TOZK Museum housing many steam locomotives and diesel shunters. At the other extreme we find the private ASCO Rail Works. Our final call before we re-cross the border will be Newag Gliwice S.A. Works. We return to Ostrava and the Mercure Hotel - Ostrava Centre.

Back on more familiar ground, this morning we head for a visit to Trinec Ironworks that is long overdue! Our last visit was ten years ago. Afterwards you can relax and enjoy the scenery of the far east of the country as we make our way to the small CD Frydek Mistek Depot. We continue to CD Valasske Mezirici Depot. During our last visit we were fortunate to be allowed access to the Heritage site opposite the depot. We hope to repeat that this time. Returning, we visit Ostrava CD Cargo Depot, before returning to the hotel for our penultimate night.

The last day on the metals and we begin our return to Brno. Our first stop will be the small CD Depot at Studenka. Not a lot to see, but a ‘first’ for STARS. We have varied the return route in order to include Olomouc CD Depot and the Museum. Almost finished but still to do the depot that usually brings the curtain down on our Railtours. It is, of course, Malomerice Depot. However, that may not be the case this year. If time permits, we may just squeeze in a visit to Horni Herspice Depot. We return to Dolni Depot where the tour officially ends. Time to start looking forward to next year, but for tonight we retire for the final night to the Grand Hotel Brno.

Dispersal day for those returning home. Perhaps you will be staying a while. Whatever your choice, STARS will be returning in 2026 with another fantastic tour. As always, we will try and find additional interesting industrial locations to visit as time permits but the big depots will as ever remain the priority.