A pretty souvenir pin badge from the Czech Railway Company. The badge face is 1.4cm wide, made from a gold coloured metal and has a stick pin fastener to the rear. The badge is from the Locomotive repair and storage depot in Prague and celebrates the 1963 90th anniversary.
Historical Background
CSD (Ceskoslovenske statni drahy) or in English (The Czechoslovak State Railway) was formed in 1918 upon the formation of the newly designated lands called Czechoslovakia. But railway had existed in this region as far back as 1828 when there was a revolutionary horse drawn rail link connecting Linz in Austria with Ceske Budejovice. In these early days of rail most links were private ventures, but after the dissolution of the monarchy the railways became part of the newly established CSD. The rail network throughout the region was directly affected by the political situation of the time. In the time leading up to the First World War links were created between what was to become Czechoslovakia and its allied states Austria and Hungary. During the Second World War occupation of Bohemia and Moravia many lines were built to supply the German heartland with raw materials and weapons from the Czech factories and then after the war the Soviet Union built many new miles of tracks linking Czechoslovakia with major Russian cities.
The result of this change of fortunes in the history of Czechoslovakia has left the country with the largest density of railway track to land area in the world.
An interesting analysis of the effectiveness of the Czech rail system as a result of these geopolital influences can be found here on wikipedia (in Czech).
Today the Czech Railway operator CD is still state owned and thanks to the Czech Republic's central position in Europe there are frequent links to all the bordering countries and many towns with virtually no inhabitants still have regular services. In a population of 10 million people CD operates 7000 train services daily.
