ČD Class 742 / 743

Updated: August 2026 – Whenever wagons are moved, sidings serviced or short freight trains made up in Czechia, a Class 742 is very often in front. It’s one of the country’s most defining diesel vehicles, known in the scene as “Kocour” and listed in older sources as T 466.2. This page shows how to recognise it and why its naming history is typical for Czechia.

What are Classes 742 and 743?

Classes 742 and 743 are four-axle diesel locomotives from ČKD Praha in the Bo’Bo’ wheel arrangement. They’re built for the everyday but unglamorous tasks of railway operation: shunting, running transfer trips, servicing sidings, moving short trains over manageable distances. The body shape follows this task consistently – long hood, off-centre cab, good visibility to both sides, running boards and grab rails. Most of this work is done in freight service for ČD Cargo.

Class 743 belongs to the same family and differs in equipment details that vary by production batch. For identification in the field that means: the basic shape gets you to the family, the number to the class.

T 466.2 and the 1988 change

Czech vehicle designations have a break point, and it falls in 1988.

Until then, the ČSD used a system of letter plus number group. The letter stood for the type of traction, the number group for build and power class. This build was called T 466.2.

Since 1988, a purely numerical class system has applied. Class number and running number are marked together on the vehicle, letters no longer exist. T 466.2 became Class 742.

This duplication isn’t a side issue but a key point when researching. Photo archives, books and forum posts from different decades use different systems, and if you only know one, you lose half the material. The guide to identifying train classes covers the underlying system in general.

Kocour, Brejlovec, Bardotka: Czech nickname culture

Hardly any other European railway country cultivates vehicle nicknames as intensively as Czechia. The 742 is called Kocour in the scene – Czech for tomcat. It stands in a long line:

• Brejlovec – the spectacle-wearer, after the striking window arrangement of the front
• Bardotka – after the actress Brigitte Bardot, because of the curved shaping
• Zamračená – the grumpy one, for the same family as the Bardotka
• Čmelák – the bumblebee, for the heavy six-axle shunting diesels
• Laminátka – after the front cladding made of fibreglass laminate
• Peršing – for the markedly angular Škoda electric locomotive generation
• Sergej – for the heavy diesel locomotive build of Soviet origin

Identification in the field

Deployment and likelihood of a sighting

Location	Likelihood	Why
Stations with freight traffic and train formation	high	Core task of the class
Private sidings and industrial tracks	high	Servicing trips typically run with this class
Engineering and special workings	medium	Occurs regularly, but follows no fixed pattern
Passenger-only hubs	low	No reason for shunting operation
Border stations towards Germany	unpredictable	Technically conceivable, but not plannable

The guide to spotting at a marshalling yard covers how to watch shunting and freight traffic within the rules and still get a good haul.

Photography and documentation

Shunting locomotives are photographically underrated. They move slowly, stop often, and so offer time you don’t have with main-line trains.

• Use the slow movement. At shunting speed, noticeably longer shutter speeds are enough than for passing trains – that opens up usable shots even in poor light.
• Show working situations. A locomotive that’s just setting wagons in place tells you more than a static portrait of the vehicle.
• Always capture the number. Without the running number, a sighting of a widely spread class is worthless, because you can’t match it up later.
• Note the livery. Colour schemes change more often at private owners than on state-railway vehicles.

Another reason to document common vehicles in particular: what’s routine today becomes rare tomorrow. Classes that shaped operations for decades usually don’t disappear with a bang, but quietly – an owner sells off vehicles, a duty is reassigned, a conversion programme runs its course. Anyone who only starts documenting once a class has become interesting has already missed the decisive years. With the Czech shunting diesels, it’s highly likely that exactly these everyday shots will be worth the most later.

So that such observations stay usable for years, a structured approach pays off – the guide to keeping a sighting log shows what that can look like.

Common mix-ups

Its closest relative is Class 740, found mainly at industrial and works railways. If you’re looking at a re-engined machine with a recognisably new power unit, you should also check Class 714. Noticeably bigger and built for main-line duties, by contrast, are Classes 750 to 754.

Verdict

The 742 isn’t a spectacular locomotive – and that’s exactly why it’s rewarding. It stands for everyday Czech railway operation, it explains the designation system before and after 1988, and it’s the best entry point into a vehicle culture where nicknames like Kocour, Brejlovec or Bardotka say more than any class number.