Czechoslovakia’s first bullet train (the ‘Slovenská strela’) being restored to full glory

In the 1920s and 1930s, Czechoslovakia created a national railway network linking fragmented lines of an archaic Habsburg system. The aim was not simply to modernize the infrastructure. It was to help forge and later cement a national identity by fostering connections between its peoples. The culmination of the interwar project was a high-speed train dubbed the ‘Slovak bullet’, now being restored to its original glory.