For gauche young apprentice Milos Hrma life at the small but strategic railway station in Bohemia in 1945 is full of complex preoccupations. There is the exacting business of dispatching German troop trains to and from the toppling Eastern front the problem of ridding himself of his burdensome innocence and the awesome scandal of Dispatcher Hubickas gross misuse of the stations official stamps upon the telegraphists anatomy. Beside these Miloss part in the plan for the ammunition train seems a simple affair.Closely Watched Trains which became the awardwinning Jiri Menzel film of the Prague Spring is a masterpiece that fully justifies Hrabals reputation as one of the best Czech writers of the twentieth century.