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Steam in Poland 1998 |
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Click here for the early 1999 Polish reports Click here for the late 1999/2000 Polish reports Click here for the 2001 Polish reports There are various reports here somewhere: John Hobbs 2, Wolsztyn steam summer, Philippe Quiot, Keith Chester, John Hobbs 1, Christoph Oboth, Ger Dijkstra and Lok Report! Latest news (18th September 1998) from John Hobbs: "Wolsztyn last week seemed to be back to its normal level of steam working. I found ol49 59 / 69 working passenger trains as per diagrams, whilst the ok1 had worked over the Saturday 4th, Sunday 5th and Monday 6th September, but by the Tuesday was stopped for a boiler washout. Pt47 65 / 112 and PM36 2 were all absent, reported to be in works, but pt47 112 was in Bratislava the previous weekend, so was presumably on its way back from the exhibition there Accommodation still available in the shed for £4 per night and is recommended for the expereence alone!! At Sroda, PX 48 1902 was working service trains, and the crew were extremely friendly, cab rides no problem. The track here seems to be getting worse and worse, still it seems to keep going somehow...." Wolfgang Kieslich (LOK Report) has sent the new timetable for passenger steam locos at Wolsztyn starting from 24th May 1998, obtained from Dariusz Gulowaty, Wolsztyn. Passenger trains 1 Philippe Quiot reports (12th April 1998): Pila Pila is not closed: but of course ZNTK is dismantled, and from 3000 workers 10 years ago, now only approx. 270 are left... 250 for company rebuilding diesel, 20 for INTERLOK rebuilding steam. INTERLOK is still in activity and doing basically well. New boiler being built for Swiss VVT (for their Krauss 0-6-0T), they do Lok rebuilding for Germany, and other jobs, including for PKP and/or Polish privatized railways. Pila has other Loks (incl. 2 FERRUM) being ready for rebuilding, customers waiting for funds. Other purchases of both FERRUM and SLASKs are being negotiated which means future rebuilding. Huta "Malapanew", Ozimek Keith Chester reports from February 1998: This steel foundry has two "Ferrum" type 0-6-0Ts, nos. TKh-5380 & TKh-5697. One of these is steamed daily(?), though usually just for the morning shift. It shunts a little in the works yard, but its principal duty is to propel a wagon of slag to the top of the nearby tip, which is reached by a series of zigzags. The five diesels the works has are not considered powerful enough for this task, hence the retention of steam. A charge of US$3 is made for visits, which can be arranged by contacting (in English) Mr Witold Borkowski: Fax : 0048 77651 157 email : hm-panew@pol.pl Wolsztyn Visited 16-18/10/97. Steam workings were as expected. The steam trains are marked in the PKP timetable as being steam hauled (tables 328 and 332). Passenger locos in use were Ol49-59/69 and Ok22-31 whilst Ty3-2 was used on freight trains. 16/10: Ol49-59 arrived at Leszno at 13.40 and took the return tro Wolsztyn at 15.42. 17/10: Ty3-2 left Wolsztyn tender first at 7.00 on a train of cement wagons to Grodzisk. Here the cement sidings were shunted and at 9.00 the loco took three wagons to Plastowo on the Koscian branch. At Plastowo is a sugar beet loading point and ten full sugar beet wagons were taken to Koscian (arr. 10.30). There are some gradients and Ty3-2 provided a good show in cold weather. Your reporter then drove back to Wolsztyn to see Ol49-59 shunting, it had obviously just arrived with a freight from Kargowa (around 12.00). Ol49-69 then took the 12.31 passenger to Leszno. Back at Grodzisk Ty3-2 had come back around 13.00 from Koscian and prepared a cement train towards Wolsztyn leaving Grodzisk at 13.45. Later the 13.15 ex Poznan passenger train arrived behind Ok22-31 and carried on to Wolsztyn. The Ok22 then went to the shed whilst Ol49-59 took the 15.35 passenger to Poznan. The 15.42 passenger from Leszno to Wolsztyn was Ol49-69. 18/10: In the morning Ol49-69 was in steam at Wolsztyn shed. Ok22-31 took the 8.22 passenger to Wolsztyn and crossed the 8.30 passenger ex Poznan behind Ol49-59 at Granowo. Meanwhile Ty3-2 had arrived on a freight from Wolsztyn which consisted of just one coach for the crew. At Grodzisk it took some cement wagons and left for Wolsztyn at 10.30. The loco did not work the Koscian branch on that day (Saturday). It is not clear if steam serves Plastowo-Koscian on Tuesdays and Fridays only (as the diagram says) or also on other days during the sugar season. It is also possible that a diesel may do a Koscian-Plastowo trip the other days since only two trains a week are not enough to serve Plastowo with its high piles of sugar beet. Regarding the passenger train diagrams both on 16/10 and 17/10 Wolysztyn 12.31 - Leszno and Leszno 15.42 - Wolsztyn had the same loco. There is doubt if Wolsztyn 6.06 - Leszno and Leszno 20.25 - Wolsztyn are steam worked - both trains were not observed by your reporter. Hotels at Wolsztyn (including the shed) were full so your reporter had to stay at the Motel Mihalu at Drzymalowo near Rakoniewice (Double room at 50 Zloty). John Hobbs Email Johnhobbs@aol.com reports on his visit in August 1997. Wolszytn Accommodation is still available at the shed for the sum of #5.20 per person per night. Accommodation is easily booked at the shedmaster's office. Although pigeon German definitely helps!!! Working locos were OL49 59/69, OK22 31 and TY43 123, the OK and OL were on passengers and the TY on freights. Workings seemed to be pretty much as advertised( we were there 17/8/97 to19/8/97), 04:40 Wolsztyn Zbasynek return, 05:05 Wolsztyn Poznan and return, as well as one or more of the afternoon/evening turns to Poznan were all steam. However the last day we were there Poznan put a steam ban on due to fire risk (sounds familiar to UK readers!!) and the OK22 apparently came back to Wolsztyn topped by a diesel. The next morning the 04:40 was still steam with OL49 69 in charge so as usual who can tell what's going on!! Sroda PX48 1920 was in charge on the 18/8/97, and before the 09:15 departure pushed a new coach up to the yard from the exchange siding, it is red/white on of the modern looking coaches, though it still has wooden slatted seats! Also some std gauge wagons have fell off their rollbocks at the bottom of the curve away from the main line oops!! I have been given the following latest diagrams by Lok Report (November 1997)
*: if required ** out of beet root harvest only to Tloki Christoph Oboth Email Christoph.Oboth@ruhr-uni-bochum.de reports: Pila PKP-Workshop seems to be closed completely!!! See Philippe Quiot's update... Wolsztyn Working locos on April 25/26/27 were Pt 47.65, Ol 49.59/81, Ty 45.379. On April 26th, Ol 49.81 failed and was replaced next day by Ok1.359 on Poznan / Leszno passengers. Ty 45.379 worked freights together with Pt47 or Ol 49. Tki 3-87 ran photo-specials towards Kargowa and Konotop and the Tkt 48 was used for making a video film. The 90-years-of- Wolsztyn-depot celebration was cancelled, because Pm36.2 and Ok 22.31 had to be sent to Ostrava (Czech Republik). Sroda Working loco on April 28th was Px 48.1726 - not only on passenger trains, but also on a coal train of 4 narrow-gauge bogie cars from Sroda-wask to Sroda-Miasto - making three attempts to manage the grade towards the loco shed. Px 48.1902 and 1920 were cold in shed. Kluczbork At least 5 Ty 42 and one Tkt 48 dumped near the shed. Pyskowice No traces of steam left (beside Tp 4.217, plinthed in front of the main gate of sand-railway-shed). The PKP-shed is closed and looking very dead. Ironfoundry Malapanew, Ozimek: Still using 3 Tkh-"ferrum" steam locos, because the track on top of the tip is too steeply graded (5 reverses!) for the 6 diesels. Tkh 2944 is to be sold to England, just waiting for permission to be exported, the other two (5380 and 5697) are still in use. Staff is friendly and organises great photo-sessions for visitors who make arrangements in advance: Huta Malapanew s.a., ul. Kolejowa 1, PL-46-040 Ozimek. Fax :Pl-(0)77-651-157 to Mr. Witold Borkowski. „Surprise-visits" are possible, but the loco-foreman wasn't too pleased to see unannounced visitors: "We are not a museum!" Directly behind the main-gate, there is an 170-year old suspension bridge, one of the eldest iron bridges in Europe outside the U.K.! Tarnowskie Gory Preserved locos are Tp 1-18 beside an Sp 15-diesel just opposite the main-station and Ty 45.217 plinthed at the locoshed. Ty2.1063 is dumped. The steam engine-exhibition at Kopalnia Zabytkowa-mining museum looks terrible with brightly painted, but badly maintained engines. Chabowka On May 1st, Ol 12-7 was used for a special to Ostrava steam-exhibition. From the border to Ostrava, it was piloted by 464.202, on the way back by 475.1142. All locos at Chabowka-open air museum seem to be in as fairly good condition, although some missing parts are replaced by wooden dummies (especially Tw2.114). Ty 2.958 and Okz 32.2 run specials in Nowy Sacz/ Zagorz area. Herby scrpayard 1 Ty 2 and 1 Ol 49 waiting in terrible condition for being wrecked. Raciborz Tw 53.2570 plinthed in front of the main station. Ng-line to Rudy - Gliwice is closed long ago but track is still in situ. Ger Dijkstra reports on a visit from January 25th to February 1st First of all the new Wolsztyn diagram. When we were there it was as follows: Locomotive 1/2 4441 Wolsztyn 05.05 - Poznan 07.05 Lok 3 33031 Wolsztyn 04.40 - Zbaszynek 05.19 The freight train diagram, which is available at both your site and on Lok Report’s are a story apart. It is only a hypothetical diagram. Generally, in the morning runs the freight train from Wolsztyn to Grodzisk (Wolsztyn d. about 08.00). During the afternoon, when the engine is back from Grodzisk, it shunts in Wolsztyn. If there are any freight cars, the engine might go to Kargowa (but generally only Saturdays) or Konotop, Zbaszynek or to Powodowo. For best results, ask the ‘dyszpositor’ (train master in English? -I don’t know the English equivalent (not sure if this is despatcher/control or station master R.D.) what freight trains do run that day. When we were in Wolsztyn we found these locos under steam: Ty 2-406, Ty 3-2, OL 49-7, OL 49-59, Tkt 48-143 and Pt47-65. On January 24 the Ty 3 went first to Grodzisk, then in the afternoon to Zbaszynek, and finally to Konotop. As you can see, this isn’t according to the official diagram!! At the end of this day, the fire was put out of the Ty 3. The next Monday, however, the engine was under steam again, but this time only for repair of some small problems with its tender (probably the water injection-system didn’t work properly - unfortunately, I am a technical zero, so I cannot provide you with any details). On this same Monday, the Ty 2-406 was put into the freight train diagram. Till the end of the week this engine was on its way with the local freight trains. On Saturday January 31, the Ty 2 first went to Grodzisk, and after this it went to Kargowa (Wolsztyn d. about 11.30, a. about 13.15). After this, the engine only did some shunting in Wolsztyn. OL 49-59 was after only one train to Poznan put aside, with a (minor) damage to the connecting-rod. OL 49-81 is still said to be in Koscierzyna, according to Wolsztyn engine-drivers. During the week we were there, it often happened that the steam engines didn’t run according to the plan/diagram. Quite exciting was the unexpected appearance of Tkt 48-143 on the passenger trains to Leszno. From Wednesday until Friday, as well as on Sunday February 1, Tkt 48 was pulling trains 33044-33045 (etc., see diagram). But on Saturday January 31 Pt 47 was pulling the trains (33044-33047) to and from Leszno. A small note on the carriages. Some of the Leszno trains existed of green doubledecker cars; on some days however, they were the modern green-beige cars. The 15.36 to Poznan we saw, was only driven with (ugly) orange-yellow doubledecker cars, or the above mentioned modern green-beige cars. These cars for the 15.36 come from train 4444 (Poznan d. 13.15). On Wednesday January 28, we visited the Gniezno repair-shop. Here we found these engines: OL 49 23, 69 and 105, Pt 47-112 and the Pm 36. Outside we found (in a bad shape): Ty 2-331, OL49 79, and Ty43-108, 13, 23, 64, 21 and 111. On January 26, Px 48-1954 was on its way from Gniezno to Witkowo (Gniezno d. about 10.30). On Wednesday January 28, the same engine was again ‘on the road’ to Witkowo (Gniezno d. about 09.00). Both days only one freight car was transported to Witkowo. On January 26 Px 48-1902 was pulling the trains from Sroda to Zaniemysl. On Wednesday the Px 48-1902 was replaced by the Px 48-1920. We can confirm that visitors in Sroda could see mixed trains! According to a local engine-driver the trains from Sroda (d. 09.07 and 16.34) are most likely to be mixed trains, and from Zaniemysl the trains that depart on these times: 10.20 and 18.20. Especially the 18.20 is used for mixed trains (Still according to this engine-driver). On Wednesday we have seen two normal-gauge freight cars (on bogies of course) in Zaniemysl. Visitors to the Sroda depot now have to pay for entering the depot. The female stationmaster is anxious to have one pay; he who passes this big lady without paying is considered a local hero. The price of a ticket is Zlotych 10.00 (about GBP 2.00). Some news concerning the Sroda steam engines. According to the Sroda engine-driver, Px 48-1907 was to be sold to a narrow-gauge railway line in the Lublin-region. Although the Lublin regional PKP-officials do have a positive attitude towards steam and steam engines, the loco wasn’t sold. Due to translations problems with the engine-driver, we didn’t find out why this transaction did not take place. Another Px 48 (probably this same Px 48-1907) might be sold to the Grojecka-system in Warsaw. The engine was already said to be re-gauged for 1000 millimetres. At present, it is not known whether the engine is already sold or not: negotiations are still going on (source: Sroda engine-driver). |
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Rob Dickinson
Email: webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk