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Scenic Polish Lines

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burns20

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Looking at my Thomas Cook Rail Map there doesn't seem to be many scenic lines in Poland.

Does anyone have any recommendations of lines to go on?

I have already done Poznan to Wolsztyn by Steam
 
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dzug2

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Krakow to Zakopane?

There were some branches off this as well but I don't know if they are still open

The other line through Wolsztyn (Zbasynec (sp??) to Leszno) has its interest as well and is where the steam is currently.
 
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Gordon

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Much of Poland is low lying and/or flat so is not very scenic in the usual railway sense of the word. I once travelled on a very slow diesel hauled cross country train in the border country east of Warsaw and it was incredibly boring even for a diesel haulage enthusiast. The clue to this is the geographical fact that if you were able to see east far enough when standing on the mountain hilltop in the Peak District, the next highest point is the Ural Mountains in Russia.

If you look at a physical map of Europe and follow the latitude 53.5 (approx!) line east from the UK you will see what I mean. All the places in between are low lying (Netherlands, northern Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia.

Copied from a web site:

The northern regions are somewhat hilly, and flat, fertile farmlands dominate the Central Lowlands.
Moving south, the land rises into hilly uplands that front the Sudetic and Carpathian Mountain ranges. The tallest peaks are in the Tatra Mountains. The highest point is Rysy at 8,187 ft. (2,499m)
The Oder, Vistula and Warta are the country's major rivers. Numerous small lakes dot the far northeast

As such the scenic lines (in the conventional sense – ie with hills or mountains) in Poland are restricted to the Poland southern border strip as I’m not aware of any lines that hug Poland’s major rivers. I’m not sure which lines are still open to passengers, but I some years ago I travelled on Zagorz – Lupkow (Kriegslok 2-10-0 steam hauled!) and Klodzko – Kudowa Zdroj and both were very scenic.

Otherwise anything along the southern edge of Poland is theoretically scenic – such as around Jelenia Gora, Bielsko Biala, Nowy Sacz and Zakopane




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lemonic

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A line that isn't scenic is the line from the German border via Rzepin and Poznan to Warsaw. It is one of the key lines in Poland yet the line speed is not that high and all there is to see are fields, fields and more fields!
 

burns20

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Both the lines you mention Gordon are now closed, the latter is bus replacement.

Thank you for your replies and research
 

Gordon

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Both the lines you mention Gordon are now closed.

I thought that’s what I’d heard – hence the wary tone of my comment. A great pity as the Kudowa Zdroj was an alpine style line with sharp curves and steep gradients.

It was an excellent ride even behind a diesel, but I missed being steam hauled by just a few days – no new diesels failed in the few days we were at Klodzko so no steam worked – despite a PT47 (for the main line) and a TkT48 (for the branches) being in steam on shed in readiness to replace any failures of the then new diesels


A line that isn't scenic is the line from the German border via Rzepin and Poznan to Warsaw…all there is to see are fields, fields and more fields!

Exactly my point about all but the far south of Poland. Having said that I have never done the Polish Lake District – are there any lines that are vaguely scenic in that area?



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Zamracene749

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The line to Zakopane as mentioned is a nice run, I can also recommend the cross border line to Pardubice in the Czech republic from Wroclaw- this gets very scenic over the mountains.

The line from Gydnia to Hel is quite pretty in places.
 

battersea

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My partner is from Kłodzko and we visited some her family in Polanica and also travelled to the Czech Republic via Kudowa. As a rail nerd, I was of course very interested in the now abandoned line and asked her family about its status. I would certainly classify it as scenic, were it still running.

We took a bit of a roundabout route to Nachod in the Czech Republic and I saw a single DMU (? - I asked her uncle about it and she translated his response as a "rail bus" i.e. a Polish Pacer) operating on what I think was a Kłodzko - Nowa Ruda serivce. The region is totally open because it is all farming land and I'm sure the rail journey would be just as beautiful as the car journey (but better because it's by train, of course ;).

EDIT:

I've done a little more research and this is what I saw:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/SA135-002_odje%C5%BCd%C5%BCa_ze_stacji_Zielona_G%C3%B3ra.JPG

operated by Koleje Dolnośląskie, probably on the Kłodzko - Nowa Ruda - Wałbrzych run.

-Ryan
 
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Gordon

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(? - I asked her uncle about it and she translated his response as a "rail bus" i.e. a Polish Pacer) operating on what I think was a Kłodzko - Nowa Ruda serivce.

-Ryan

The railcar is a step up from a Pacer, being a bogie unit, but I would still prefer a loco and coaches, which goes back to my comment about Kudowa. Although dissapointed it wasn't steam a not terribly high powered diesel and 4 coaches was good thrash
 

burns20

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Thank you for all your replies.

The route I have chosen is from Rakovnik - Louny - Ceska Lipa - Liberec - Tanvald (CZ) - Harrachov - Jelenia Gora - Walbrzych - Nowa Ruda - Klodzko - Miedzylesie - Tyniste - Letchrad - Glucholazy - Osoblaha - Ostrava
 
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