Tom’s Rambling European Escapades

[littledude]

This is the first time I’ve ever written something along the lines of a blog/trip report kind of post, so I’ll start as simply as I can really think of - an introduction! 

It was early August 2021, and whilst sitting in the comfortable compartment of a Polish TLK train, watching the countryside pass by at 160km/h below a gently setting sun, I pondered over the incredible things I’ve seen and done in the past 5 years of travelling the rails of Europe. I decided that, even if it was only for my own sanity, I would put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, in this lovely modern world we live in) and document some of my travels, with the kind of rambling, details and monologues that I just cannot portray in my photography. So, buckle up, get some paracetamol to keep you going, and here goes…

My name is Tom, I’m a maintenance engineer from Northern England, working outside of the rail industry. I’ve had an interest in railways for as long as I can remember; my grandparent’s garden backing onto a freight only railway was almost certainly a major catalyst in the (somewhat inevitable) passion. I spent many years travelling the length and breadth of the UK rail network; visiting stations, depots, preserved railways and the like, along the way. My ‘niche’ (a niche element of a niche hobby, I’m sure many of us in the rail fraternity would happily admit) has always been railfreight - the locomotives, the wagons, the operations and fundamentally how it all sits in today’s society and economy. I am very much into the photography side of the hobby too, I’m average at best, but I do enjoy being behind the camera or, more recently, at the controls of a camera fitted drone!

After over ten years of being involved solely with the UK railways, I spread my wings in mid-2015. A 4 day trip, with two friends and myself, was paid to Belgium and the Netherlands, instead of a usual few day ‘spotting’ trip to London, Scotland, or somewhere equally as exciting, during the Easter school holidays. I was immediately hooked - being surrounded by a completely new language, by a completely new rail system and, of course, a highly vibrant rail freight scene! I was only 16 at the time, so the Belgian beer was given a miss, however those who know me will raise an eyebrow now and almost certainly mutter ‘you still don’t bloody like it’…

So GCSE exams, a three year engineering apprenticeship and a number of (relatively sporadic) trips to Europe later, I found myself working a shift rota which afforded monthly trips ‘away’, with a whole Saturday morning to Saturday morning rest week every month! I used this to its full potential, often combining the rest week with annual leave to allow regular fortnight trips away - on one occasion having a few days in Germany, followed by a week in New York, and then back to Germany for a few more days before returning to work, nicely ‘refreshed’! It’s safe to say my interest in UK railways very rapidly wained, being nothing like what it was 5 years previous, and with a whole wide world now readily available to explore.

Cut forward two years, 100+ flights and 25 countries later, Covid-19 grips the world. International travel for all except the handful of key workers grinds to a halt. Life as we know it grinds to a halt. Travel - over. As spring turns to summer, and lockdowns turn to relaxing restrictions, travel once again comes onto the horizon, but for how long? I managed to squeeze in a handful of trips out to Europe in the intervening period, but a Monday to Friday in Sweden in October proved to be the finale, before the shutters came firmly back down on the UK travel industry.

August 2021 saw my first international rail-trip in nearly 10 months, by far the longest period away from the mainland in over 5 years! It’s this very dust that I blew off of my passport that made me think about what had happened, how almost everybody’s life had changed, and how things we once took for granted were no longer available or permitted. I decided that I’d try something new and scribble down some ramblings from my trips abroad, now that we are (hopefully) entering the next and, quite certainly, positive chapter in the pandemic! I fully accepted that the ramblings would probably be of little interest to the vast majority, but maybe, just maybe, someone will read through and take an interest in such obscure things as being immersed in communist era architecture, Silesian coal mining, journeys on branch line railcars in the Czech Republic, and sitting in a pub in rural Eastern Slovakia drinking a 50p beer with very suspicious locals, whilst waiting for a broad gauge iron ore train. Eclectic selection, I know.

So, if you’ve got this far through my aimless rambling introduction, well done, and I’m honoured to still have your attention! I’ll aim to get pen to paper and start with my most recent (and only) trip of the year, 4 nights in Poland!

Cheers,
Tom

 

[littledude]

The logical place to begin a trip report would almost certainly be the beginning, yes? Correct, of course. However, I will begin this one before the start, at the trip conception if you will.

Once upon a time, on a warm summers day… it was cold and dreary, and I was on a Calmac ferry crossing from Armadale to Mallaig. I’d been on Syke with my girlfriend for a week, and we were slowly making our way back home, via a few nights in Edinburgh. Due to arrive back home on Monday evening, I realised that I had until Saturday before I was back in work. A free week? With no plans? Not likely! After putting off trips with a stubborn ‘I’m not paying for bloody tests, I’m from Yorkshire’ for a number of weeks, my desire to get back out to the mainland overcame this internal stubbornness at the sight of £20 return flights, from my local airport at Doncaster. Good old Finningley! With a pair of tests ordered there and then, and flights booked shortly after, I had gone from no prospect of international trips for the remainder of 2021, to having a fully booked adventure for only 3 days later, all within the duration of a ferry crossing! I blame the sea air…


Tuesday 3rd August 2021
Having not got home from Scotland until 11pm, unpacking, packing and then getting to sleep, the 9am alarm was rather unwelcome! At 11:30 I got picked up, and thus the trip started, just this time it was Taxi Girlfriend to the local airstrip, and not Transpennine Express across to Manchester International Metropolis. Twenty five minutes later and I was turfed out of the car, and sent on my merry way. I’ve not done this for a while! Is that passport photo REALLY me? Anyway, five minutes from getting out of the car to pressing order on the ‘spoons app, it was about as relaxed as airport security can get. Today’s flight was the 13:30 to Poznan, operated by Wizz Air UK’s A321, G-WUKI. The flight was painless, but I must admit even after 10 months being stuck in the UK, I still find flying as soul-destroyingly dull as I always did. Off the plane and onto the bus for the 50 yard shuffle to the ‘NON SCHENGEN’ holding pen. A short queue, a cursory glance at my passport and proof of vaccination and a ‘What is your purpose of your visit to Poland?’ and I was in! Success! The bus to the airport was eventless, costing only a couple of quid, and conveniently took me door to door!

My destination for tonight was Gniezno, between Poznan and Torun on PKPs line 353 northbound. It’s not on the tourist trail, nor is it particularly scenic or bustling with life. It is, however, a convenient ‘out of the city’ base for a couple of nights to allow me to visit a location that has intrigued me for a long time - Inowroclaw Rabinek. More about that, tomorrow. I had an option, I either caught a stopping, regional train shortly before, or I splashed out a few more pence and get a reservation on PKP Intercity’s 16:37 departure; IC 3512 ‘Piast’ to Gdynia. I opted for the comfort of intercity and, bang on time, a pristine EP09-032 rolled up the platform and came to a stand. The coach behind the loco was a lovely ‘fresh air’ coach, the front three compartments of which had been vacated by passengers alighting at Poznan! I took no persuasion to bag the front compartment, and enjoy the ride! I could tell you inane details about freight wagons: their area of operation, the meaning of the UIC inscriptions and the history of the vehicle, but I am utterly useless at identifying or giving any kind of information about passenger coaches! This will become more apparent the more you read…

Typically, irrespective of the prompt arrival, the 16:37 departure time came and went, with the departure signal still firmly staying at red. Not until nearly 16:55 did the loco give a quick blast on the horn and began easing the 8 coach train out of Poznan Główny. The journey out of Poznan was slow, we were obviously running block to block behind a stopping passenger service but, having passed Poznan Wschod, we quickly accelerated up to the line speed of 160km/h, and sat there almost all the way to Gniezno. There were a couple of nice old diesels at Poznan Wschod; an SM42 with an infrastructure train and a Dolata TEM2 stabled atop a small number of similarly branded ‘Eamnos’ box wagons. I presume the majority of the train was being unloaded in an obscure industrial siding somewhere nearby, out of view from my passing express. The half hour journey along the mainline to Gniezno was smooth and seemed to be over almost as soon as it had started; I’m sure the rushing wind through the open windows both in my compartment and on the corridor were helping with the experience! What I love about the old fresh air stock is that they tend to be sat on old bogies with cast iron brake blocks and, indeed, sparks could be seen flying when the brakes were firmly applied for the stop at Gniezno. The rumbling, screeching, clanking orchastra of heavy metal on metal came to a crescendo as the train came to a final stop. Silence. Just a gentle ticking from the brake blocks and a warm, mechanical smell from hot metal!

Gniezno looked to be a pleasant station, of a typical Polish mainline junction affair, with a couple of the 6 or so platforms occupied by multiple units waiting to whisk passengers from my train to their destinations along the adjoining branch lines. There’s always a frenzy of activity at these stations when a ‘big’ train arrives, with people getting on and off, people rushing around to find their connecting train, then of course the trains all leaving in a synchronised form. Ten minutes at most from the hustle and bustle of a peak time station, to that of one that could be mistaken for being early on a Sunday morning. Not a train in the station, and not a passenger to be seen! I was booked into the Ibis Styles just across the square, with the intention of spending the evening spotting at Gniezno, hoping to see some interesting freight trains pass through on this cross-country arterial corridor. I’d not stopped since leaving home in the morning, and it was now getting on for 6pm when I decided to go and dump my bag in the hotel, and find a bite to eat. Anyone know knows me will attest to my desire of just sitting and watching the world go by, ideally with some freight trains to keep the scene entertaining. It was the first time I’d sat on a station in Europe for 10 months, and I wanted to make the most of the time I’d got! I checked into the hotel with the usual simple affair, with very polite and English speaking staff, before enquiring whether the restaurant was open - ‘Of course it is sir, come this way.’ Ooh, sir! A large bowl of spicy tomato pasta and a couple of large Zywiec beers and I was ready to head back to the station to see what the evening produced. The cost for a main meal, a side of bread and two large beers? The equivalent of £6. Marvellous!

I arrived back at the station to find a Ciech Cargo Class 181 sat awaiting the ‘road’ south. These former Czechoslovakian Co-Co electrics were built by CSD back in the early 1960s, intended for heavy freight trains across the 3000v DC electrified Czechoslovakian rail network. Their use in the present day Czech Republic is severely limited to a small handful working the east of the country around Ostrava and down to the Slovakian border beyond Trinec. They are, however, still very much a valuable asset for a railfreight company wanting to operate heavy trains under 3000v DC catenary - Czechia, Slovakia and Poland being the obvious three! They were sold to many Polish private railfreight and leasing companies, where many are still employed today. This particular example, 181027, was built in 1961 and served in the Czech Republic until 2006, before beginning its new life in Poland with PCC Rail. The train it was working today, a long, empty train of Eas and Eaos bogie box wagons, was returning from Ciech’s soda production facility at Inowroclaw to the coalfields of Silesia, probably to the Katowice suburbs. The industrial sites around Inowroclaw are vast and, as has probably been established by now, would be a main draw for my visit the following day! I’ll explain more about that in the morning.

After a few hours of watching the world pass by at Gniezno, with a good selection of freight trains captured on camera, I retired back to the hotel to get some well earned sleep in preparation for an 05:30 alarm call! Grim!

Cheers,
Tom

 

[superalbs]

Enjoyable posts, look forward to more, thanks for sharing Tom.

 

[littledude]

This one’s a long one, get plenty of Redbull and paracetamol at the ready!

Wednesday 4th August 2021
My first full day in Poland started with the soul-destroying chime of an iPhone alarm. Few sounds are as painful as the one pulling you out of a warm and comfy bed, after little over 6 hours sleep. It was 05:30 and I had to be up, showered, out, supermarket visited, tickets purchased and be ready to board the 06:30 train! Busy busy! My plan for today was to visit the little used station of Inowroclaw Rabinek. The station is situated a couple of kilometers outside of Inowroclaw, between my current location of Gniezno and the UNESCO famed walled city of Torun. Having recently had a rebuild to bring it up to modern standards, this curious station receives only two trains per day: a southbound train to Warsaw at 07:02 and a subsequent return train at 21:28. Between these times the station played host to only passing dog walkers, midges and, luckily for me, a plethora of freight on this predominantly freight only arterial route between southern and northern Poland. I was out of the hotel a few minutes before 6am, and I was met with a very pleasant, still and fresh August morning. It had been light for a couple of hours, so the sun was very much in the sky and shining down as I made the short walk across the town centre to the Biedronka supermarket, to collect the day’s supplies for a visit to relative isolation! Some chocolate croissaints for breakfast, a smoothie to wash it down, some pizza and (cooked) garlic bread batons for dinnertime, and some chocolate and crisps to snack on through the day! Oh, and some still water and a bottle of two of beer. Don’t forget the essentials! With the goodies in tow, it was a brisk five minute walk down ‘Lecha’ to reach the pleasant station square, which appears to have been recently smartened up with some very fancy fountains and a lot of smart marble seating. Not sure I’ll be seeing that outside of my local station anytime soon! The ticketing today was pretty simple, there were no other possibilities of trains to visit Rabinek, so I had little chance of messing up the purchase! The cost was £6.50 return, for a 65 mile loco hauled, intercity round trip! Music to a Yorkshireman’s ears, get in! So, with supplies in my bag, tickets in my wallet and the train on the board, the day could begin!

At 06:40, ten minutes behind schedule, PKP’s very smart looking EU160-012 rolled into Gniezno station atop train IC 71102 ‘Zielonogorzanin’, coming to a swift stand and the doors opening. These EU160 locos, produced by Newag at their Nowy Sazy factory under the ‘Griffin’ brand name, have recently come on stream for PKP Intercity, and are numbered between EU160-001 and EU160-036. The acceleration was very impressive as we powered northbound away from Gniezno towards the only intermediate call on this morning’s half hour journey, Mogilno. There was little to report en-route, a couple of stations were passed with freight trains looped facing southbound, and a gentle mist sitting over the fields gave a very clean feel to the scenery. As the train neared Inowroclaw, the looming soda works of Ciech company, mentioned yesterday evening with their Class 181 returning south with empty coal wagons, became more dominating on the skyline. Ironic, perhaps, were the newly erected wind turbines lining the railway along this section, rotating at their merry pace to generate clean electricity, with the polluting soda industry keeping a watch from afar, and coal train after coal train marching past in the foreground. Progression, slowly. Just south of Inowroclaw sits a complex series of avoiding curves, crossovers and a flyover, allowing for freight trains on the north/south axis through Rabinek to avoid conflictions with the express passenger trains between Poznan and Torun. After a long stretch of 160km/h running from Mogilno, we braked hard and took the north to east curve at Dziarnowo, linking PKP’s lines 353 from Poznan with line 131, the so called ‘Magistrala Weglowa’ (Trunk Coal Route.) This near-500km railway between Chorzow Batory (northwest of Katowice) and Tczew (south of Gdansk) once played a fundamental role post-World War Two for the strategic transport of Silesian mined coal to Gdansk and Gdynia for export; a process of huge significance to the Polish economy. Heading north through Zdunska Wola, Inowroclaw, Bydgoszcz and Terespol Pomorski, today’s line 131 still serves huge importance to the north/south railfreight flows in Poland - the northern tri-city of Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot producing and receiving huge quantities of railfreight each day. It was this line that I was here to see today!

At 07:15 I alighted bleary eyed from the train, stepping down onto an evidently very recently modernised platform, complete with such modern charms as a waiting shelter, unbroken concrete slabs and a fully fenced barrow crossing! It’s an odd station: the town is over 50 minutes walk away (which, I should add, does have a regular train service to Poznan, Torun and Bydgoszcz, should you wish to visit but miss the direct train to Rabinek) and there is a supermarket 10 minutes down the road, but that’s it! The train vanished out of sight and it was complete silence. Not a soul. Around a quarter of a mile away from the station to the south side of the line is a power station for the adjoining Ciech factory. There was, however, no smoke emitting from the chimney stacks, and the faint sound of occasional clanging would suggest it was almost certainly on a summer maintenance shutdown. Thankfully, this didn’t extend to the soda works! The station has four lines in it’s vicinity - with, north to south, there being a disused/unloved loop line, the mainlines each way and, behind the station fence, a single unelectrified branch line leading to Ciech’s infrastructure. A few minutes after my train had vanished over into the distance, a PKP Cargo ET22 appeared in sight heading my way, threading its way delicately over the evidently temporary speed restriction subjected flyover. There was a slight mist in the air, so the rails were becoming damp, which wasn’t helping the old girl in her bid to get the train back up to speed! The train, lead by PKP ‘classic’ ET22-639, was formed of 40 PKP Cargo bogie steel flats loaded with steel slabs, totalling over 3,000 tonnes. Impressive! I suspect this load was from Gdansk, imported from a vessel from across the Baltic sea, and was heading for the rolling mills of Krakow Nowa Huta. The train took an age to pass, with the old and decaying infrastructure beneath the wheels creaking as the train gained speed. I don’t think the station investment got beyond the platforms! A few more freight trains passed by before I decided to bid farewell to the station for the day and begin the walk to where I intended to spend the majority of my time, a small level crossing a couple of kilometers back up the line towards Poznan called Batkowo.

The walk was simple enough, possible without the assistance of Google maps by just keeping the line to the left hand side and following your nose, but I did plot a route to see if the route I was intending to take was indeed the quickest. It was. Curiously the route that Google had plotted for me took me along a road that ran straight through the middle of an abandoned yard; abandoned insofar as there were lines of stored PKP Cargo box wagons either side that were a shade of blue and rust, with revision dates over 10 years previous. No fences had to be negotiated and no guard dogs came running, it was like walking into a forgotten desolate wasteland! It turned out it wasn’t Middlesbrough after all, it was still Poland. Twenty five minutes after marching off of the platform at Rabinek, I arrived at the rural crossing at Batkowo, complete with the customary level crossing attendant in a small portacabin. The crossing was of a similar width to that of Helpston, on the ECML north of Peterborough. There were around 6 lines over the crossing, all of which were electrified, though the linespeed on the typically dilapidated was probably no more than around 60km/h. A smile and wave from the crossing keeper stood by the cabin door having a cig was returned, and I walked a little way up the adjacent lineside field to a perch that had evidently been frequented by many a photographer. Rucksack off my back, camera settings adjusted, breakfast served, Today’s Railway’s Europe magazine opened and… chill!

The reason for my keenness to visit this seemingly random crossing in a sparsely populated, agricultural corner of the town of Inowroclaw began back in the autumn 2020 ‘lockdown’ in the UK, when outdoor visits were limited and we were, as a whole, stuck indoors for the winter. I browsed Flickr looking at my contact’s photos that had been unloaded, most from German, Polish, Czech and Romanian locals who either had no Covid travel restrictions, or simply headed to their local railway line, and captured whatever delights passed by. One such photo was of an M62 locomotive (a mass-produced, huge Co-Co diesel built in the Soviet Union) hauling a limestone train with a motley collection of hopper wagons between a local quarry at Wapienno and Ciech’s Soda works in Inowroclaw. I did some digging, sussed out how often it runs, and set my sights on getting ‘that’ shot! Having spoken to a friend who had visited a few weeks prior, I ascertained that the method of operation was for a loaded train to arrive into Inowroclaw Chemia, the loco to return light engine back to the quarry, work another loaded set into Inowroclaw Chemia, and then work a double set of empty wagons back to Wapienno. Before long, the distinctive sound of an old Soviet era diesel could be heard chugging up the incline from Dziarnowo towards my location. As it came into view, it was clear that it wasn’t the M62 that I was expecting, it was in fact a former Czechoslovakian ‘T448p’ loco, essentially a current day Class 740 in Czech and Slovakian parlance. The train rattled past with a wonderful collection of four wheel and bogie hoppers, of a number of different shapes, short distance railfreight at its finest! Hopefully the sun would emerge by the afternoon and the 740 would reappear right on queue, I could hope!

The hours passed by and day turned into afternoon, with a plentiful supply of freights heading north and south, predominantly heading to and from the vast Baltic ports of Gdansk and Gydnia, including a number of ‘Lotos’ operated tank trains, with a number of them being in excess of 50 wagons long! It makes the trains out of Humberside pale into relative insignificance! Shortly after 1pm the clouds turned grey, the wind increased and an ominous haze descended on the western horizon, which was slowly but surely heading my way. Those of you who have made it this far though episode 2 of the rambleathon will remember I said that Rabinek was a 25 minute walk from here. Twenty five minutes away. That’s a long way from shelter when stood out in the open countryside with nothing but a rucksack to keep me dry! Much to my shock, a convenient and well established oak tree was nearby, perfect for a poor photographer to cower beneath and wait for the rain to pass by! Half an hour of slowly moving around the tree keeping the worst of the rain off me, the clouds began to part and the welcoming sight of blue sky began to emerge! In the next 20 minutes the clouds from the rainstorm were replaced with an almost featureless blue sky, from wall to wall, even allowing the previously only audible fighter jets practising above to be seen darting across the sky. The freight trains kept on coming until, at 17:18, Ciech’s T448p-051 re-emerged from the industrial facility with a plume of black smoke and a blaring of the horn. The sun was out, the sky was clear, the train was coming and I was about to make the trek all the way here from Yorkshire worthwhile. Gotcha! What a beauty, it’s an awesome feeling when it all comes together! I spent the next few hours enjoying the beautiful evening sunlight photographing the wonderfully illuminated northbound trains, before starting the gentle stroll back towards Rabinek station in preparation for the train back to civilisation.

Back at the station, I had 45 minutes to kill before my 21:28 departure back to Gniezno. A quick check of the live reporting showed my train was running to time, and was heading my way. Marvellous! The signal cleared for a southbound train and, knowing I had a while to wait for my train, I walked over to the other platform and got into position for a photo. Much to my surprise, and delight, it was Freightliner Poland’s 66602, the former Freightliner UK 66624, with a very long train of empty Eamnos box wagons. This was followed by a couple of other freights in the intervening period before my train was signalled northbound. The curious setup at Rabinek means that since the rebuild, there is now only one active platform, and that is on the normally southbound track. For this, the northbound passenger train had to cross onto the other line a distance to the south, and run ‘bang road’ into the station. Polish rules of wrong line movements requiring a red and white aspect to be displayed on the loco front were at play here, as PKPIC EU160-012 (the same loco as I arrived behind this morning) slowed to a stand at the completely empty platform. A couple of people, presumably commuting workers from Warsaw given their laptop-style bags, alighted, but I was the only passenger being saved by the train from the desolation of Inowroclaw Rabinek. We set off into the, by now, dark night. The return journey ran under the number IC 17102 and, like the northbound train that morning, had only one intermediate stop between Rabinek and Gniezno; Moglino. The half hour journey to Gniezno was eventless, arriving on time, before I took a couple of photos of a freight train stabled in the station, looped to allow my train to take priority on the two-track section towards Poznan. I then called it a night, stopped off at the kebab shop for a well earned feast and a relax in the room. Back at the room nearly 17 hours after leaving. Goodnight!

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Techniquest]

I've been a bit busy lately, so only got to this thread this evening. A very warm welcome to the trip reporting community!

I've very much enjoyed your thread so far, I have a desire to explore more of Poland eventually. I've done Kraków, hopefully I'll be doing Poznan, Gdansk and Zakopane as a minimum before too long. I didn't do anything really on the railway when I went to Kraków in January 2020, except for one tram and two trips from the airport to the city centre. Why two? I would direct you to my world exploration blog (techsworldfrenzy.wordpress.com) for the full story, but the short version is that I did the first one after arriving from London and the second was returning to the city (having done a bus out of it hours beforehand) after a weather related delay, which had pushed the flight back by several hours. So I'm interested in seeing more of Poland, and I'll be using the railway to do so!

Freight isn't really my thing, I have to confess, so while I know very little about it I did enjoy the read. It felt like I was there! I felt for you with that rain, I've had similar experiences with unexpected rain before and it's really not fun!

Keep them coming I say, I'll be reading them happily! The question on my mind though, as you find flying soul destroying, what on Earth do you do to pass the time? I love flying, although I am dreading the ultra long haul flights to/from New Zealand...