As a follow up to yesterday’s view of a 2-10-0 on disused track, here’s a view of a regular revenue train from that same visit to Poland in April 2002. On a scheduled run from Poznan to Wolsztyn, PKP Ol69-111 passes German-style semaphores on approach to a rural station. At this time, several of the daily passenger Poznan-Wolzstyn trains routinely operated with steam, with Ol69 class 2-6-2s being the most common type on them. This was a secondary main line, and although weedy, the track was in reasonably good shape. Chasing the trains on the road was a challenge.
I made this image with my Rollei Model T on 120 black & white film, hand processed using my preferred recipe. The combination of traditional subject matter and the classic camera with 75mm Zeiss Tessar lends to a timeless view. Only, the rake of East German-built double-deck passenger carriages might seem incongruous to un-trained eyes. In fact, these cars were standard in the late era and consistent with Polish passenger practice. In this picture they are dressed in a olive drab livery, however some were later painted in a dandelion yellow, which truly seems out of character behind steam.
Check Tracking the Light tomorrow for more on this theme!
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Thanks 😉
I’m happy to learn there’s interest. I’ll plan to scan more of my Polish images and post them in the near future.
Cheers,
Brian Solomon
I had a problem with spam detector.
For the previous article:
Curiosity: The Nowa Sól-Żagań line (nr. 371 on polish railways network) is a part of european cargo corridor C-59/1 of AGTC agreement and part of TEN-T network. That line was modernized in 1989-90 and have very good parameters. In 1995 passenger trains was suspended, like on many other polish rail lines, because of evil PKP policy. In 2003 was suspended cargo trains, and line was closed and waiting for better times (that come soon). I dont understand PKP policy, they didn’t have any concept about rail. Today a lot of railway lines is devastated, because does not pay to rebuild they. If PKP wasn’t suspended these lines, today they would be in good condition and resuming passenger trains would pay off. Happily we have people who’s depends on polish rail, and they blocked criminal PKP policy 🙂
I’m waiting for other pictures from Poland, and I congratulate this site.
Greetings from Poland 🙂
In recent years, steam services from Wolsztyn have worked to Poznan, although this appears to be on tenuous ground. See this blog for details:
Still running?