Back to Dobra, back to steam

Couldn't get enough of it! I returned on Friday evening to Dobra, and on Saturday morning Eddie and I set off for another go on the steam train to Chabówka. This time, accompanied by Eddie's friends Sabina and Alex, their cousins and grandparents. So eight return tickets, eight visitors to the museum. And hopefully, six new enthusiasts!

I learned the lessons for getting good pics on this line: back coach out, front coach home. This enables the photographer to get shots of the engine running forward from Dobra, with the curving rails offering many opportunities to catch the engine in three-quarter view. And occupying the same seats on the way home allows you to be right behind the engine, to hear it puffing and panting its way from Chabówka up the incline to Skrzydlna. Only four coaches this weekend, not the five we had last week, so couldn't quite get that 'bend' to work. Still, the engine's the right way round.

Right: An effective composition, if not one for the purist. Steam and electrical traction together at Chabówka. The first three stations are pod drutem ('under wire'), but after Rabka Zdrój, there's no sign of any post-war rail infrastructure other than the occasional signal lights (plenty of old semaphores and manual points still around).

The sound of a Kriegslok steam engine hard at work is awesome, especially when labouring up the steep inclines (2.9m rise in 100m horizontal). The frequent whistles, the whooshes of white steam from the pistons, and the dense black clouds from the chimney make travelling directly behind the engine an unforgettable experience. Soot blown out will speck your clothing, so beware; glasses or goggles will protect your eyes from the pain of something hot and dirty landing in them.

Left: Running down the hill to Dobra. From the summit at Skrzydlna, the engine uses minimal power, so less smoke, less steam, less puff, less drama. We heard a story (from the local media, just two weeks ago), of a less-than-sober mother and her hard-of-hearing six year-old daughter walking along this track, when the steam train came across them unexpectedly. The mother dived out of the way, the child laid flat on the track; the train passed over her and she escaped unharmed! The mother must have been well drunk not to have heard the repeated warning whistles. (Story here, in Polish.)

There's one more steam day this year, next Saturday (30 August), trips down to Zakopane continue into September. Definitely a recommended experience. Timetable in English here. Below: Ty2-953 runs around its train at Chabówka, passing Ty2-911.

This time last year:
Heron spotted over local pondAgricultural scenes in Jeziorki "cause flashbacks"Our garden spiders getting big and fat
Ul. Kórnicka loses dirt track status
Electrical storms continue