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Monday, 26 January 2009

More questions than answers at the Rampa site

Another fascinating set of photos from fellow Jeziorki archivist Marcin Daniecki, taken on Monday 26 January on the Rampa site. It shows work in full swing, and prompts many questions.

For instance: What will happen at the south end of the site - the bit that's in Mysiadło, which is Gmina Lesznowola rather than Warsaw? The rampa site is like an upside-down letter 'h', the long thin bit pointed south. This part of the site (seen above), where the reversing track ran down to end at a set of buffers, is some 500m long and 40m wide. Is this an integral part of the site? Are any buildings planned here? As there's no earthwork screen, if there will be anything built here, it won't necessarily be housing. There's talk of a health centre, nursury school...

Plenty of hardware on site. To my untutored eye, the latticework structures in front of the crane look like those earth spreaders used to hold open trenches while pipes are being layed. Wide diameter waste water pipes leading to the main sewer completed two years ago running the length of ul. Karczunkowska?

The pointsman's hut. This is where the guy who set the points taking aggregate trains off the main line would hang out. Does it still belong to PKP? Or is it part of the site acquired by Spanish developer Sando Inmobiliaria? Will it be demolished?

Busy busy busy. In case you heard there's an economic crisis affecting the real estate sector. But wait! No less than seven trucks are at hand to remove soil from the site. How long before the cash runs out?

And what will happen to the west side of the site - to the west of the current scrap yard on ul. Karczunkowska? Has this part also been bought up? The tracks have gone - will they be replaced by tarmac?

This time last year:
Old-school shopping in Warsaw
Warsaw architecture: La Belle Epoque
Polish Air Force CASA plane crash in Mirosławiec
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous27 January 2009 at 22:29

    Michael,

    Enough of the Rampa already! It is time you exposed yourself at a blog meeting, methinks!

    http://scatts.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/the-february-blog-meet/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michael Dembinski27 January 2009 at 23:00

    If this development goes ahead as planned, it will more than double the population density of Jeziorki. The recession, I hope, will mean that only a fraction of the 450 or so homes planned for this site will end up getting built. But the tide of development is relentless.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous31 January 2009 at 13:42

    Poor Scatts, Did he never progress from 'Pigling Bland' to 'Thomas in Trouble'? We here on Behind the Water Tower regularly scour W-wa Jeziorki for the latest news items about your Rampa. Michael, if you ever form a Rampa preservation society we'll be right behind you! In the meantime we invite all W-wa readers suffering Rampa withdrawal symptoms to come to come on our next study tour to visit the working Rampa in Poland's most exciting City - Lodz.

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  4. Michael Dembinski31 January 2009 at 18:38

    Th Łódź rampa is just like the one we lost in Jeziorki! Someone, in some ministry in Warsaw, must have come up with a plan for how a rampa must look. Identical! (except the stairs are on the other side). Uncanny! I hope you Łódzites can preserve yours as an example of how rampy should look.

    q: How many folk singers does it take to change a lightbulb?

    a: Four. One to change it, three to sing "The Old Light Bulb".

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous31 January 2009 at 19:50

    I'm glad our rampa meets with your approval. Ours is close to the airport and very much in the sticks, so I expect it will be used for unloading kruszywo from hopper railway wagons for several years yet.

    I've found a railway modelling discussion group with some nice photos of your rampa before it was dismantled. Enjoy !

    ReplyDelete