Wednesday 28 June 2017

Unusual sights on the tracks

Been a while since I posted some train pics, yesterday I see two unusual sights, so here they are.

Below: at the level crossing on the Skierniewice-Łuków line near the village of Koryta (literally, 'Troughs'), I see an ET22 advancing westward in standard PKP Cargo livery. Nothing unusual there - the most commonly seen loco on this line, but what's it hauling? Looks like a really strange skład...


Indeed! The electric engine is hauling a works carriage and an idling M62 'Gagar' in the livery of PPM-T (which the company helpfully translates as the Pomeranian Mechanical Track Company Ltd). In the middle looks like an ex-postal carriage, click to enlarge and you'll see smoke coming out of it, suggesting the occupants are cooking something inside.


Another old carriage pressed into service as living quarters for railway workers, below, parked up behind W-wa Zachodnia station, with a ballast wagon in front. In the distance two more barrack carriages, one sporting a satellite dish.



Below: a rare sight during the week - a draisine on the narrow-gauge line between Gołków and Głosków, west of Piaseczno. Busy season for the little tourist train, the workers on the draisine were cleaning up around the track - discarded beer cans and cigarette packets.



Below: another level crossing, this one south of Czachówek Południowy. Officially - it's open. Unofficially, the driver of the Panda will be waiting here a long time, while the trakcja guys do their bit and the train moves on to the next pantograph. This is part of the work to modernise the tracks between Czachówek and Warka, which gets properly under way when the W-wa Okęcie - Czachówek section is complete.


Now, the poor driver of the Panda may have already taken one detour to get east across the tracks. You see, the next crossing of the line, under the viaduct at Czachówek Górny, is officially closed, and has been for a few months, as the new bridge is laid there. Below: another fragment is lifted into place. Still a while before it's all ready. In the meantime, it's a nightmare for local drivers. For me, it's a 1.5km off-road detour along a muddy, bumpy contractor's track to the next level crossing, near Sułkowice. Four wheels bad, two (off-road) wheels good.



Below: bonus shot, from my trip to Kraków earlier this month, a 1958 MAN T4 tram, no. 220. In the early 1990s, the city of Kraków acquired 30 of these from Nuremberg, all of them were taken out of service in 2002 with the exception of one (no. 127), which was left as a historical tram serving tourist routes.


Very mitteleuropäische It soon became clear that one was not enough, so another one - this example - was bought from Nuremberg in 2005. Once scrapped, it's difficult to reverse the decision...

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1 comment:

DC said...

Off topis: I'm on the embassy listserv for cultural events here in DC. They sent out a link to this Library of Congress page. World's Biggest birthday card? Anyway, kind of fun to poke around in.

https://loc.gov/collections/polish-declarations/about-this-collection/