Last shots from Ballast Mountain

All good things must come to an end, and my little Ballast Mountain is coming down, as was inevitable... but for a while, I could stand six metres above the pancake-flat Mazovian plain and get a better view. A place for train-spotting, plane-spotting and quiet contemplation in between (the Relevance of Matter), for a enjoying a top-notch bottle of IPA.

So then - it may be (or maybe not) that I can scale the heights once more, ascending the north slope, or the more challenging south face, but in case I don't, some shots of the Ballast Mountain as it disappears. Below: all looks as it did looking north-east. The new signalling now works, the level crossing on Baletowa is functioning. Note the orange sensors between the tracks.

Below: looking north-west, you can see that just a ridge is left, grassy on one side, scooped back ballast on the other. In the distance Dawidy Bankowe.

Below: looking south-east, same story, just a narrow ridge remains. Houses on ul. Trombity in view.

Below: Google Earth imagery from the summer of 2016; I've marked in yellow the crescent-shaped remains of the full mountain, the original size is marked in red. It was once large enough to ride a motorbike up onto.

Now, bearing in mind that PKP owns the land, there's no rush to do anything with this - it's not like PLK leased the land from a private landowner for the duration of the modernisation works. [See City of Warsaw's official map, below, that shows land ownership - it's visible that the ballast mountain was put up on a piece of land that sticks out from but is continuous to the tracks. Click to enlarge.]

Bonus shot, below. There is a rule in railway photography that the entire train should be in frame, from the loco right through to the rear carriage or wagon - this means typically a front three-quarters view. Rules are there to be broken - but only consciously. This shot of an ET22 electric loco hauling empty coal wagons back to Bogdanka colliery in Lubelskie was taken from ul. Baletowa.

Unsurprising update, 30.12.2017 - it's still here. A snap of two engines, running light towards Konstancin-Jeziorna, taken from the ballast mountain.

This time two years ago:
Hybrid driving

This time four years ago:
Convenience vs. Privacy

This time five years ago:
The messy joys of pomegranate eating

This time seven years ago:
Yuletide break

This time eight years ago:
Washing the snow away (temperature rises by 14C in 12 hours)