Tuesday, 16 October 2018

Autumnal landscapes with a railway theme

In and around Toruń station on a gorgeously sunny day in mid-October. Below: approaching the station from the east, the railway cuts through wooded parkland. The colours of the trees and sky - and the low-tension power lines atop the catenary gantries puts me in mind of the Penn Railroad, mid-20th century.


Below: a bit further back from the station, before the third track joins the 'up' and 'down' lines, I am passed by the Warsaw-Berlin express, still be diverted via Toruń and Gniezno. Hauled by an EP44 loco in Poland's independence-centenary livery.


Below: the more popular paths leading through the woods that cross the railway line are protected with metal barriers forming chicanes that force cyclists to dismount and pedestrians to slow down. This photo would have been so much more effective had the red paint on the barriers and signs not faded to pale pink.


Below: the nearer you get to any major railway station, the denser the profusion of tracks leading into it. A Polregio modernised EN57 leaving Toruń Główny on its way to Łódź Kaliska


Below: a Polregion PESA Elf approaching Toruń Główny from Włocławek.


Two tracks run into Toruń Główny from the east side of the platforms; one is the line from the south-east (from Włocławek), the other from the north-east (crossing the Vistula to Toruń Miasto station). The tracks converge on either side of this signal box below. The approach road to the station lies immediately behind me. I was here a year ago, and before that two years ago; both times the station was a confused mess of temporary walkways, closed tunnels, scaffolding and diggers, now all is complete, a good and worthy station has emerged.


Below: view of the eastern ends of the southern platforms, Toruń Główny


The last photo was actually the first one I took in the morning as I arrived. Train times to Toruń are very strange; two trains from Warsaw Zachodnia are both scheduled to arrive at the very same minute (09:32). One train takes just under two and half hours, the other takes over three hours. The slower one leaves Warsaw from the east, heads up to Iława, curls around Toruń from the north via Jabłonowo, then continues onward to Bydgoszcz. The quicker one leaves Warsaw from the west, goes through Kutno and Włocławek, then continues beyond Toruń to Gniezno, Poznań and over the border to Berlin.


My train back to Warsaw took the long and circular route; why it must be this way I cannot tell.

This time last year:
A few words about coincidence

This time four years ago:
Hello, pork pie [my week-long pork-pie diet]

This time six years ago:
The meaning of class - in England, in Poland

This time seven years ago: 
First frost 

This time 11 years ago:
First frost 

2 comments:

White Horse Pilgrim said...

Torun station is clearly much smarter than on my last visit in the 1980s, and the trains too, however the pleasure of travelling to Sierpc and back behind an Ol49 is long consigned to history.

Michael Dembinski said...

@ WHP

Precious memories! The equivalent for me was travelling from Wrocław Główny (dep: zero dark thirty) to Kłodzko Miasto, hauled by a Ty2 Kriegslok :-)