Hunting the railway vibe, the klimaty kolejowe; going where the coal trains go. A long walk across the southern edge of the Las Kabacki, then on to the railway sidings at Konstancin-Jeziorna
Below: looking down at the sidings from the slight rise at the western end. The middle line runs straight through with two set of sidings on either side, all of them long enough to accommodate the longest rake of coal wagons (typically 40 in one set). Full trains (2,000 tonnes of coal) go from here to Siekierki power station; empties come here from Siekierki to be picked up and returned to the sidings south of W-wa Okęcie station, 14km away.
Below: a rake of empties has just arrived on the second track, the engine the brought them in has been uncoupled, it ran forward, changed onto the middle track to run back to Siekierki. With summer on the way, there's fewer full coal trains heading to the power station. The manoeuvre done, the level crossing gates rise, and many cyclists crosses the tracks, heading to Konstancin (right of pic) or Powsin and Las Kabacki (left of pic). Click to enlarge.
Below: the train standing on the first track in the pic above is pulling out of the sidings and onto the single track towards Okęcie via Piaseczno and Nowa Iwiczna. Level crossing with barriers on ulica Wąska ('Narrow Street') and on the other side of the tracks - ul. Saneczkowa ('Toboggan Street).
Below: heading up hill, a gentle ten-metre rise over 1.7km as the line approaches - but does not enter - the Las Kabacki forest. The level crossing on ul. Głowackiego in Kierszek is close to the border of Warsaw and the forest. Foreshortening effect of telephoto lens zoomed out to 300mm makes the hill look steeper than it is .
A review of the second part of Hillier's Betjeman biog.
New roads and rails
This time six years ago:
The Gold Train shoot - lessons learned
This time eight years ago:
Digbeth, Birmingham 5
This time nine years ago:
Still months away from the opening of the S2/S79
This time ten years ago:
Looking at progress along the S79
This time 11 years ago:
Snow on 3 May
This time 12 years ago:
Two Polands
This time 13 years ago:
A delightful weekend in the country
This time 14 years ago:
The dismantling of the Rampa
This time 15 years ago:
Flag day
2 comments:
Those coal trains would have made a spectacular sight in steam days. I could imagine a Ty-2 at each end making a lot of noise and smoke.
@ WHP
Haha! Would that there were some witnesses from the early days... Siekierki power station was opened in 1961, so it's entirely plausible that the coal trains were once steam-hauled...
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