Odolany – Warsaw's railway reserve

I have posted a few times about the tangle of tracks to the north-east of Warsaw West (W-wa Zachodnia) station; much of this area has been cleaned up. [See here from 2013, and  here from 2014]

But north-west of W-wa Zachodnia, in the neighbourhood of Odolany, part of the district of Wola, there's an enormous network of railway sidings, of which over 30 hectares are entirely disused. This area is not closed off; footpaths criss-cross the area, which lies nearer to the centre of Warsaw than neighbourhoods like Stegny or Sadyba – one would think prime development land for residential estates.

The klimat reminds me of that which permeates Andrei Tarkovsky's magnificently atmospheric 1979 film Stalker; post-industrial abandonment, secrets, decay. Below: a typical scene within the Zone; a multiplicity of abandoned tracks, on rotting wooden sleepers, often with trees growing between them. 

Left: trees and bushes growing ever denser through and around the abandoned track. One has to ask why PKP PLK S.A., the railway infrastructure operator, hasn't lifted the rails for recycling and turned the area over into parkland, or to rewild it as a nature sanctuary. Below: an abandoned signal box or points-keeper's hut. In the distance, further rows of disused track.

Left: three or more pairs of parallel rows of abandoned tracks, trees growing between the rails. In the distance, some blue buildings are just about visible between the branches and leaves... 

Below: pushing through the undergrowth, I emerge onto what are live tracks; rails polished silver through use, with overhead gantries providing power to electric engines that use this line. This turns out to be the maintenance depot for freight locomotives.

I turn around and head back into the undergrowth, this time moving northwestward, across several disused tracks. Emerging from the bushes on the other side, I catch the following astonishing sight. It looks like some sort of grain elevator... 

I get up closer. This (I later learn) is the former coaling station for steam engines. The 42m-high coal tower itself is one of four such surviving structures in Poland (the UK has only one left).

Below: in its shadow to its east stands a building that I cannot figure out; why the canopy? Why the low and short platform? Why here? Looks like a waiting room at a passenger station from the 1960s. Odd.

The coaling tower itself was built between 1948 and 1951 – and here's a surprise – from precast concrete elements donated to Poland by the US government, delivered by sea as part of the technical assistance post-WW2. This, at the height of Stalinism.

Left: the coaling tower seen from the west. The conveyors that raised coal to the top of the tower were removed when it was decommissioned in the early 1990s. It stood abandoned, until a group of preservationists persuaded the voivodship heritage administrator of its historical significance, earning it listed-building status in February 2024.

On either side of the lines on which the coaling tower stands are aggregate storage facilities (Budokrusz to the north, Warbud to the south). Both are served by trains, delivering construction materials to the busy sites. Walking along the line towards to the coaling tower, I could hear the non-stop sound of diggers loading and unloading aggregate.

As I proceeded in a westerly direction, the disused tracks started to converge with live tracks leading from the aggregate sites and the freight-loco maintenance sheds. Below: the rails are no longer covered with rust; signals show that the track is indeed live (there was a Freightliner PL Class 66 locomotive manoeuvring slowly off to my left). Time to return to the urban hubbub of rush-hour Warsaw. 

Below: a series of bridges carry the freight lines over ulica Dżwigowa (lit. 'Crane Street' – crane as in machine to move materials). To my right are the busy sidings of Warszawa Główna Towarowa, Warsaw's main freight station. At this stage, I leave the rails and return to the street for a short walk to W-wa Włochy station and my train to Ożarów Mazowiecki, for an evening business event.

I must point out that nowhere along my journey did I pass any 'entry prohibited' sign, or cross any fence. Around Warsaw West station, the sidings are properly enclosed behind wire fences; not so further east.

If you want to watch Stalker, for free, with English subtitles, it's here. Set aside three hours. If you've not seen it, do. It's worth it.

This time last year:

The Thought Inside: get it out!

This time three years ago:
Spring magic 

This time seven years ago:
Building work almost done on the działka

This time eight year:
Karczunkowska's closed again

This time nine years ago:
Little suitcase in the attic
[It's still at Schindler's Factory in Kraków for the year-long Children of War exhibition there]

This time ten years ago:
What I read each week.

This time 12 years ago:
Defending Poland, contributing to NATO

This time 14 years ago:
Balloon over Warsaw 

This time 16 years ago:
Happiness, Polish-style

This time 19 years ago:
London (to which I'm not planning to return)