The autumn deal

Spring is driven by syntropy; autumn by entropy. The breakdown – necessary for the next growth cycle – is here. The year has turned; the chlorophyll begins to breaks down, cellular machinery is being dismantled; nutrients are withdrawn into roots and woody tissues, leaves start to fall and the process of decomposition has begun. The structures of spring and summer are progressively being taken apart. Below: the long, straight dirt road between Dąbrowa Duża and Rososz.

How to dress comfortably for the changeable weather? Hot when the sun shines, colder when it doesn't

Below: on today's walk to the forest next door, I am accompanied by Céleste and her youngest son, Marss (with two 's's). The brothers and sisters are pumping up the volume – growing rapidly.

That determined facial expression is pure Marrs. 

A bright day brings out the recreational flyers. Here's a Sky Arrow 650 TCNS two-seat light aircraft, built in Italy, registered in Sweden, and a frequent sight over Chynów skies this summer.

Below: at the south-eastern edge of the village of Ławki, the sun comes out. bright and strong and hot. I take off my field jacket and remove the liner, stowing it in my rucksack. After putting the unlined jacket back on, I still feel too warm for comfort.

When the level crossing gate bells started ringing after a local train and an InterCity express had both headed north, I suspected some unusual movement on the tracks. And indeed… A diagnostic-measurement wagon (wagon diagnostyczno-pomiarowy) at the end of a rake of coaches heading north, between Sułkowice and Czachówek Południowy stations. 

Hauling the train is an EP09 locomotive (coincidentally I read today that this class of engine will be withdrawn from passenger-train duties before the end of 2028). This particular example, EP09-012, was built in 1991. It belongs to PKP Remtrak, the subsidiary of PKP group that specialises in repair, maintenance and overhaul of passenger rolling stock. (The above two photos are a bit hazy, despite a lot of Photoshop. When the rain stopped and the sun came out, condensation appeared between my lens and the front filter.)

Below: on the path to north-eastern edge of Ławki, and beyond that, Czachówek Południowy station. Although a hot sun was shining on my back, blowing my way were dark rain clouds bearing more rain. 

With the weather as capricious as it is, I decided not to continue on to Czachówek Górny as planned, but to stop at Czachówek Południowy and from there take the train back to Chynów instead. Below: a southbound InterCity express rushes through Czachówek Południowy, on the 'up' line, having overtaken the local service. The sun goes in behind the clouds, and I button the liner back into my jacket as my train arrives.

Two stops later, it delivered me to Chynów; on the short walk home, once again I was overheating.

Such is autumn, the entropic mirror of spring.

This time last year:
Gliwice – much nicer than I had expected

This time 13 years ago:
Poland does poorly in Global AgeWatch ranking

This time 14 years ago:

Warsaw, early autumn – a photo miscellany

This time 15 years ago:

The genius of Donald Tusk 

This time 16 years ago:

Eighteen die in minibus crash

Geomancy: in search of magical places

The other night, I woke with the thought which I immediately wrote down: "Places that bring biological energy and healing/places that bring wisdom & inspiration."  I went back to sleep and dreamt I was on my way to a business meeting in London and had to change trains at Hammersmith; the escalator between platforms turned into a stepladder which was getting narrower and narrower...

In the morning I looked up the notion of geomancy on Wikipedia: "The term geomancy was originally used to mean methods of divination that interpret geographic features, markings on the ground, or the patterns formed by soil, rocks, or sand. Its definition has expanded over time (along with the recognized definition of the suffix -mancy), to include any spiritual, metaphysical, or pseudoscientific practice that is related to the Earth. In recent times the term has been applied to a wide range of other occult and fringe activities." Earth mysteries, in other words.

Yes, this clicks. All the stuff about stone circles, ley lines, chakras, feng shui and the like; fine if you live in Wiltshire, but I'd like such a place within walking distance of my działka. A place that resonates with my aesthetic preferences, a place with a strong spirit of place, where everything fits together in harmony. I have been writing about spirit of place more or less since setting up this blog over 17 years ago, yet I am now drawn to a deeper search for what geographical location and alignment of horizon mean for the human experience.

Today I was drawn to return to Hill 126, in the forest to the west of the railway line, between Sułkowice and Czachówek Południowy. Other than a cyclist heading the other way as I entered the forest, I saw no one for an hour and half. It was blissful – the last day of astronomical summer, a cloudless sky, the temperature topping out at 25C. Despite autumn being near, there were no signs of it. No first leaves falling from the trees. No profusion of spiders' webs – just the odd strand here and there. No mosquitos. I could hear woodpeckers, tits and chaffinches. Otherwise silence (broken near the end of my sojourn by the sound of a distant chainsaw). The spell had been cast. The magic moments were recorded on my mobile phone because... (see below)...

I took a series of photographs in the forest on my Nikon Coolpix A. Getting back home, I took out the SD card to transfer the files to the laptop. As I did so, I noticed that every single shot I took in the forest had disappeared. Only one photo, taken on the way, remains on the SD card. This hasn't ever happened to me since taking up digital photography in February 2007. Second coincidence: yesterday on a call, discussing the recent discovery that the earth has an electric (as well as an electromagnetic) field, I mentioned the phrase 'earth mysteries' – and at this exact moment, a gust of wind blew the 20+ kg stone used to prop the front door open so hard, it caused the door to slam shut (and I have two witnesses!). Third coincidence. I'm writing this post and a colleague from work emails me about getting to a business meeting in London and changing underground trains at Farringdon station... (see dream at the top.)

So – hunting those magic places where physical effects have no physical cause is to be my calling.

Incidentally, the list of posts from this time in past years shows how strongly spirit of place affects my consciousness, creating those qualia experiences.

This time two years ago:
Gathering moss – and hops

This time three years ago:
Gdańsk, Northern Europe

This time four years ago:
Herons in Jeziorki, summer's end

This time five years ago:

Sublime September sun, Ealing

This time seven years ago:
Stepping up the pace

This time eight years ago:
Evolution of human consciousness

This time nine years ago:
Farewell to Ciocia Jadzia

This time ten years ago:
By train from to Konstancin and Siekierki

This time 11 years ago:
Summer's end, Jeziorki

This time 13 years ago:
Ząbkowska, Praga's newly hip thoroughfare

This time 15 years ago:
Catching the klimat

This time 17 years ago:
Road to Łuków - a road trip into the sublime

Ławki and Hill 126

Further explorations on foot from Jakubowizna, uncovering territories new. Across the DK50 northward I go, through Sułkowice, across the Czarna river and the railway line towards Budy Sułkowskie and then into the forest. I've not been here before. Soon after leaving the road, the trails become unclear, overgrown; in one place a bee-keeper has installed an apiary right across a forest track, fencing it off and watching over it  with CCTV cameras. I detour around the humming beehives, through the undergrowth, picking up the track on the other side. It runs through low-lying land and, filled with water, resembling more and more a stagnant river as I navigate its fringes. After a while, I make it onto drier land. 

Below: boggy ground – it looks solid enough, but the ground is sodden.

Below: The terrain starts to rise. The forest takes on a different character, there are more pines, the soil sandier. Strong sunlight streaming through the trees sets off that wonderful smell of coniferous resin, reminding me of summer holidays in Stella-Plage. 

A footpath takes me further up the hill, until I reach the summit, at a height of 126m above sea level (and about 14m higher than the boggy ground I'd just traversed). Below: view from the top of Hill 126, the highest point in the forest. Here, it becomes my sad duty to have to pick up and stow in my rucksack scattered litter including plastic water-bottles, a beer can, empty vape liquid containers and bits of broken bicycle light. I later dispose of these responsibly in a waste bin. How can anyone leave their shit up here is beyond me.

Below: the OpenStreetMap view of the forest (click to enlarge, open image in new tab and see at full scale). I walked through the entire forest from south-east to north-west without encountering a soul.

Below: ulica Główna (Main Street) in Ławki (as I've point out before, Ławki literally means 'little benches'). Note the amenities: a bus stop integrated into the Warsaw WTP agglomeration public transport network; a pedestrian-friendly speed limit; five-a-side football pitch, play park and outdoor fitness apparatus. Plenty of new houses; new asphalt links either end of this stretch of village road with Gabryelin and Biały Ług. The bus serving Ławki, by the way, is the L19, one of the L-for-Local routes that provide services across the nine poviats (districts) bordering Warsaw. As Ławki lies in the southernmost part of the Piaseczyński poviat, the L19 (which starts its journey from Pieczyska) goes further south than any other bus route in the WTP system. But Chynów is in Grójecki poviat; being the next poviat out beyond Piaseczyński and not bordering Warsaw directly, we don't get any WTP L- routes out our way.

Below: Ławki – where the streets have twee names. I've mentioned this phenomenon before in a blogpost about Polish street names – full-on Polnische Romantizmus. I can imagine a meeting of ladies in floral dresses at the local town hall coming up with these: from the top – Wild Corner Street, Spellbinding (or Bewitching) Street, and Morning Dew Street. These new street names are in keeping with the spirit of our age. Streets named after famous people or historical dates are so passé.

Having missed a southbound train by a few minutes at Czachówek Południowy, I continue northward to the next station, Czachówek Górny, at the centre of the Czachówek diamond, where the Warsaw-Radom line crosses the Skierniewice-Łuków line. While waiting for the Koleje Mazowieckie train to take me the three stations back to Chynów, I snap this empty coal train heading east (below), hauled by ET22-669. This freight-only line is busy; a few minutes later, an aggregates train heads west towards Skierniewice.

This really is a most beautiful time of year; my favourite quarter – from the vernal equinox to summer solstice. It's worth making the most of days like these. Total of over 19,000 paces walked today.

This time six years ago:
Warsaw-Radom

This time nine years ago:
Civilising Warsaw at the local level

This time ten years ago:
Rustic retreat rained off

This time 12 years ago:
Thunderstorm over Jeziorki

This time 13 years ago:
Getting lost on top of Łopień

This five 15 years ago:
Regulatory absurdities in Poland

This time t6 years ago:
Czachówek and Alignment

This time 17 years ago:
Joy, pain, sunshine, rain

As the wetlands ice over

Last visited in February last year, the wetlands between Ławki and Gabryelin have frozen solid (six nights well below zero); even though today, the thermometer showed +1C, I assessed the ice as being easily thick enough for exploration. First steps must always be cautious. The slippery surface is more of a worry than thin ice (although flowing waters, such as the Czarna river just across the railway line, have not iced over). Crossing ice means balancing curiosity with prudence.

Below: looking south towards Sułkowice, dead trees, their roots flooded, ring the wetlands' perimeter. Electricity the only sign of civilisation.

Below: fallen trees line the wetlands' edge. The forest beyond – as do the wetlands themselves – belong to state forestry enterprise, Lasy Państwowe. 

Below: a northbound Koleje Mazowieckie train passes between Sułkowice and Czachówek Południowy…

Below: …and the reverse view from the somewhat grimy windows of the southbound train rushing me back from Czachówek Południowy to Chynów.

It's a strange feeling, looking down at the ice – the multiplicity of animal tracks and the complete absence of human footprints. The wetlands can be covered by ice thick enough to walk on safely maybe for several days once every other year (certainly not the case last year), somehow the urge to explore among other folk isn't that strong. And I must say, I'm rather glad.

Below: having come off the ice, I'm back on the unasphalted road between Ławki and Gabryelin, in the distance Czachówek Południowy station. Here, the railway line spreads out, with four through tracks and a siding; there's an electricity substation and level crossing. And a good grocery store (Chorten) at which I top up with some fresh fruit & veg.

Below: returning to asphalt, and the edge of the village of Ławki. Classic Polish rural architecture – single story dwellings, with barns and garages to the rear. All is quiet and still.

Bonus shot – the new bridge over the Czarna river, in the snow.

This time two years ago:
On ice – on thick ice

This time five years ago:
Kraków in winter

This time six years ago:

Jeziorki mid-January catch-up

This time seven years ago:
On ice

This time eight years ago:
Tweeting and blogging

This time ten years ago:
The sad truth about the pavement for Karczunkowska
[The useless twats in the town hall still haven't built the fucker - except the volume of traffic has increased tenfold since the S7 extension opened.]

This time 14 years ago:
A haul of wintery wonderfulness

This time 15 years ago:
Optimal way to work?

This time 16 years ago:
Highest point in Jeziorki 
(photos of the Rampa before demolition)

Czachówek Wschodni and its new raised platform

Last summer there was a bit of a hoo-hah when it emerged that the new trains that Koleje Mazowieckie had bought (with EU regional funds) could not actually be used to serve the line to Góra Kalwaria because the platform there, and at the intermediary station stop, Czachówek Wschodni, were too low.

The platforms, at the same level as the railhead, made it impossible for those with impaired mobility to get on or off the new-generation trains, FLIRTs, Impluses or Elfs (even though Elf = Electric Low Floor). A hurried solution was suggested - running new trains on to Czachówek Południowy, and from there a shuttle service using the old rolling stock (modernised EN57s) to Góra Kalwaria. After interventions from local politicians, PKP PLK came up with a better solution - raise the platforms at the two stations. Not for the full length, only enough for a four-car unit. 

Work was completed in March, and now the new rolling stock serves passengers all the way through from Góra Kalwaria direct to Warsaw and back. 

I went to revisit Czachówek Wschodni. [Last summer's trip related here.] One thing struck me - the work was done on a budget - raise the platform level from 30cm to 55cm and do not do one hand's turn more than that. The old paving slabs were re-used (good!) and new platform edges built up to the statutory level. No new signage (about more anon).

Below: approaching the island platform from the north. Note the yellow barrier; to the right, the old platform level, closed off to passengers. To the left, a ramp sloping gently up to the height of the new platform.

Below: seen from the southern side of the tracks, a Warsaw-bound FLIRT unit pulls away from Czachówek Wschodni station. From this side, there is no signage whatsoever referring to the station, even the 'do not cross the tracks/no trespassing' signs that were once here have been removed. It may be that some day a Park+Ride will be established here, tempting local commuters to take the train to Piaseczno and Warsaw. One thing is more likely, the entire Skierniewice-Łuków line is up for modernisation, which is why the bare minimum has been spent on the two passenger stations along its length.

Below: a former East German BR232 diesel loco (made in the USSR) hauls a coal train through Czachówek Wschodni. Privately operated by CTL Logistics. Note the platform surface; the central part is made of the old paving slabs, to either side, with regulation yellow line, the new surfaces.

Below: a real shocker. To the uninitiated, the 'Private Terrain Entry Prohibited' sign looks like it applies to the one and only official path from the street to the station. There is literally no other sign around here. Nothing to tell anyone that there is a railway station beyond (what I gather) this point, a station from which hourly trains run into Warsaw. It is scandalous that this misleading sign exists here; it is even more scandalous that there's no big white-on-blue signage as found outside every other PKP station across the land. And of course, there's no mention of the station at the nearby bus loop, a mere two-minute walk away, where the local L30 bus route from Góra Kalwaria terminates.

Below: old level and new - photo taken from the eastern end of the (old) platform. In the distance, a barrier, and a rise up to the new platform level, which is about half of the old platform's original length.

Below: a curious Marian shrine in the village of Czarny Las, in the form of a cylindrical pillar. Looks more like a Napoleonic war memorial than what one expects from local devotions.

Below: photo taken looking east along the Skierniewice-Łuków line, from what was the platform of the no-longer existent Czachówek Środkowy station, towards Czachówek Wschodni. Standing waiting for a signal is the same coal train I snapped earlier.

Below: photo taken from Czachówek Górny of a Warsaw-bound FLIRT set having come off the spur linking the Skierniewice-Łuków line to the main Warsaw-Radom line. 

Below: the way things were at Góra Kalwaria, shortly after passenger services from Warsaw were reinstated - the platform was too low - and too short.

Below: (bonus shot) the old bridge over the river Czarna, between Czachówek Południowy and Sułkowice, has been demolished and a new one is being built, and, I presume, new asphalt will be laid on either side of the bridge improving local road infrastructure around here, allowing mud-free access to the village of Ławki from Sułkowice at last. [See here how it looked a few months ago.]

As I wrote last year, there are three Czachówek stations (Czachówek Górny, Czachówek Południowy and Czachówek Wschodni - and none of them are in Czachówek. Górny is located in Bronisławów, Południowy is in Gabryelin, and Wschodni in Czarny Las. And, as I mentioned above, there was a fourth Czachówek, Środkowy (demolished in 2013, serving passengers until 2001).

Postscript 25 May: I visited Czachówek Wschodni at the weekend; travelling into town today I saw a Góra Kalwaria train passing through W-wa Młynów. To my surprise, it was composed of two five-car units - way too long for the platforms at Czachówek Wschodni and Góra Kalwaria. So on my way from town, I caught a Góra Kalwaria train to see what was going on... At Zalesie Górne, the train conductor boarded the rear unit and walked through it's length, asking every passenger to where they were going. Everyone travelling beyond Ustanówek was asked to move to the front unit. I asked the conductor why - he explained that the new, raised, platforms at Czachówek Wschodni and Góra Kalwaria were too short for a ten-car set, so the rear five-car unit needed to be emptied of passengers before the train turned off the main line south of Ustanówek. The whole procedure suggests to me a short-term remedy - my hope is that one day before too long then entire Skierniewice-Łuków line will be modernised, and that passenger trains will return to the whole line, not just serving two stations along its length.

Below: Looking south from the platform at Ustanówek towards the northern apex of the Czachówek diamond. To the left the train I'd travelled on (a FLIRT), waiting for the spur to the Skierniewice-Łuków line to clear, to its right, a Warsaw-bound train (an Impuls) that is joining the main line on its way from Góra Kalwaria. Photo taken at the long end of my Nikon Coolpix P900's zoom.

This time last year:

S7 extension progress

This time two years ago:

Town and country

This time three years ago:
Covid and economy recovery

This time four years ago:
Electric cars for hire by the minute
(but a memory now!)

This time seven years ago:
Mszczonów - another railway junction

This time 11 years ago:
The Devil is in Doubt - short story, part I

This time 12 years ago:
Stormclouds are raging all around my door

This time 13 years ago:
Floods endanger Warsaw

This time 14 years ago:
Coal line rarity

Big new railway project for southern Warsaw

This project has been talked about for many years, but finally plans have been announced and public consultations are under way. 

I'm referring to the idea of turning the Siekierki coal-train line into a proper, electrified, suburban commuter railway, all the way to Konstancin-Jeziorna. [I wrote about this back in 2014!] Now, this project also involves doubling up track from Warsaw all the way down to Czachowek Południowy, to increase throughput capacity for suburban traffic. This therefore means four tracks all the way to Czachówek, meaning that Zalesie Górne, Piaseczno, Nowa Iwiczna and all suburban stations from W-wa Jeziorki northwards will need new platforms. Eight brand-new stations are proposed, with a further two in reserve.

This is how the project, as currently proposed, will look... [Full documentation in Polish –  Dobudowa torów aglomeracyjnych na odcinku Warszawa Al. Jerozolimskie – Piaseczno wraz z połączeniem do Konstancina-Jeziornej is here.] Below: a schematic representation of the proposed project.

At the Warsaw end, a new connection to the Radom line will be built from W-wa Włochy, allowing trains approaching Warsaw from the west to swing south directly without having to change direction at W-wa Zachodnia.

This means that W-wa Aleje Jerozolimskie will get two new platforms with three new platform edges. A new station, W-wa Instalatorów, will be built between W-wa Aleje Jerozolimskie and W-wa Rakowiec stations. Extra (island) platforms will also be have to be built at W-wa Rakowiec and W-wa Żwirki i Wigury stations. At W-wa Służewiec station, the current island platform will be removed and replaced by two new island platforms, and (at last!) a new passage under the tracks will be built allowing access to the station from the south (at the moment you either have to walk a 700m detour or cross the track illegally and jump up onto the platform). Several new footbridges are also planned along this stretch, also something to be praised.

W-wa Okęcie, rebuilt in 2016-17, will be demolished yet again and moved further north of its current location, in the form of a pair of island platforms, linked by an underground passage. Something else that's sorely needed is a new station, W-wa Poleczki, between W-wa Okęcie and W-wa Dawidy. This will be built on the north side of the viaduct carrying ulica Poleczki over the tracks and the S79 expressway, and will be hugely useful to folk working in the numerous offices and warehouses that have sprung up around here in recent years.

Another brand-new station that's being proposed is W-wa Krasnowola, on ul. Zatorze, with one island platform; this will be located north of the S79/S2/S7 expressway junction. At present, this will just be a reserve, with a planned option for building it at an unspecified later date. Four new railway viaducts will be needed to cross over the S2 just south of this location.

W-wa Dawidy and W-wa Jeziorki stations, which as long-term readers of this blog will remember were once served by island platforms, will once again become island platforms, straddled this time by not one but two tracks on either side. Ulica Baletowa will go under the railway line; a new viaduct will be built some 400m to the south connected by a new road parallel to ul. Kórnicka and joining the S7's eastern service road on the other side.

A similar story at Nowa Iwiczna, which also reverts to an island platform, and the good news for local residents is that a viaduct is in the plans for ul. Krasickiego, replacing the infamous level crossing there.

It is south of Nowa Iwiczna that the coal-train line swing off towards Piaseczno and Konstancin. This will run double-tracked (and electrified) all the way to a final stop, Konstancin-Jeziorna-Mirkowska. En route, trains will stop at the following new stations: Piaseczno Mleczarska, Piaseczno Energetyczna (adjacent to ul. Puławska - brilliant solution!), Piaseczno Julianowska (serving Julianów), Piaseczno Śniadeckich (the eastern end of Julianów) with a reserve stop at Konstancin-Jeziorna Głowackiego (for the south-west corner of the Las Kabacki forest), past the coal-train sidings, then on to Konstancin-Jeziorna, serving the town centre (on ul. Warszawska), over a new junction where the new passenger line bids farewell to the coal train, which heads off north to Siekierki power station, and finally on to the end of the line, at Konstancin-Jeziorna-Mirkowska. 

So that's the new passenger line to Konstancin. Meanwhile, on the Warsaw-Radom line, before it gets to Piaseczno station, there will be another station, Piaseczno Północ, south of ul. Słoneczna, along the route of the new DW721 bis (that phantom road from the stump-end of the new S7's Węzeł Lesznowola that will one day run to Piaseczno. This was once mooted as Stara Iwiczna station, but the DW721 bis made that plan obsolete.

At Piaseczno, a station newly rebuilt and now serving as the end of the SKM lines S4 and S40, the current platforms will be dismantled and replaced with two new island platforms serving the four tracks, and a new footbridge built at the station's southern side.

The level crossing in Żabieniec will be replaced with a viaduct. At Zalesie Górne, the current platforms will be replaced with a pair of island platforms, and the level crossing on ul. Pionierów will be replaced by a viaduct.

The same will happen at Ustanówek and Czachówek Górny, with island platforms replacing the newly built platforms that now lie on either side of the tracks. The Czachówek diamond will remain as is, with just single tracks connecting west to north, north to east, east to south and south to west spurs.

At Czachówek Południowy station, which already has two island platforms serving four tracks, the existing platforms will be extended to the south. The existing level crossing will be replaced by a viaduct 200 metres further south. And here, the four tracks will merge into the two that will carry trains local and express on to Radom via Chynów, Warka and Dobieszyn as they do today.

The upshot of all this track-doubling is that once done, during the rush hours, the line will be able to accommodate one local train every five minutes (!) and one InterCity train every 15 minutes. Excellent!

Public consultations are taking place up and down the line until early June. The full timetable of dates and venues here. (My nearest one will be in Uwieliny, near Zalesie Górne, on 29 May). My fear is an outcrop of BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything), the radical wing of the NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard). I can see this around the project to link the Radom line from Warka to Grójec. Of the 12 variants put up for discussion, all 12 have been shouted down the local communities, including here in Chynów. 

Even if the whole Konstancin rail project goes ahead, my experience (S79, S2, S7, Warsaw-Radom modernisation, all covered on this blog) suggests that it might be 2033 at the earliest before we actually see this completed. The tender for the detailed design is not to be announced until the second half of 2025. From then, another five years could pass before construction work begins in earnest, so provided there are no delays, 2033 is possible.

This time last year:
Prime spring, Jakubowizna

This time seven years ago:
Classic car show, Nadarzyn

This time eight years ago:

Classic vehicles at London's VE-Day 70 celebrations

This time ten years ago:
Malodorous passengers on Warsaw's public transport

This time 12 years ago:
Inside Filtry - Warsaw's waterworks (Museum Night 2011)

This time 13 years ago:
Warsaw's Museum Night 2010

This time 14 years ago:
On Transcendence

Wetlands between Sułkowice and Gabryelin

Between Sułkowice and Gabryelin with its misnamed station lies swampy land lying alongside the Czarna ('black') river. A small part of this wetland is owned by Polish state forestry operator, Lasy Państwowe - the rest is unclaimed marsh. You can see this clearly from the train as it rushes past; recent track modernisation has focused on proper drainage to ensure the rail bed won't be washed away from underneath. The village that lies to the west of the tracks is called Ławki (ława = bench, ławka, diminutive of ława, therefore 'little bench', ławki, plural =little benches).

Below: the Czarna river demarcating the border between Sułkowice and Ławki, a Warsaw-bound Koleje Mazowieckie train heading north. I like the colour of the land at this time of year - burnt umber, yellow ochre, black, grey and white.

Below: across the Czarna, across the tracks, and into Little Benches from the north side. This is ulica Południowa ('South Street'); no asphalt.

I have long intended to explore this wetland when it ices over - sadly, the past week, which saw night-time temperatures reach lows of -9C, ended with a thaw, and there weren't enough consecutive days of deep frost for the whole area to freeze over. But I did manage to walk alongside the track on the dirt road restored (for access to the new pumping station) during the modernisation of the Warsaw-Radom railway line. Below: this is what I'm talking about - it would be brilliant to have ice thick enough to stroll out into these wetlands. Only deep in mid-winter can one have a nose around this submerged terrain. I'd be interested to see what wildlife I'd spot, even at this time of year.

Below: this is an extensive - some 30 hectares - area of no-man's land, too wet for trees, too wet to farm, between the railway line and the houses of Ławki.

Below: Ławki from the north. This is ul. Główna ('Main Street'), which received asphalt and a (very narrow) pavement around the time the railway modernisation reached these parts. Note the bus stop; from here, you can catch the L19 local service to Pieczyska. The next stop along, Ławki, is the nearest bus stop to my działka (5km as the crow flies); going the other way, the L19 runs all the way to Piaseczno. 'Gimbus', by the way, is the school bus to the local gimnazjum ('junior high').

Below: approaching Czachówek Południowy station, a southbound InterCity train on its way to Kraków. For some reason, around here, I'm getting a consistent flashback vibe to a day in the early 1960s when my parents and I visited friends of theirs who lived in Leytonstone, East London. I'm not sure what triggered this, but I could feel the klimat of that journey, right across London and back, quite clearly; I remember being struck by how comparatively poor the East End felt compared to West London.

Below: roadsign in Gabryelin; is it not time to change the icon for 'station' to something more modern than a steam loco? I associate this pictogram with a heritage railway site... Anyway, the building on the left in the distance is the local Carrefour Express. Last time I was here, in the summer, it was a Sunday, so it was closed. Today, I shall pop in to do a small shop. My hopes are for a decent sélection of French fromages and charcuterie...

But no. Another disappointing rural retail experience - Gabryelin's Carrefour Express has far more modest fare than Chynów's Top Market and is slightly more expensive. Small-format Żabka stores in Warsaw have a more varied and interesting range. So I buy some fruit and veg (no cheese - no choice!) then back to Czachówek Południowy station for the train back to Chynów. With over 60s discount, I pay 4.87zł (90p) for the 6km journey.

Below: stepping from a cold platform into a warm carriage for a short ride meant that the lens of my Nikon Coolpix A was fogged over as the train headed back past the lands I'd just walked over, yielding a pleasant Impressionist image. Everything between the tracks in the foreground to the distant treeline is boggy ground.

I hope there will yet be winters to come when these wetlands freeze over sufficiently for a full exploration deep into the reeds. I doubt such an opportunity will come before this spring.

This time three years ago:
Dark, wet, gloomy February - but no winter.

This time four years ago:
The filth and the fury

This time seven years ago:
Defining the human experience

This time nine years ago:
The City of Warsaw wants you to complain

This time ten years ago:
Czachówek's wild woods in winter

This time 11 years ago:
Vistula freezes over downstream of Warsaw 

This time 12 years ago:
Twilight of the Ikars

This time 13 year ago:
Polish TV adverts for parapharmaceuticals

This time 14 years ago:
Jeziorki wetlands in winter

This time 15 years ago:
A week into Lent

"Don't call me Czachówek - my name is Gabryelin"

When the railway line between Warsaw and Radom was built in the 1930s, it ran through sparsely populated rural areas; station names were allocated with scarcely a thought for how the areas they serve would develop. Czachówek Południowy station was originally Czachówek before the war, as the one station serving the area between Ustanówek to the north and Chynów to the south (Sułkowice and Czachówek Górny stations would be built later).

During the height of the Stalinist era, along came the Skierniewice-Łuków line. A requirement of the Red Army - so it could get its troops to the western front bypassing Warsaw, seen as a nest of counter-revolutionary saboteurs - the line was a strategic priority. It passed under the Warsaw-Radom line north of the original Czachówek station. Over time, passenger services began to run over the Skierniewice-Łukow line, so it made sense to connect the two lines with a pair of adjacent stations (Czachówek Górny on the embankment carrying the Warsaw-Radom line over the Skierniewice-Łuków line, and Czachówek Środkowy in the middle of the diamond of spurs connecting the two main lines). And with the building of these, as well as Czachówek Wschodni to the east serving the village of Czarny Las, the original station of Czachówek needed a new name to distinguish it from all the other Czachówek stations. And so Czachówek Południowy came to be. It was renamed in 1962, when the Górny station opened.

But - as I wrote yesterday - the thing to note about Czachówek Południowy station is that it is not actually in Czachówek, but in the neighbouring village of Gabryelin. It is not even in the same gmina (municipality or commune) as Czachówek. 

Gabryelin doesn't like the name of its station. In 2007 there was a local poll in which the majority of inhabitants who voted said that Czachówek Południowy should be renamed Gabryelin. A second preference was 'Czachówek-Gabryelin'. I read that local activists painted over the signboards and replaced them with Gabryelin. Such demonstrations tend not to work. The modernisation of the line (2017-2020) cemented the name Czachówek Południowy with new-style signage. 

So - what to do? Retaliate...

Last year, the village authorities put up two huge signs, on either side of the tracks. The message is clear - Czachówek Południowy may well be situated on PKP territory, who are entitled to call their station what they like, but just take on step off the platforms and you're in Gabryelin. The choice of font (Drogowskaz - as seen on road signs - rather than Paneuropa Bold as used for station signage) is not accidental. Neither is the size - far larger than the normal white-on-green lettering seen when one drives into a town or village. The size is such that it can be read from a train passing at speed.

Gabryelin has aspirations to have its status changed from village to town as its population grows; this is very much what I predict will be happening across exurban Poland. A mere 36.6km from Warsaw Central station, with frequent (and the occasional fast) services to town, Gabryelin is the kind of place where more and more people will choose to live. It even has a Carrefour Express (rather than a Leviatan, Dino or Top Market)! A station named after the place it serves attracts investment, the village reasons.

Below: nice touch - a local map. Solectwo - the smallest unit of local government, a subdivision of a gmina. Headed by an elected sołtys or village elder with executive powers.

Below: modernised, Czachówek Południowy lacks working lifts (there's not the space for ramps, like at Chynów station). The lifts - installed with great delay - are perpetually broken. As they were today. There's no exit from the southern end of the platforms - as there was before the lifts were ready. Local people clamber over the tracks there anyway. Sod the locals? Sod your rules. And - unusual for a station of this size - there's no ticket machine. So boarding my train to Chynów, the conductor bid me go to the front of the train to buy my ticket. I joined a long queue; two stations on, I'd reached my destination, and so I hopped off without paying.

Below: in the underpass between the platforms; signage for the exit for Gabryelin... Centrum!

I wonder whether Gabryelin will see the day when the name of this station changes. Part of me is rooting for the villagers. Part of me, however, likes the notion of a village without a railway line lending its name to three stations that don't even serve it. A nice absurdity.

This time last year:
Accounting for Coincidence
[The Henry Cow-Benjamin Piekut story]

This time two years ago:
Działka food

This time three years ago:
Proper summer in Warsaw

This time four years ago:
Poland's trains failing in the heat

This time five years ago:
"Learn from your mystics is my only advice"

This time six years ago:
Out where the pines grow wild and tall

This time nine years ago:
Behold and See (part V) - short story

This time ten years ago:
Syrenki in Warsaw

This time 11 years ago:
What's the Polish for 'impostor'?

This time 12 years ago:
Running with the storm on the road to Mamrotowo

This time 14 years ago:
St Pancras Station - new gateway to London

This time 15 years ago:
Mountains or sea? North Wales has them both

Czachówek Wschodni - strange little station

I have long been fascinated by the railway junction at Czachówek and its three stations. Situated where the main Warsaw-Radom line crosses the east-west Skierniewice-Łuków line, it features a diamond alignment allowing trains from any one point of the compass to go to any one of the remaining three. 

Czachówek Górny ('upper' Czachówek) and Czachówek Południowy (southern Czachówek) sit on the Warsaw-Radom line; Górny being a halt, Południowy being a proper station with extra platforms where express trains can pass. Today, I want to focus on the quiet country halt of Czachówek Wschodni, which for several reasons is a particularly interesting station.

The first thing to bear in mind about Czachówek is that none of the three station are in Czachówek. Czachówek Południowy is situated in the village of Gabryelin (more about that in a separate post); Czachówek Górny is in the village of Bronisławów, while Czachówek Wschodni is in the village of Czarny Las. And the actual village of Czachówek is without a station (though close enough to all three).

In the distant past, passenger trains would serve the entire Skierniewice-Łuków route; today only the short stretch from Czachówek to Góra Kalwaria sees services. However, these are infrequent, with only eight pairs of trains a day - eight to Warsaw, eight to Góra (as locals call it). The trains swing down the spur from Ustanówek, north of Czachówek, stop at Czachówek Wschodni and continue the 6.5km to Góra Kalwaria (or rather its north-western edge).

Once upon a time, there used to be a station called Czachówek Środkowy ('middle' Czachówek). Also in the village of Bronisławów, the station building was demolished some ten years ago (click on the link above for a photo and its location in the middle of the diamond).

So - let's look at Czachówek Wschodni in detail. Located in Czarny Las (which I somehow see as 'Črny Les'), a village of 400 people, the station is literally invisible from the street. There is no, like zero, signage to tell you that it's there. Not even an A4 sheet of paper with a hand-drawn arrow in a plastic sleeve sellotaped to a lamp post. 

Below: the bus loop at the end of the L30 route, which terminates just 200m from the platforms of Czachówek Wschodni station. There's no mention of possible 'convenient change' between modes; looking at bus and train timetable, there's obviously no effort made to coordinate arrivals. If, for example, you want to take the 11:11 train to Warsaw, the bus you'll need arrives here at 10:46. Ah - and no buses at the weekend.

Below: access to the platforms. Nothing on the street saying 'Czachówek Wschodni this way'; if you didn't know (and I didn't) you could be walking through private land, someone's drive - there are no tell-tale hallmarks of a public right of way at all. A portly chap in white vest was watching me suspiciously; I asked him the way to the station - he then politely explained to me the right way - turn right, turn left at the post, across the track and you're there.

Below: looking along the platform from the western end. Note how low the platform is - just one brick high compared to track level. This is a big problem for the train operator, Koleje Mazowieckie. The latest trains - the Impuls and FLIRTs cannot cope with the low platforms here nor at the terminus station one stop down at Góra Kalwaria. Unlike every station on the Warsaw-to-Radom line which has been thoroughly modernised to EU standards, with level access, tunnels or lifts or both - Czachówek Górny and Góra Kalwaria have received little more than platform signs in corporate colours.

Below: looking west from the eastern end of the platform. The tracks on either side of the main line are completely overgrown. The inability to run modern trains to these two stations means that from the next timetable change in December, there will be a shuttle service consisting of old rolling stock, running between Góra Kalwaria and Czachówek Południowy for connections there to the main line.

Not this way - there's no official way from the south side of the tracks to the platforms. No crossing of the tracks here, says the sign - but looking at the well-trodden path, I can see that the local populace doesn't take that ban too seriously. 

Below: signage on the platforms is acceptable. Timetables, other information all properly displayed.

I saw three goods trains, no passenger service. Here comes an interesting freight train - a Deutsche Bahn loco hauling aggregate wagons eastward (below).

What's this I espy? It's an old 2-10-0 Kriegslok, in deplorable state. Either a German-built Ty2 or post-war Polish-built Ty42. Given that the tracks leading into this yard (former overhead traction maintenance depot at the western end of the platforms) have mature trees growing between them, this loco must have been sitting here a while - and yet I've never noticed it before, despite this being a well-worn motorcycling route for me, passing just outside the fenced enclosure.

[Below: same engine type, same angle, but in happier circumstances: from 2008, a tourists' special from Dobra to Chabówka railway museum. An aside prompted by the congruence of the photos.]

Below: a lovely and historically significant train - a 1938 narrow-gauge diesel railcar, one of just four built at the Lilpop, Rau & Loewenstein factory in Warsaw before the war. This is MBxd1 344. Used on the Grójec railway - who knows - maybe my grandmother took this very train to her hometown of Mogielnica during the German occupation of Warsaw to buy food for her sons. I heard the sound of metalwork coming from that shed on the right - and a parked car; someone's dedicating their summer Sunday to restoration work? Hope so...

Below: not only old trains, but old cars too. From left to right: FSD Nysa N59, two Polski Fiat 125Ps and an FSO Polonez. A little cluster of historic transport - will they be restored?

Below: rear view of the vehicles. That Nysa N69 is very rare - only third one I've seen since beginning this blog.

Tomorrow - observations from another station that's not named after the village it serves!

This time four years ago:
Wrocław's Ostrów Tumski

This time nine years ago:
Behold and See - short story - Part IV
[My longest work of fiction thus far...]

This time ten years ago:
A new-found fascination for Mars

This time 11 years ago:
Rhetorical question: why the fuss?

This time 12 years ago:
Varsovians! Ditch the car - buy a quarterly karta miejska
[Today 250zł, still excellent value at 4zł per working day]

This time 13 years ago:
The limited interests of mankind's geniuses

This time 14 years ago:
Into the fading light

This time 15 years ago:
Ar y Ffordd i Pwyl Rhydd
(a little bit of Poland in North Wales)