I left home at half past three for my afternoon walk and was puzzled to see down the bottom of my lane a stationary freight train on the railway line. Six minutes later, it was still there, unmoved. This looked like a rake of empty Innofreight wagons, each carrying three containers used for conveying biomass to the power station at Siekierki. Thirty wagons, ninety containers.
Below: the freight train has clearly broken down and is blocking both the southbound ('down') passenger platform at Chynów station and the Jakubowizna level crossing. The Koleje Mazowieckie all-stations service to Radom Główny is approaching Platform 2 (on the 'up' line; note the red light on the front of the train indicating wrong-track working), the train having being switched onto the 'up' line further back up the line so as to go around the stranded freight train. The passenger train is running to time (15:42). A short queue of local vehicles is still waiting at the level crossing.
Below: The locomotive is a Czechoslovak Škoda 59E, 182 041-4, which is 62 years old (built in 1964), currently used by cargo operator Rail STM sp. z o.o. To its right, we see the Koleje Mazowieckie all-stations service to Warka approaching platform 2, having switched tracks further back up the line (again, red light showing wrong-track working). Amazingly, this service is also running to time (15:58). Once it passes through, the freight train manages to start, and clears the level crossing and the points just north of the station. Cars, trucks, vans and tractors, some of which had been waiting for up to half an hour by now, finally managed to move. Many drivers were wasting fuel and polluting the air by not turning off their engines! I noticed that the barriers on the level crossing to the south of Chynów station were also down with a long queue of traffic on either side.
But the broken-down freight train is starting to have a knock-on effect.
Below: here's the Radom-bound
Radomianka accelerated service swinging past the stationary freight train, now the points are clear, on its way to platform 2, Chynów station. As I lined up the shot at the long end of my 70-300mm zoom, I noticed a man, carrying several shopping bags, clambering over the ballast along the railway line, blithely unconcerned by the passing train. Must be not from here; if he were, he'd be walking along the asphalted road running parallel to the tracks. Walking on ballast is not comfortable nor easy, let alone if one is heavily burdened. Russian rail saboteur? Thought did cross my mind...
Below: the crippled freight train, still blocking the south-bound platform, is starting to cause increasing delays to passenger services. To the left we can see the Warsaw-bound Radomir 'accelerated' service, waiting for the Radom-bound Radomianka accelerated service (middle) to switch back to the 'down' line, having called at Chynów's platform 2. Both Koleje Mazowieckie double-decker trains are being pushed by their respective locomotives (these are push-pull sets that can be controlled from either end). Both services are running over 20 minutes late at this stage.
Once the two double-deckers were clear of Chynów station, the old freight loco managed to get its power back, and slowly made its way south towards Warka and Radom. Within half an hour, passenger services are back to normal, including the express trains that hurtle through without stopping at Chynów. Below: here comes the San InterCity service from Warsaw to Przemyśl, running to time.
The moral of the story? Things go wrong. A private freight operator, an elderly locomotive, a breakdown – but there are procedures in place and delays are limited to a handful of passenger trains. In the old days, the knock-on effects of an incident like this would have lasted hours.
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