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

High summer in Chynów - storms, fruit and exercise.

This is a lovely photograph, taken around the corner from my działka, a few minutes after Saturday's sunset. Looking north from Chynów. Good to see local people exercising - quite a few cyclists, roller-bladers and Nordic walkers out at this time of day. 

Taken from the same place, at the same time - but with a totally different lens. Instead of a telephoto zoom at 300mm, a super-wide-angle zoom at 10mm. The red glow of the horizon a few minutes after sunset is all you get when zoomed in tight - but  rise above it, and then the sky gradually turns a deep blue. Nearly three weeks after the year's latest sunset, the day has lost just seven minutes in the evening; hardly noticeable - yet.

Friday's storm caught me briefly; there was trouble on the Radom line (it's still not right since the 28 June reopening); I jumped onto a Góra Kalwaria train that arrived at W-wa Jeziorki when a Radom train was due, which meant changing trains at Ustanówek (below). By the time I reached the shelter at the end of the platform, the downpour began - mercifully it turned into a regular rainfall by the time I emerged from the pedestrian tunnel in Chynów, and got home to the działka just slightly wet.

On Sunday the sun disappeared behind a bank of cloud on the north-western horizon, but a far more ominous one was heaving in from the south-east. Flashes of lightning occurring often; as I turned the corner, the downdraft from the rainstorm suddenly whipped up, tearing leaves off the trees. A good day's walking, 15,000 paces (compensating for a shortage of paces on the rainy Friday).

Taken from nearly the same point as the top photo, but looking the other way. I set off with the wrong camera; I had hoped to do some extreme zooms of the Warsaw skyline with my Nikon Coolpix P900. Sadly, the skyscrapers were hardly visible. When the storm approached, I was armed with the P900 (which does not do wide-angle well) and my phone. Neither is optimised for extracting subtlety from the heavens, nor capable of taking .NEF (RAW) files to work on in Photoshop for an accurate rendition of what I saw and felt. So - an approximation.

I got home from my walk about ten minutes before the heavens really opened. In the meanwhile, the sweet cherries that haven't been picked or eaten by the birds have rotted and fallen; the sour cherry season is getting into full swing, and I've been picking blackcurrants to make more nalewki. Current score - 11 jars of various size, enough for about three litres, once the secondary fermentation has been carried out. Plenty more to come - the classic wiśniówka next! It should also be a good year for blackberries, though the raspberries coming through are meagre and dry.

[Update 14 July - it's been like Groundhog Day this week; I wake up, open the roller blinds, the sun's shining in a cloudless sky. As the day goes on, the clouds build up to the east. As five o'clock comes along, the lid goes down on the laptop, I stroll out for blackcurrants. It's hot. I'm sweating as I pick the berries. To the east, the increasingly frequent claps of thunder from an ever-darker sky - to the west, the sun continues to shine, untroubled to cloud. A contest between east and west. Wind is blowing from the high-pressure area to the low-pressure area - a good sign, because it means the downdraft, caused by large volumes of water falling out of the clouds, is still a long way off. As I finish picking the blackcurrants, the wind starts to veer. The thunder and lightning become almost continuous; as I start climbing the gentle slope up towards my działka, there's no mistaking the downdraft. By seven, the storm reaches Jakubowizna. Lights on - it's dark outside. And yet sunset's nearly two hours away. Repeat the following day.]

Update 17 July - as I cross the tracks to pick blackcurrants, I'm passed by a group of six cyclists. Nice bikes, and cracking performance! No one whistling show-tunes here!

This time last year:
Summer wet and dry
[A pattern is emerging!]

This time three years ago:
Rainy summer Warsaw moods

This time six years ago:
Marathon stroll along the Vistula

This time seven years ago:
Complaining about the lack of a river crossing between Siekierki and Góra Kalwaria! 

This time eight years ago:
S2 update 

This time nine years ago:
Progress on S2 bypass - photos from the air

This time 11 years ago:
Up Śnieżnica

This time 14 years ago:
July continues glum (2007 - yet another rainy summer)

New Nikons on the way!

Very excited by news that Nikon,  my camera-maker of choice, is about to release new models. Thanks to my neighbour Tomek for flagging up the impending release of the CoolPix P1000 superzoom with an amazing 24-3000mm (equivalent) lens. If its predecessor was impressive in the superzoom stakes with its 24-2000mm (equivalent) lens, the new beast will get you closer still to that wildlife, planes at cruising altitude, moon and distant objects. This will be an extreme piece of kit.

However... with such a narrow field of view when zoomed right out, it becomes tricky to hand-hold (despite the five-stop vibration reduction giving the sharpness of 1/3000th of a second shutter speed at 1/125th sec). Hunting around the sky or the pond for your subject can be frustrating at 2000mm (like trying to spot the moon with a straw held to your eye), let alone at 3000mm.

The other major downside of the P1000 is its size and weight; it weighs 1.4kg (compared to the 900g of the P900) and is longer, wider and taller. Having that extra half-kilo around your neck for any length of time becomes tiresome.

At the end of the day, both camera share the same tiny sensor (see this post for a comparison of Nikon sensors and what that means for image quality). Wide angle shots taken with superzooms are generally poor in terms of dynamic range - the bigger the sensor, the better it performs in low-light and with wide-angle lenses. Having said that, on a bright, sunny day, the results at the long end of the zoom are little short of miraculous, and the alternative (having to drag around real 3000mm lens for a full-frame sensored camera or a 2000mm lens for an APS-C sensored camera) is a task for weightlifters.

I think for my needs, I shall stick with the P900. With it, I've taken my best bird photos; for walks around Jeziorki's lakes on sunny days, it is unbeatable. I don't think that extra zooming ability compensates for the P1000's extra weight.

Below: photograph of today's half moon. Nikon CoolPix P900, lens at 357mm (2000mm equivalent), 1/160 sec, no tripod, f6.5, ISO 400. Quite amazing really. With the P1000, you'll be 50% closer to the moon, the ability to shoot .RAW means you'll be able to pull more detail out of the highlights (and shadows). More a demonstration of what's possible than anything arty or sciency.

On to the next Nikons due to appear soon. These I have been waiting for ever since I tested the Fuji X100; digital mirrorless cameras with full-frame sensors and interchangeable lenses. It's been a long wait! (blog post from last September here).

Rumoured to be called Nikon's Z-series cameras, these will dispense with the flip-up mirror arrangement of single-lens reflex cameras (such as my Nikon D3300). This makes - in theory, anyway - the camera smaller and lighter. Going back to the era of film cameras, this is visible in the size and weight of the Leica M-series rangefinder camera and the much bulkier professional Nikon and Canon SLR models. The Leica M is more discrete, happier in a street-photography environment than great big SLRs with motordrives and huge lenses.

Because there's no mirror in a rangefinder/mirrorless camera, the lenses can be placed nearer the film/sensor and thus be designed smaller and lighter. The promise of a smaller body and smaller lens is appealing to someone like me who can spend many hours walking with a camera hanging from the neck. Plus - the 'step up' to full-frame means higher image quality, more rewarding photos. I greatly enjoy using my Nikon CoolPix A mirrorless camera - it's compact and has a great lens - but the new cameras will have interchangeable lenses and a full-frame sensor. However - if it's too heavy - I'll not buy. Body and standard kit zoom lens together should weigh no more than 900g.

There are said to be two Z-series Nikons at launch; one will have a 45 megapixel sensor, the second a more-modest 24 MP sensor. I'd go the whole hog and spend the extra on the better-specced model, despite the price; it will have professional-quality robustness and should last for ages, plus (through a converter) it will be able to take all my old 35mm Nikkor lenses (28mm, 105mm f1.8, 55mm macro, 135mm and 35-70mm zoom). I'm looking forward to more news!

I have been reviewing my digital photos from the last few years and regret not having taken more using the .RAW format option. This allows you to extract more detail from the shadow and highlight areas of the photo than is possible in the compressed .jpg format. While .jpg is more than adequate for blogging, the quality is suboptimal for making large prints and really getting the most from the photo. I started shooting .RAW and .jpg (each snap gives two files) last September. This takes up more space on the memory card and more space on my desktop computer and back-up hard drive, but it is really worth it, especially when using the latest versions of Adobe Photoshop. Sadly, the Nikon CoolPix P900 does not have a .RAW option (the new P1000 does, but this won't swing my decision not to buy).

This time six years ago:
Work continues on S2, going under the railway lines

This time seven years ago:
Stand Easy! - a short story

This time ten years ago:
God Save The Queen - I mean it, Ma'am

This time 11 years ago:
Legoland, Dawidy Poduchowne

Great crested grebes and swans hatched

Last week it was the black-necked grebes, this week it's the turn of the great crested grebes to show off their newly-hatched young. Much to my surprise. Firstly - much early than last year (one pairs' eggs hatched around 10 June, the other pairs' hatched on 1 July). Secondly - a large brood - five chicks (last year it was four and three respectively).

Below: mother and chicks - not sitting on mum's back - but then carrying five is a big task. As soon as they're ready, they're off and in the water, parents close at hand to feed and protect them.

Below: both parents and three little ones, the rest following on out of shot.

Below: mother gathers them all in...

Below: father surfaces with a morsel for one of the five... these are testing times for evolutionary biology. Can the female find a mate fit enough to keep coming up with the food needed to keep the entire brood alive? Which of the chicks will fight hard enough to get more than its fair share of the food being provided.

Below: further on towards the north end of the ponds, I catch my first sight of this year's clutch of cygnets, a day or two old, following their mother out of the rushes, in which lies the nest where they were hatched.

Below: a better view of the flotilla. Seven today - seven last year. But of last year's seven, only four survived. Which ones won't survive this year? Let's hope they all do well.

Below: dad identifies himself as 2KC1, back again. This couple have been coming here each year since they were juveniles. He doesn't feed the young (unlike the flesh-eating grebes, where the young aren't yet smart enough to catch small fish or larvae, the cygnets eat vegetation, and have litte trouble feeding themselves as soon as they are hatched). Nor does he swim in close formation to the brood; he's happy sunning himself, watching his family from a distance.

This time last year:
The year of the grebe
[the black-necked grebe chicks hatched a week earlier this year]

This time two years ago:
Jeziorki birds in the late May sunshine

This time three years ago:
Making sense of Andrzej Duda's win

This time four years ago:
Call it what it is: Okęcie

This time five years ago:
Three stations in need of repair

This time six years ago
Late evening, Śródmieście

This time seven years ago:
Ranking a better life

This time nine years ago:
Paysages de Varsovie

This time ten years ago:
Spring walk, twilight time

Jeziorki's grey herons

One of the larger birds to be found in Jeziorki, along with the swan and the pheasant, the grey heron's habitat has been changed of late, what with the new park being built along the northern side of our ponds. This year, I've only seen the grey heron on the southern-most fringes of the southern-most pond, and here, on the pond by ul. Pozytywki. The grey heron is a predator and eats fish and small aquatic animals. Its face, in anthropomorphic, terms looks aggressive, annoyed, unhappy - unlike the placid, comical duck faces.

First shots of a heron taken with my Nikon CoolPix P900 - excellent for photographing birds.

Mr Heron - please raise your right leg... and now your left... thank you.

Most of the other birds on Jeziorki's ponds get on well together; the gulls, coots, ducks - and this year, grebes, pochards and scaups - but I've witnessed the herons getting chased away by mobs of gulls, or in the case below, by a large corvid.

Other bird news - as of yesterday, 20 June, the greater crested grebe is still incubating its egg(s) - it's over a month since the grebes constructed their nest; I photographed an egg on 24 May, so literally any day now... Plus - I saw the swans yesterday - all six cygnets, looking bigger, on the pond by ul. Trombity. I guess as a result of the new park and the greatly increased human activity here, the swans are bringing up their cygnets deep in the rushes, between the middle pond and Trombity, making an occasional foray into open waters. Yesterday there was much commotion on the street as a road-repair team was cutting into cracked asphalt and patching it up - noise and smell, so the swans would have moved away from it all.

Finally, to all my local readers in Jeziorki - you have until 30 June to vote for this year's projects in the Budżet partycypacyjny. Vote online (www.twojbudzet.um.warszawa.pl), just have your PESEL number with you. From our point of view, most important project here is a comprehensive system of traffic calming for 'Green Ursynów' (from Poleczki down to Warsaw's borders). Thirty km/h means exactly that. Drive slowly, respect the pedestrians, the old folk, the children, the mothers with prams, the cyclists, the walkers - we don't have pavements. You, sitting in your two-tonne SUV, are invulnerable. We, the pedestrians and cyclists, are vulnerable. You are driving too fast. You are chatting on your mobile. You are writing SMSs. You are a danger. You must be calmed.

This time two years ago:
Midsummer's Day in Jeziorki

This time four years ago:
Kittens at six weeks

This time six years ago:
And the Lord spake unto the tribe of Hipsters

This time seven years ago:
Exit polls can get it wrong

This time eight years ago:
In search of good Polish beer
[Situation's much improved, I'm delighted to say!]

This time nine years ago:
In the Solstice garden

Jeziorki update

Back after a few days in London, very busy with work (apologies for emails unanswered etc), but time for a quick pictorial catch-up.

Let's start with the grebes... The black-necked grebes had their young early, and the chicks no longer ride around on their parent's backs. Below: keeping up with mum,

Below: dad surfaces with a fish. If you click to enlarge, you'll see the scales. But what are those strands around the grebe's head and neck and back? I hope they're not anglers' fishing lines...

Below: the great crested grebe on the southern pond is still patiently sitting it out.

...But by the northern retention pond, the other pair of great crested grebes has come into the family way, with a quartet of chicks (if you look closely), one riding on mum's back.

Below: male common pochard.

Below: a  male scaup. But which - greater? (ogorzałka zwyczajna) lesser? (ogorzałka mała) Or indeed could it be ring-necked duck (czernica), given its black upper wings?

Below: young gulls go for it. Immature black-headed gulls; as chicks they've stayed hidden, remaining close to their nests in the reeds. Now fledged, they make forays onto the main ponds.

Below: photo taken on 28 May, cygnets six. Since then, I've not seen them, only the adult male. I hope all is well with them.

The path around the pond is taking shape, with little needed to complete the park. The children's playground is complete, and the fitness area with six bits of equipment. Tables, benches and barbeque pits have appeared, as has, sadly, rubbish - cigarette packets and energy drink tins in the water. Below: both walkways going across the pond await final decking.

And finally, I can note the timely completion of trackworks between W-wa Okęcie and Piaseczno station. Once again the 'down' line is being used for 'down' trains. For the record, here's one of the last Radom-bound trains heading down the 'up' line - photo taken Saturday evening. The next day, normal working was restored. Both platforms at W-wa Okęcie are now operational, even the footbridge has been officially opened (one year and two months after completion). And Nowa Iwiczna's new 'down' platform is now functioning. Photo taken from Ballast Mountain, which looks like it's being excavated from the south. How much longer will my favourite local vantage point survive?

As of Sunday, the new summer timetable is now operational. Now that both lines are ready, travel times between Jeziorki and W-wa Śródmieście have been cut by three minutes, from 31 to 28 minutes, a small but (from the property value point of view) psychologically significant difference.

Indeed, I was quite surprised on Sunday to see trains whizzing up and down the tracks faster than ever before, at speeds that I associate with the Poznań or Gdańsk lines.

This time two years ago:
Inside Okęcie airport's new old terminal

This time six years ago:
Thirty-One and Sixty-Three (short story about 19th century Polish uprisings)

This time eight years ago:
Jeziorki to Jeziorki - the big rail loop

This time nine years ago:
Automotive miscellany

This time nine years ago:
South Warsaw sunsets

The Year of the Grebe

The combination of two hitherto-unseen around these parts species of waterfowl plus the long reach of my Nikon CoolPix P900 and its 2000mm (equivalent) lens has made bird-watching a more serious hobby for me. Jeziorki's wetlands beckon to me every day; I must pop down to see how our grebes are getting on.

Below: there are four or five pairs of black-necked grebes who have between one and three chicks. Grebes carry their young on their back until they are fledged. This family of black-necked grebes are doing well, one chick already seems happy enough on its own in the water, the other growing rapidly.

The chick riding on its mother's back has grown a long neck; it's looking like some two-headed beast.

Father looks down into the water for food for the independent chick.

Meanwhile, no young yet over at the southern pond, where the great crested grebes are nesting. The birds take turns to incubate the egg (which to my surprise takes between 27 and 29 days to hatch, so it'll still be some time). The parents bring vegetation with which to cover the egg(s) - I've only seen one from the shore, but maybe there's another one or two in the nest.

Both great crested grebes seem to have noticed something moving in the rushes...

All's well, time to return to incubation, and bringing more vegetation to the nest.

Here's another great crested grebe at the northern-most pond. I haven't seen its mate, nor nest; I hope there is another nest at this end of the pond too.

UPDATE 28 MAY 2017:

Below: two black-necked grebe chicks. one on its mother's back, the independent one giving its wings a stretch. Grebes are not very good flyers, and tend only to fly for migratory purposes. They swim well under water.

Below: the male black-necked grebe has some food in its bill... destined not for its mate, but for the chick on its mother's back (you can just about see it tiny bill behind the mother's neck)

Meanwhile, over at the greater-crested grebes' nest - still no hatching. We wait.

This time last year:
Jeziorki birds in the late May sunshine

This time two years ago:
Making sense of Andrzej Duda's win

This time three years ago:
Call it what it is: Okęcie

This time four years ago:
Three stations in need of repair

This time five years ago
Late evening, Śródmieście

This time six years ago:
Ranking a better life

This time eight years ago:
Paysages de Varsovie

This time nine years ago:
Spring walk, twilight time