Serendipity, mountains and steam

I was not immediately delighted at the prospect of a seven hour drive down to the mountains to deliver Eddie at his next summer holiday venue, and less thrilled at an enforced 24 hour prolongation of my stay there. When we arrived it was raining, and the prospect of a wet weekend in the foothills of the Beskidy Wyspowe were not my first choice of spending the long August weekend. However, things turned out nicely!

The place we stayed, an agroturystyka in a large village/small town called Dobra (between Nowy Sącz and Wadowice) was run by really lovely people, great cooking, flexibility at meal times and - at 50 zlotys (around 11 quid) for bed, breakfast, lunch and supper (40 zlotys for children) - a snip. Eddie noted that there was a railway station in Dobra, and given that the weather on Saturday morning was dismal, we thought it would be a good idea to stroll down there to take a look.

The walk through the village (small town really) was long; we got lost, had to ask the way, neared the station (up the hill) and as we neared it... the sound of a steam whistle! Eddie and I simultaneously broke into a jog (I'm delighted to say that this 50 year-old burdened with camera bag can still out-run his 12 year-old son up a steep hill). The whistling continued. Would we catch the train? We made it up to the station - and there it was - a 2-10-0 Kriegslok locomotive, my favourite steam loco of all time ever, manoeuvering around a rake of five two-axle coaches.

To our delight, it transpired that we were in good time for a steam train excursion from Dobra to Chabówka railway musuem. A quick glance at the timetable showed that we were up for a three-hour steam-hauled trip with an hour's musuem visit all for the equivalent of ten quid! The line is spectacular (by Polish standards) for its mountain scenery. It was here that scenes from Schindler's List were shot - both engine and coaches are 100% authentic for the period.

Above: This locomotive (Ty2-953) was one of over 6,000 built in Nazi Germany as an austerity war locomotive, to run over lightly-laid lines (hence the ten driving wheels to spread the axle load). After the war, over a thousand remained in Poland. The design was so good that long after the war, the engines soldiered on across Eastern Europe, both Poland and Romania building more. Poland still has dozens left, only a few still in steam (sadly).

Above: Before the train set off, there was a chance to climb in the cab and see the fireman at work stoking the boiler. Hot work indeed, but on a cool day, a chance to get warm. Our fireman explained in perfect English that it takes eight hours to get this large engine's steam up to working pressures from cold, and that the coal needs to be shovelled evenly onto the firebox floor (not too thin here, not too heaped there).

Below: Closely observed train. The journey to Chabówka took us over the highest point on Polish rails - at the station serving the village of Skrzydlna. From Dobra to summit, our locomotive was puffing and panting for all it was worth, sending up dense columns of black smoke along with the steam. From Skrzydlna it was downhill most of the way to Raba and Chabówka.

Chabówka itself for me was a sorry sight - lots of interesting exhibits resting and rusting, the owners (PKP Cargo) treating the whole thing as a bit of an embarrasment rather than a potential tourist goldmine (the way heritage railways are run in the UK). I did not feel disposed to spend twice the price of adult museum admission to buy a film-and-photography ticket, so put my camera away during the hour's (rainy) visit at Chabówka. Below: The run back to Dobra. The line was built in 1884 by the Austrians as the Transversal Railway, running from Kraków to Żywiec, just south of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's erstwhile border with Russia). From Raba the line climbs all the way back up to Szkrzydlna before dipping down to Dobra.

The train will be making two return journeys next Saturday (23 August), leaving Chabówka at 09:10 and making its last return run from Dobra at 16:50. I certainly hope to be there, if only to catch the 12:00 departure from Dobra for just the one stop up the steepest incline to Skrzydlna, an 11 minute journey. The best shots are from the back of the rear coach, with the engine running forwards to Chabówka. Your final chance this year for this excellent rail journey is on Saturday 30 August.


This time last year:
New housing development springs upBeyond Warsaw's exurbs by bike
Mud yields to paving stone on ul. Kórnicka
Starlings on the wireArmed forces day parade

Spectacular sunrise

Haven't seen one of these for a while! I was woken up by the roar of a very early charter flight landing over our house just before five am. I looked out of the window to see a beautiful sunrise developing, so I grabbed the camera and raced into the garden. The photo above is a panorama consisting of four vertical frames stitched together (hence the fish-eye effect); this was the only way I could capture the full splendour of the sunrise. Click on photo to enlarge.

Rainbow over Jeziorki

First day back at work and yet another accident on ul. Puławska forced me to take the back roads home. The sun was setting, the easterly sky dark with rainclouds. Ideal conditions for a rainbow - then lo and behold! there it was. Golden sunshine, golden wheat, glowering sky. A few snaps were in order. Above: The far end of ul. Trombity.

Left: ul. Dumki as it joins ul. Kórnicka. I reckon that crock of gold's somewhere between Dumki and Trombity...

Post-summer holiday note: ul. Kórnicka has had speed bumps installed. Good. This will slow down the rat-runners, who, frustrated at the speed bumps on ul. Trombity, would accelerate as soon as they get round the corner. This new feature means that for the Piaseczno rat-running community (on their WPI plates) there's now no stretch of flat asphalt on the backroads running parallel to choked-up ul. Puławska. Only trouble is, there's no alternative and the public transport's inadequate.

Coming into land from the east

Strong westerlies when flying from the UK to Warsaw mean two things: one - a quicker flight home, as the plane has a good tailwind, and two - an unusual approach to Okęcie airport. Rather than Runway 33, used for landing into the prevailing north-westerlies, we landed on Runway 29. So instead of flying over Piaseczno and Jeziorki, we came in over Konstancin and Ursynów. Right: the Vistula east of Konstancin. Note the strips of land, ripe for organic produce, farmed by hand, and sold at high prices to the supermarkets of the West.

Below: Ursynów and the Las Kabacki forest. In the foreground, the upmarket Kabaty district. When I first visited it in April 1993 with Moni (then aged two), this literally was all fields. I wondered why the Warsaw Metro bothered going out this far. Now, it's all built up. Between Kabaty and the forest is the Metro depot, acting as a natural barrier to developers. But all round the forest, land is being nibbled away. Despite being protected by law, the Las Kabacki, 900 hectares of it, will shrink over the coming decades. Yet Ursynów needs all of this forest if it to stay sane.

Below: flying over the Warsaw-Radom railway line. In the foreground the new viaduct linking Okęcie with Ursynów. In the distance, one can just make out the headlamps of a coal train heading towards the Okęcie sidings in the foreground.

This time last year:
Where am I? In the village
I must go down to the sea again

St Pancras - new gateway to London

I find myself passing through St Pancras station frequently these days. The trains from Luton Airport now stop here (now that King's Cross Thameslink has been closed), the Midland Mainline service to Derby, near to where my brother lives, is cheap (if booked ahead) and fast. St Pancras itself was reopened after a long refurbishment, and what a wonderful station it is, eclipsing Paddington as London's finest terminus. From here, trains rush off to the Midlands and the North, and (on the left) the Eurostar service runs to Paris and Brussels via the Channel Tunnel at speeds that beat flying for city centre-to-city centre journeys.

The detail is exquisite. The Victorian rail magnates were people who understood a profit and loss account yet also knew the importance of fine architecture. None of the ersatz shoddiness of Warszawa Centralna for them. Like the Gothic cathedrals it was inspired by, St Pancras will stand for centuries. Warm brick, cast iron and glass come together to form a magnificent and functional structure.

Below: A fitting tribute to the man who saved St Pancras from demolition in the 1960s, Sir John Betjeman, Poet Laureate, and my favourite poet. The statue captures the essence of the man admirably - raincoat, bag and trilby hat, head raised in wonder at the Victorian temple to steam. Around to the left is the Betjeman Arms (a questionable name, as Sir John was fond of neither beer nor pubs), yet the atmosphere is nice enough to spend some while waiting for your train. Quotes from the former Poet Laureate line the corridor walls.

Seeing me reading the lines of poetry prompted a member of the bar staff to offer me a selection of Sir John's poems printed specially for the opening of the Betjeman Arms earlier this year, a very nice gesture that shall ensure my return. The food was reasonably priced and unfussy, and there was a summer cider festival taking place with a number of excellent ciders (unavailable in Poland) available on tap.

And so, on time, my train departs for Derby. Modern efficiency coexisting with the timeless magnificence of fine architecture.

This time last year:

Our last visit to Penrhos?
Ar y Ffordd i Pwyll Rhydd
Mountains or sea - no dilemna

Into the fading light

As I've suggested in previous posts, what England does best is villages. These are the repositories of British culture, tradition and values. The architecture and the landscape is mellow and human in scale. The Derbyshire Dales, full of stone-built villages nestling in the gentle hills, look prettiest on a summer's evening, as the setting sun casts long shadows across woods and fields. Above: Duffield enjoys the last rays of the fading light. Below: a herd of cattle near Hazelwood.

We went for a long circular walk from my brother's house in Duffield, taking in footpaths, country lanes and a disused stretch of the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway. Below: Clouds, trees and a setting sun

Buzzed by Fat Albert

While visiting Matlock Bath with Moni, Eddie and Cousin Hoavis, we were buzzed by a low-altitude flypast from an RAF Hercules ('Fat Albert') flying down the Derwent Valley at what looked like treetop level. It must have skimmed over the cable car linking Matlock Bath station with the Heights of Abraham that we've just been on. I'm not entirely sure of the purpose of this flypast - might have been something to do with a military reenactment held nearby. Note the trails of smoke left by the Herc's four turboprops (below). It's worth comparing the Lockheed C-130 Hercules with its Soviet counterpart, the Antonov An-12.

Down the line from Duffield

It's always a great pleasure to see abandoned railways coming back to life. Spending some holiday time at my brother's in Derbyshire, we took the opportunity to see the nearby Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, linking Duffield and Wirksworth, some eight miles away. Closed to passenger traffic in the 1950s, the line is being re-opened to tourists and enthusiasts, with work underway on the section running into Duffield station (served by Midland Mainline). With some extra donations and voluntary work, Wirksworth will hopefully soon have a rail link to the outside world. But apart from the appeal to rail fans, the line has a practical use, as it will also serve the quarries at Wirksworth, allowing for a more environmentally-friendly way of transporting the rock. The sleepers are in a very bad state, many have totally rotted through - not surprising since the line was built in the 1870s. Above: A works train leaving Duffield. Below: Cousin Hoavis, Eddie and Moni walking the disused section of the line.

This time last year:
To the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution
Over the Peaks by bus (Moni and I were to retrace this journey this year - same bus driver!)
Memory and Comfort (Dziadzio Tadeusz has recovered from his operation a year ago)
Tissington Trail (another disused Derbyshire railway put to good use)
Of stained glass, rainbows and floods
Bouncing queen, see her bounce on the trampoline