This re-routing was also a perfect illustration of the limited feedback from PKP, each time an 'official' timetable appeared, parts dropped off the requested route without explanation. At Kępno the west end of the requested curve was adjacent to where we had first stopped. However, from the derailers, pointwork and general track condition it was obviously classed as a siding not a running line. PKP must have known this but Turkol and our organiser - member Iain Scotchman - were not informed.

Run round we were facing Oleśnica, over the 42km freight line via Syców. Not untypically it has been through a cycle of a passenger line relegated to freight only (2002), becoming slower and slower as maintenance spend declined to the point of closure; then rail thefts by private enterprise mobile local home based metal recycling executives. It was then replaced and reopened, albeit at 40km/h (25mph). With the wonderful long daylight hours, we paused for a photo stop at Syców where the station is intact, just well vegetated. These locations feel just like time capsules, pickled on the date they closed awaiting the moment they come out of the deep freeze and the local cart calls. This may well happen here as the reopening is subject to review and in Poland lines can be reopened in less than 25 years!

Bursting back into the setting sun at Oleśnica we left the slumbering line to join the busy railway. This station sticks in your reporter's mind as a few years ago he had to travel between the two stations here, several kilometres apart, in about 30 minutes but no train. Identifying a local taxi firm (Oleśnica has two), the Polish wife (in the UK!) was tasked to call them, using her innate linguistic skills to book it. On arrival there was one taxi so I walked over, the driver looked up and said, in a slightly disdainful tone: Simon? Yes. In! Having exhausted our mutual vocabulary, he duly drove me with minutes to spare to the remote and featureless Oleśnica Rateje for an on time departure … pure John le Carré!

Nothing remained but a conventional run back to Wrocław Główny arriving 20.15, just six minutes shy of time. So, given the balmy evening and enduring daylight, there was only one thing for it... a cheeky 72-hour tram ticket from the machine and your correspondent with the veteran member for Bamber Bridge began an exploration of Lines 32 and 31 northwest of the city including the newly opened line along Robotniza. 16 hours down and just 7 before the alarm for tomorrow... an even hotter day!

Day 2 Sat 25 Jun:

Alarm 06.00, shower, sort bag, McDonalds 07.15... the days were already gaining a certain pattern... incidentally the Polish style scrambled egg with all sorts of fresh veg in a wrap is highly recommended. Biedronka (ladybird in Polish, a chain of discount supermarkets) was also a useful source of basic supplies. Again, we convened on Wrocław Główny Peron (Platform) 6. Being British we compared notes on the weather; yesterday was 31oC but today we were heading for 33C...



Today was unique among the five days in that we would be 'top & tailed', in addition to the SM 42... today Cargo Unit 2320, we had a diminutive SM30 662, mainly to operate on the Murów branch of which more later. The SM30 once numbered over 900 and have a 300hp engine with a top speed of about 37mph (60kph) so a sort of Class 08 on steroids which must have been fun pathing although, as it turned out, even when it was leading the SM42 provided most of the power! Interestingly the little rectangular 'last vehicle' plates were wired onto the end rails of the tail loco before we left. This is the Polish equivalent of our tail lamps and has two equilateral red triangles, their bases along the top and bottom (narrow sides of the rectangle) with their apexes meeting at the centre. The rest of the plate is two larger isosceles white triangles, their longer bases each side, apexes at centre.

South of Wrocław Główny (see maps) the running lines split into two sets of tracks, with carriage sidings and a signal box between them. The main lines from P1-3 use the northern tracks, while P3-6 lead only to the secondary southern set of three running lines, which can be accessed from P1-3 but not vice-versa. From P6 The Silesian Explorer left via Line 285 but midway through the yard area was diverted via Line 601 to the right, around a southbound freight train occupying Line 285 ahead of us. Due to the ongoing reconstruction of Wrocław Brochów station, the southbound (left hand) main track is out of use, with single line working over the remaining north bound track generally reserved for main line and local services serving the station with other trains diverted through the adjacent freight yards. Much to our delight, the first major freight track of the day was gained as we veered left south of Wrocław Główny WGB signal box onto Line 763 and onto Line 349 which runs around the right hand side of the yard area and loco depot, bypassing Wrocław Brochów station on a higher level (see maps) before Lines 764 and 277 to regain the main line towards Opole at Święta Katarzyna.






After our maximum speed thrash... at 37mph... down the main line, involving the odd looping to allow 100mph electrics on loads four times ours to pass (one can only wonder if the drivers thought... oh them again...) we threaded through the single track approach currently enforced by major bridge replacement works at Opole. It looks like we shall all have to revisit this way in future, as the new bridge is distinctly south of the current one. We ran into the north side of Opole station and soon left it, veering north towards Kluczbork on Line 301, a line closed to passengers in 2000 and reopened in 2005. This is a classic Polskie Koleje Państwowe* (PKP) trundle bahn, jointed track, remote basic halts often in forests, that appear to have no relationship to any centre of population whatsoever. In fact I often wonder how people survive waiting at these places at 05.XX on a winter morning at -20oC in the snow if the train doesn't turn up!?!? [*Polish State Railways which dates back to 1918.]












However, we were not destined to cover all of this line but went much rarer by turning left at the country junction of Jełowa. In fact, historically we were staying on the main line (still Line 301) - the passenger line onwards is a subsidiary route (293). As soon as we had the points changed and a frantic few photos done, we did in fact go onto some billiard table smooth continuously welded rail across beautifully fettled culverts as this line ROG in 2017 for new sawmill traffic after several million Złoty had been spent. [The Złoty, worth about 20p and rising - not the Euro - is the official currency and legal tender of Poland, the most traded currency in Central and Eastern Europe; it ranks 22nd in the foreign exchange market.] The only snag on this line is that the timber transhipment facilities were never built, not even a run round loop, hence our 'top & tail'. We did however collect a lot of arboreal products proceeding at a very leisurely pace along the branch as the trees entered and departed the compos leaving twigs and many leaves! After this trundle through the woods, we eventually glided to a halt near the buffers just short of the still extant Murów station. The station buildings are all intact and occupied; after a while the inhabitants probably wondered why so many people were walking up and down their lawn - the station platform! The tracks beyond were briefly traced to the level crossing north of the station buildings and could be seen disappearing into the trees beyond. This once main line ran to Namyslów some 29km distant and 9km were allegedly opened at the other end for military traffic but, like the timber traffic here, it does not seem to have materialised. The line in between has been subject to those mobile freelance metal appropriation and recycling specialists and, as this is the largest village in the area with about 5,000 people, reopening to passengers does not look at all likely.









After a brief photo stop in ever warming sunshine with locals gathering to take photos of an actual train with their mobiles, we returned on another leaf collection run until bursting from the forest back at the junction. Clearly word of our presence was spreading as here one chap riding an immaculately restored motorcycle (that, to my untutored eye, wouldn't look out of place riding dispatches in WWII) roared up and more locals were taking photos. We had to reset the points so cue another quick set of photos. Some of our continental brethren had started to fashion sticks into bespoke window jammers; Vorsprung durch Technik! One chap next door was even cutting his branch to a precise length using a very elaborate Swiss Army penknife saw blade attachment! At the earliest opportunity we began garnering suitably sized twigs and branches, more snapping them to size and hammering them into the window jams with our bare hands. This was a major boost today and the next days; trying to keep cool in the rising temperatures, also tidier looking than an array of old coffee cups and plastic bottles!

We retraced our steps towards Opole and, as the morning had receded and the temperature risen, it was beer o'clock! Now the extremely diligent catering crew didn't speak much English but chicken, potatoes and beer are all practically universal linguistic constants. One concept with the associated phrase... which beer is cold? ...had to be learnt but I suspect is now word perfect! The problem with running a train full of beer enthusiasts in a furnace is they quite like drinking it and cold. Their problem was not the quantity on board but refrigeration as clearly it took ages to chill the beer and once exhausted re-chilling took hours. So today and all other days, except possibly the last when the heat dipped back to mid-twenties, we usually went through stages. Firstly, preferred bottle beer cold... then second preference cold... then as these all became warmer... cans... any can (apologies to the purists for decreasing levels of discrimination!) that was... cold! As to today's menu selection, an agonising choice was made to go for the Filet z Kurzaka w zestawie which materialised as chicken with potatoes and gherkins and in no way should be confused with the 'chicken in a set' on Day 1!

Awaiting today's culinary creation we drank beer and literally descended into Opole. The next 10-20 minutes were slightly surreal. For starters our BLS organiser, Iain Scotchman, reminded the guard of our request to reverse in new bay P1a, not microgricing as it might appear, but from Jełowa P1a could only be reached by a separate 500m long connecting line. Heading towards Opole, maps and photos of the line and platform were shown to the train crew, revealing another issue that they were working from inaccurate track/route diagrams! Understandably it took some persuasion for them to accept us 'foreigners' knew more about the current layout and route options at Opole than their information suggested, mainly as theirs showed it was impossible to reach our departure route from P1a.

To their credit they contacted the relevant people on the radio who obviously put them right, but not before the tour ended up in P4 at Opole Główne on the 'wrong' side of this 'V' station while this was all arranged. The Opole Red Cap (stationmaster) then had to do the paperwork... plus, as we began the shunt the train crew decided to crank up the buffet speakers up to Level 11 and play the theme music to 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. So we became, as it later transpired, the first ever train with passengers over this connecting line. Amending paper BLN 1407, where the recently built bay P1a is was previously just a siding and the on display Peron (platform) sheets confirmed nothing was yet booked to use it. All agreed that it should become an EGTRE entry (the Enthusiast Guide to Travelling the Railways of Europe PSUL) once scheduled passenger use commences. What the normals made of a load 3 hauled by a shunting loco arriving behind them to the accompaniment of a Hollywood blockbuster blaring through the open windows (jammed open by twigs) and 50 'odd' swashbuckling men all bailing off in short order to take photos of said train is difficult to imagine. Of course, if they heard us all (largely) speaking English they probably just take the view that my Polish wife believes is quite common internationally, and definitely amongst Poles living any time in UK, that it was just those mad people 'from the island' on some sort of therapeutic outing... [Obviously poles apart...]






Then it was all back aboard, lunch, and the same route back to Wrocław that we had come down the day before via Jelcz-Laskowice. We deviated from this beyond Wrocław Nadodrze where we went straight on and dived under the Poznań main line 750 on Line 752 obtaining the radial freight route towards Legnica at Wrocław Gądów and headed for a reversal at Wrocław Lesnica. This tidy but unremarkable suburban station hosted us for about 20 minutes in the heat of the afternoon. Then we headed back to Wrocław Nowy Dwor and swung right onto EGTRE entry Line 758 through Wrocław Muchobór making for the old terminus at Wrocław Swiebodzki (which now doubles as a weekend market and nightclub) except, on reaching the junction, we encountered STOP boards in the 4ft and without a stutter swung right towards Wrocław Główny! Immediately this routing caused some conjecture, various rumours of points failure and the chap responsible for said board placement being a bit too keen to get them in before the Sunday Market? Either way we didn't reach Wrocław Swiebodzki and the boards remained days later. Information after the tour revealed that it was actually due to emergency repair work to one of the main line bridges over the line beyond the junction which caused the line to be blocked to all traffic. At most we could only have gone 500m from the junction so obviously the driver knew but participants didn't, that feedback issue again. Using Line 273, we continued to Wrocław Główny (P6 once more) and reversed towards Wrocław Zachodni, where we reversed again in the loops beyond the station to join route 751, an outer radial route to access Gądów Yard from the Jelenia Góra line. Then it was onwards on Line 752 under the main line towards Wrocław Nadodrze and, after a wait and more photos in low evening sun, we reversed again.












Continued in Part 3