Lines 751 & 752 were used by diversions in recent years but, on passing through Wrocław Mikołajów, we crossed over to freight line 756 and then the western orbital freight route 750 through P.odg Stadion for 10.5km of very rare freight track to the north end of Wrocław Brochów Yards. [P.odg is a junction, from posterunek odgalezny, literally 'separate post' or roughly branch post.]

Our tour continued past the station on the slightly elevated 277 Goods Lines (as this morning) and the outbound variant of Line 764 to arrive at our reversal at Siechnice. Beyond the line was closed for major works. Poland will be great when it's finished! Our departure was prompt, early in fact resulting in at least two members being left behind having time off in loo. They returned to Wrocław on the frequent suburban service and another member had a great deal of personal entertainment value in ceremonially reuniting one with his baggage, it was hardly ever mentioned after that … really! We returned around the back of Wrocław Brochów Yard on Line 349, used a lot by diversions recently and weaved right over south of Wrocław Główny to - you've guessed it - P6. Two minutes early!









We then set off on another extracurricular tram bash, exploring the southern extremities of Route 31 to Gaj and 8 to Tarnogaj, both the stereotypical endless series of flats as far as the eye could see before ensuring the rare south to east curve at Główny was secured on the No71 tram route specially instituted for our visit... OK, actually because they dug up a really crucial bit of tramway resulting in a rare curve frenzy! Another 16-hour day, eat sleep, track bash... repeat... set alarm 06.00 for Day 3.

Day 3 Sun 26 Jun:

With the zeal of the gricer having required tram tracks and the leisurely departure time of 08.53, the dawn rose and all preparations made, my 72-hour tram ticket to hand, it was out on Route 15 to Parc Południowy and a Starbucks breakfast. It was rubbish compared to McDonalds; they
didn't even sell yogurts (neither did Biedronka, 'ladybird' in Polish - a chain of discount supermarkets)! Anyway Wrocław Główny P6 beckoned and SM42 2320 was back for another spin, the twigs were in position (keeping the windows open for ventilation) as today was destined for a temperature of 35oC.

We departed at 08.53 on the passenger line through Wrocław Muchobór to reverse at Wrocław Kuzniki unfortunately, not taking the requested grade separated variant on departure as it transpired reversing here meant only one of the two options could be reached but not both.

Therefore our tour took the non-diveunder variant of Route 349 to Wrocław Gadów Yard again but this time veering left onto rare Curve 752 to Wrocław Popowice where we used the full ladder across to the right hand side and onwards to Wrocław Osobowice to reverse again. We then ventured off the multiple track electrified web of lines around Wrocław onto what at least your correspondent found something of an oddity. A single track non-electrified meandering connection formed of the northern extremity of Line 292 to Wrocław Sołtysowice. This line is not shown in the Ball Poland Atlas of 2019.












There is a multi-track electrified alternative just to the south but this backwater meanders along with level crossings even needing the Polish equivalent of a Mobile Operations Manager to stop the road traffic. Most intermediate traffic seems to have dried up if the rusting, tree strewn terminals are a guide but one branch off it was shiny. The line appears a nice link to have should disaster strike, it had previously closed and been reopened much to the enjoyment of all aboard. We reversed at Wrocław Psie-Pole (a name which sounds slightly unfortunate to an English ear I suspect‽) where we actually gathered even better sticks, more durable and longer... It was here I think we reached peak stick!















Our train returned on the aforementioned southerly route through Wrocław Nadodrze, veering right on the freight only connecting Curve 755 to regain the same line we were on earlier but this time passing through Osobowice thrashing onto Żmigród. Here we reversed again; if the driver was on a reversing bonus, he must have bought real estate by now! We then headed off for, what was to your correspondent, one of the highlights of the entire five days … the Żmigród Test Track.



Our tour set off along the 3.2km linking line between the main line and the test track, stopping on the second yard line over from the test ring. We then witnessed something I never thought I would see as we watched EU160 011 pass at speed on the nearby ring and slip its coach, at first it seemed an error but within a few seconds it dawned it was part of a test! The last slip coach service in the UK was from Paddington to Bicester in 1960 ... four years before your correspondent was even born! Apparently in 1914 there were over 60 such services every day, so to say this was a vision of a past age is no understatement. Next participants trooped off to see a slide show ... every day is a school day.












The director of the test ring gave us an overview of the facilities history and some testing but it was all in Polish, so once you have read the slide there was something of a pause before we landed back on planet earth. An interesting nugget was that the 1986 plan (Below) was for a 39km ring with 3,000m radius curves against the 7.72km ring with 600m radius curves as actually built; even the proxy Soviet order of that era didn't cough up for that! After watching a few ultra slow motion collisions, (some taking less than a second but a couple of minutes to watch) we left the air conditioned meeting room and were greeted with the welcome sight of EU160 011 reunited with its coach backing into the yard. Our SM42 had run round, so we were set for potentially the fastest SM42 thrash in history!



The heat of the afternoon was all the more apparent having emerged from the icy bliss of the meeting room so it was all aboard and straight for a (coldest available) beer; also, during lectures, lunchtime had slipped past so the ritual perusal of the menu was undertaken. After a very judicious consideration of the offerings, we plumped for the Nuggetsy w Zestawie - Chicken Nuggets, potatoes and sauerkraut (finely cut raw cabbage fermented by various lactic acid bacteria until sour, one of the national dishes of Germany!). It was a completely different shape of chicken than anything partaken before!

After obtaining the beer, we were off. Our train left the yard clockwise due to the direction of the crossover (Below) crossing onto the ring where the driver opened up the SM42 on the billiard table smooth test track rails. Then we careered away taking the canting beautifully around the first tighter 600m radius curve before heading off a few km into open country. Beginning to round the 900m longer curve, we burst under a road overbridge to run parallel to the quite empty yard lines, thrashed through the wooden platform and on for a second gyration. The chicken nuggets etc arrived making them possibly some of the very few chicken nuggets ever consumed on the Żmigród Test Track!!



Our driver was clearly enjoying himself; it was not until after a third circuit that we slowed to propel back the way we had come, alas the turning triangle did not materialise due to condition of track,,,

So we trundled back to the main line, heading north to reverse at Rawicz, leaving about 15 min early to explore the remaining 10.3km Line 362 freight branch. It closed throughout to passengers in Feb 1995 but this section remains to serve a sugar mill. It runs through typically flat, consistently agricultural and sparsely populated landscapes, which easily explains why the passenger service did not persist.



Approaching Miejska Górka we saw the 1km branch to the sugar mill from a distance, which trails in left, and we arrived at the station site. This is unmistakable as the usual for Poland large platform anchored nameboard remains even though all the buildings have long ago been demolished. Beyond the here the line continues dead straight for perhaps a kilometre before disappearing into forest.















Our loco began to run round, of course, and after the obligatory photos our leader, Iain Scotchman, looked to have persuaded the crew to propel us a little further down the line... The cognoscenti piled into the then rear coach, we set off but stopped before even reaching the trailing point of the loop; the guard informed us that the line from there on was officially closed! Oh well, it was a good try...

We departed, back to Rawicz with photo stops at Sarnówka and Rawicz Wschod, both intact, for one of those novel reversals. Then back main line to Wrocław Mikołajów and a repeat of the exact same route of Day 2 around the western orbital freight line, Wrocław Brochów to Siechnice (reverse) and back via Route 764, then Wrocław Brochow to Wrocław Główny for another reversal. Next we took passenger Line 276 towards Kłodzko, reversing at Zórowina to be in position to traverse freight only Line 765 inner to Wrocław Brochow to reverse at, you guessed Siechnice … becoming quite familiar with this spot! Thankfully the toilets here took no more casualties (BLN 1408.2202 refers) and we finally returned to Główny P6 practically 40 minutes early, which resulted in extra tram action! At 22.00ish it was back at the hotel, beer, pretzels, alarm set … eat … beer … track bash … repeat!









Continued in Part 4