So, we had experienced curtailment due to late running, a level crossing partial failure, a power failure and a freight train failure. Anyone would think it was the UK! I have checked Wikipedia and there does not appear (among a myriad of other occupations and activities) to be a patron saint of track bashers. [St Gricier?] Then I was thinking that some sort of interview process should be initiated. Day 1 was a bit of a curate's egg and left only the option of a 90-minute tram bash therapy ticket in Katowice itself.

Day 2 Saturday 13 May:

Daylight before 04.30 made the 05.30 alarm just a reminder to actually rise and shine for a morning run on the trams, 'reeling in' another line, before convening at McDonald's for today's scrambled eggs and bacon Breakfast Duo; they do call it a Breakfast Duo in English but there is a picture too for clarity.

We were not due out of Katowice until the leisurely hour of 08.39 and we did actually go at 08.39, heading initially for Sosnowiec Południowy, where we picked up further TurKol participants (over this weekend, spare seats in the second coach were sold by TurKol to local participants to enable the tour to run). Then it was on to Line 62 for a reversal at Dąbrowa Górnicza Strzemieszyce, where we surveyed not only the vast new platform built since the reopening to passenger traffic in the year 2000 but also the vast hole at the eastern end to accommodate the, no doubt EU funded, passenger underpass. This gives the locals an option NOT to cross the line in the future if they are so inclined or just fancy sheltering out of the rain for a short way. We arrived on time and left six down, now veering left at the inverted 'V' shaped station of Sosnowiec Kazimierz (named after the Kazimierz Coalfield) and onto the freight only Line 163. There is a direct Curve 663 between these two routes which would have been more convenient and rarer track. However, PKP (Polish State Railways) refused this for reasons that were never stated or could be determined by looking at the perfectly fine looking electrified curve, especially as it had been used by their own diversions as recently as Aug 2021!

We were now into deep into freight only territory; even the vegetation seemed to come closer to, and occasionally through, the open slide down windows as we progressed towards the extensive yards at Jaworzno Szczakowa. It was notable that we were being photographed much more extensively since leaving Katowice as it was the weekend. Even at these remoter spots people stood on embankments, bridges and often in locations which would cause paralysis in the UK but here in Poland just provoked vigorous honking of the horn and solicited a nonchalant wave of the hand! We passed Sosnowiec Maczki on the non-platform track of this long closed station, its vast boarded up edifice appeared out of all proportion to its rather rural location. However, this was once the border station between The Congress of Poland (Russian Empire) and Austria (latterly Austro-Hungarian Empire) on the Warsaw to Vienna railway that reached here in 1848; one of the earliest railway lines in either realm.

We left Line 163 and climbed swiftly up to the yard level on Line 666 (a treat for the Dennis Wheatley fans), a 1942 Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) - German National Railway - construction. Next, our train threaded the fifth road from the right, through the neck of the yard at Signal Box JSE and along Line 714 to Signal Box JSD. Then it was back out towards the main line on the 1964 PKP-built route to podg Piecyzska. [You will remember that podg = posterunek odgałęźny, literally 'separate post' or 'branch post' - a 'junction'.] This line supplemented the parallel Route 669, extant but totally engulfed by trees, well below the level of Line 714. Route 669 closed in 1994, so you could use either route for 30 years.






Our tour then made for Trzebinia on the main line towards Kraków (= Lesser Poland) where an earlier plan had us traversing the branch to the old Trzebinia Siersza PKP station but this was later refused. The explanation for this, and one other originally approved choice branch in Kraków Łęg, is related to the terrible happenings a few hundred kilometres further east in Ukraine. News broke during tour preparations that spy cameras, allegedly of Russian origin, had been found in sneaky positions along various strategic railway lines in Eastern Poland. The section here and in Kraków both led to power stations. So, rather than just sit two hours to regain our path, we trundled to Libiąż on Line 93 towards Oświęcim, beyond which the line is replaced by buses, after what must be a decade or more of closure for complete reconstruction. (By West Midlands Metro perhaps?) What haven't they done yet, then‽ So, we just trundled back and that was our sortie on Kaiser Ferdinand's Northern Railway.






Lunch! Yesterday the chicken fillet so today, the nuggets ... except the sauerkraut, despite coming in industrial size tubs, has run out so only the dreaded gherkin to garnish the spuds; OK, just spuds then.

We subsequently set off for the Kraków area and some real highlights. As we approached the ancient capital, we noted the relatively new airport lines trailing in right and then, at Kraków Bronowice, the tour veered left across to access Line 100 on the northern side of the four line complex, We began our tour around the Kraków Glówny (= Kraków Main) station avoiding line, which is another WWII DR addition to the network to pass Kraków Płaszów, a location generally synonymous with the notorious Arbeitslager (Nazi labour camp) and Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory. We did not take the line around the north side of the flyover but ran through the south side yards, albeit in many places well away from the main lines on the single (essentially!) electrified line past Kraków Prokocim Towarowy signal box, to regain the main line at Kraków Złocień. This was required track for many but, unfortunately, an exact duplicate of the recent long term passenger diversions (not the requested north side yard lines).

After a few swift kilometres, we took the grade separated from end to end west to north Podłęże avoiding freight curve (Line 608) opened in 1970, under the flying curve from the east, built in the early 1950s to serve the vast Nowa Huta Steelworks complex. Nowa Huta means 'New Steel Mill' and was opened as the Vladimir Lenin Works in 1954 as part of a 'Socialist Realist' utopia, only matched by a similar heaven on earth at Magnitogorsk in Russia itself. Again, despite requests, we kept hard right on the variant of Line 95 taken by most passenger services using this route as, at the critical podg Kościelniki, the eastbound track was red flagged, out of use and very rusty (in fact out of use all the way through Nowa Huta to the junctions at Kraków Batowice).



We kept all the other inner curves and rings to our left, noting that 'ring' Line 944 was similarly very rusty and out of use, before passing the old staff halt for the depot and into the recently reopened and modernised passenger platform, provided for a new skeletal service which presumably operates for shift changes. At an extended photo stop, PKP had obligingly supplied a large spoil heap adjacent that participants could clamber up for more photos (if so inclined) and slide down on their backside when erroneously declined. Then it was off again to complete the large Line 95 circuit, turning right on Line 607 built as recently as 1979, to regain the main line at podg Raciborowice for a stop at Zastów.









We departed Zastów to reverse at Niedźwiedź (about 20km away) but it then transpired we had left a participant behind who thought Zastów was the reversal point and, confident nothing would happen until the loco ran round, had set to work on his mobile to revise his flights from Germany back to Blighty due to the rail strikes in the former. It was observed that this was even more remarkable as no Portaloo was involved! Obligingly, we stopped on the return to scoop him up and, to add insult to ignominy, within the hour many had received an email to say that the rail strike had been called off!

Continuing, we next veered left on the EGTRE* entry Curve 602 back to Kraków Płaszów via Kraków Olsza, again for a very leisurely reversal. The original planned reversal was at Kraków Łęg, which had been refused due to the aforementioned security concerns. The original plan was to return to Kraków Nowa Huta via Line 95, completing the triangle, and round the lengthy loop allowing freights from the west and north to arrive into the appropriate yard from the east (a main booking feature for seasoned Polish travellers). However, it had not gone unnoticed on the earlier pass that both sets of points giving access to and from the ring were not connected and the OHLE wiring into the yard off the loop was missing. So, we simply returned to Kraków Nowa Huta platforms and ran round again

*EGTRE = Enthusiasts Guide to Travelling the Railways of Europe (with PSUL pages) - see our website.

So, a theme from last year's tour was repeated, in as much as either the timetabling department didn't know or hadn't found out (very unlikely). Otherwise, for an unknown reason, they knew but hadn't passed down that information to their client (TurKol, on behalf of the BLS). For participants it was frustrating, even more so for our BLS Organiser as two other major parts of the original request to PKP had immediately received the reply that they could not be approved due to engineering works, so why not say the same for this one? We regained our path but one of the two engineering work omissions would have been next, as PKP advised a passage of the eastern freight bypass Line 95 from Kraków Batowice to Kraków Bronowice, was not possible. Here an entire bridge had been removed, visibly missing as we passed on the nearby main line, but at least here the flexibility of the system around Kraków came to our rescue in the form of the very rare alternative of Curve 601 avoiding Kraków Glówny and nicely via the full length of yard track B3 to regain the main line before Kraków Mydlniki.






It was then main line back towards Katowice before retracing our earlier route along Line 714 and the exact same yard road at Jaworzno Szczakowa. This time, at the west end, our tour veered left through the trees on Line 668, yet another DR WWII 1942 addition, to regain the Katowice main line at podg Długoszyn. We then ran along the relatively recently built 1987 Goods Line 180 which swung us south via the Mysłowice avoiding curve to parallel passenger Line 138, built around 1850 by Oberschlesische Eisenbahn. This gave a century of railway construction in three different countries/administrations in about 15 minutes (!). Our special arrived over the crossover into the disused platform of the three at Mysłowice Brzęczkowice where the station building is now a private home. Its residents, out cooking a barbeque, did a bit of a double take at a three coach loco hauled train with passengers bailing out just over the little fence that delineated their rather rustic garden from the remarkably similar weeds outside. They waved, we waved back, summoned up a cheery 'gin dobre' (literally 'good morning' but can be used at any time of day) and within moments they had all gone inside…






After reversing, we left a mere 14 min late and took the passenger Curve 138 to complete that triangle, then ran into Katowice where we arrived only eight down at 19.36 for a 3-hour tram bash to round off the day. 'Dinner' was at Żabka Polska, a monumentally numerous (9,000 of them) 7-day café/store in Poland open 7am until 11pm. It means 'little frog' by the way and all the signs are green.



Continued in Part 3