With regret we would like to inform about the death of our colleague and volunteer of PARE, Andrzej Stypiński. Andrzej was retired officer of Polish Army. A great passion of his was 3D modeling. He was responsible for completing part of the shed’s building documentation, making the renovation of the Engine Shed possible. Except that, he was in the midst of the preparation of CG visualization of the Engine Shed’s buildings. His early death (Andrzej was 62 years old) has spoiled our plans to present in June his work to the public.

Funeral mass will take place on Saturday (29^th march) at 13.00 in Garrison Church in Skierniewice (funeral procession start at 12.00 from cemetery chapel near Strobowska Street 19).

Several weeks long preparations of a lengthened sightseeing route inside the roundhouse are nearly finished! Beginning May, we would like to invite you to visit the route which now reach more than a half of the length of the roundhouse. Lengthening of the route was possible thanks to the funds of the Łódź Voivodship’s Conservationist and 1% donation from income tax.

Among the vehicles, which will be available during the sightseeing, will be steam engine class Ty2-1407, narrow gauge engine Las 1984 and diesel engine class SP30-218.

Depending on the available resources and pace of the roof’s repairs, we are going to make further vehicles accessible to the visitors.

Our colleagues from the association Geraer Eisenbahnwelten, placed in Skierniewice’s twin town Gera, would like to invite you to visit Gera’s Engine Shed during the upcoming events in 2014 – more info at the official website of the association (German only).

… with this catch-phrase we’ve encouraged last year the tax payers to devote their 1% of income tax to the Engine Shed. As one could convince himself, the motto proved itself really effective – once again we would like to thank you for your generous support in salvaging of the railway monuments.

Soon, we will once again receive the tax forms in order to “pay the tribute” to the tax office. Last year, thanks to your help, we were able to apply for two subsidies, which allowed the major overhaul of the 650 square meters of the roundhouse’s roof. This year, we would like to continue this work, so we keep the last year’s motto valid and once again we would like to encourage you to the further support to the Engine Shed.
If you would like to check, how we utilize received financial assets and what are our plans for the future, please check the 1% for PARE page (in Polish only, sorry.)

In mid-2013 Dr. Krzysztof Marek Bąk from Silesian University organized a contest for an ex-libris dedicated to our organization. The contest was targeted at the students of the University’s branch in Cieszyn. From the submitted works the best ones were chosen by international four-persons jury. Six of the successful works were distinguished with prizes. The laureates were awarded by our colleagues , Ryszard Bandosz i Marek Moczulski, with diplomas and souvenirs from PARE. They also thanked the originator of the contest and some of the participants for their initiative during the ‘10+1 Krzysztof Marek Bąk and students of the 1st CG Workshops  at the Art Institute of Silesian University’ exhibition in Warsaw’s Gallery of Ex-libris. Exhibition took place on 22^nd January and will be open till 14th February .

Few of the participants of the competition, who arrived at the exhibition. First left: Dr. K. M. Bąk and R. Bandosz.

Karolina Gilewicz, against the awarded entries
Fot. Anna Buta-Kluska (Warsaw’s Gallery of Ex-libris)

The main aim of such internal competitions is the intention to propagate the idea of ex-libris among the youngest graphic designers – said Dr. Bąk. Despite the fact, that the works are of varied quality, I think it’s worth that the students be aware of the existence of bookplates and know the basic rules of their design. (…) The awaken interest has resulted in creation of countless bookplates – reaching up the tenths  of works per single creator. We have first successes – participation in international vernissages and individual exhibitions in Poland and abroad. Individual development and creative search is stimulated with in-house contests and workshops. Up to date, contest for signboard, for PARE’s ex-libris and workshops In Memoriam Jur Gajdzic took place. There were also two degrees: MSc for Aleksandra Hachuła and Bachelor for Ewa Chorążak – both regarding digital bookplate.

All contest entries were donated to the collection of PARE. The members of the Association could see them during the New Year’s meeting on 18^th January. Our colleague, Ryszard Bandosz, supplemented the collection with a self-made bookplate for PARE’s President, Judyta Kurowska-Ciechańska

Marek Moczulski

Despite the events programme for 2013 has not yet come to end, we already encourage you to check the events calendar for the coming year 2014 – the 10th season of regular touristic admittance in Engine Shed. Due to this round number we introduced several changes:

• monthly Open Days will be extended by one hour – from 3rd May 2014 admission to the Engine Shed will be possible till 3:00 pm, and the last guided group will start at 2:00 pm;
• due to the increasing interest in Railway Night of Museums (17th May 2014) – visitors are welcomed from 8:00 pm till midnight;
• Evenings at Engine Shed will take place every third Saturday of the month, from June till August, at 8:00 pm;
• due to uncertain November weather and possible modernization works at Skierniewice railway station, exhibition of contemporary rolling stock will probably take place during the Children’s Day.

A detailed programme of Evenings at Engine Shed will be published in a future term. At the same time, we reserve the right to change the published schedule.

On Saturday (23rd November) in the industrial surroundings of the forge room and by the presence of the City President of Skierniewice the Audience Contest for the best work at the exhibition “History enchanted in Iron” has been settled.

During the last touristic season, visitors of the Engine Shed could vote for their favorite photography. After the votes counting, the Audience Award went to Anna Bryjak. Second place and honorable mention was prized to Łukasz Gładki. Book awards were handed to laureates.

The outdoor fotoday, the exhibition and the contest were financed from the budget of Łódź Voivodeship.