The first Saturday after the Christmas surprised us with a spring weather. Sunny day and a belly-fat accumulated during the Christmas fest encouraged to an increased physical activity. No wonder that on this day a large group of PARE member and volunteers appeared in the engine shed. Due to the winter season the range of duties was limited to rather dull but necessary maintenance works.

First of all a parcel left after the demolished battery cart shed badly needed some tidying up. The shed – a typical post-communistic, sloppy construction – disfigured the appearance of the office building and made its wall catch humidity. In the past years it was carefully disassembled, yet there was hardly any time to clean up the patch of ground left after the shed. At last we’ve managed to accomplish this and now the levelled terrain awaits seeding some grass.

Another non-railway but necessary works regarded the prevention of breaking into the roundhouse. Slowly we cut off any possible migration routes for burglars by putting bars in windows and properly securing the temporary precautions, even in places which seemed inaccessible (ex. due to height). During the Saturday works we managed to shut the last unsecured window above axle lathe.

Each winter it is vital to provide appropriate social conditions, namely the appropriate heating. Dispatcher office is mainly heated by means of tile stoves which consume several cubic metres of wood each year. Despite the warehouse full of appropriate fuel, there is always a need to cut it down into smaller pieces. We are really grateful to the members that took up this rather ungrateful but essential task.

On the occasion of Christmas Holidays
and the coming New Year 2014
to our colleagues from PARE, their families and relatives,
and all the supporters and fans of our Association,
we would like to wish many health, luck and perseverance in the common aspiration.

Board, Members and Volunteers of
Polish Association of Railway Enthusiasts

Courtesy of PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe we managed to extend our collection with automatic block signaling (ABS) devices of type E. It was the first common type of automatic block at Polish railway network (except the earlier, two-aspect ABS utilised exclusively by Electric Commuter Railway), designed by Swedish company L. M. Ericsson and manufactured domestically by ZWUS in Katowice.

Former semi-automatic block signaling had limited capacity. Only after the introduction of the automatic block and division of the route into braking-distance long sections it become possible to shorten the gap between following trains and increase the line’s capacity. Therefore ABS was first deployed on main, busy lines.

Block signaling of type E has the following features:

• it is single-direction – the full capacity can be achieved only when driving in the principle direction (i.e. on the right track),
• it is three-aspect – except the red and green aspect, block signals can display orange aspect, depending on the number of free blocks in front of the oncoming train.

A curiosity of this type of ABS is the way of sending of the control current between two neighbouring signals. The control signal was send as a phase of track current decoded by a three-state relay of type JRY.

Currently, automatic block of type E is becoming obsolete and is slowly replaced with a bidirectional, four-aspect ABS.

With regret we would like to inform about the death of our collegue, Ryszard Drobik. The funeral will take place on Saturday, 7th December 2013 in church in Krypno near Knyszyn.

Railwayman Day, which falls on the name day of St Catherine of Alexandria, is also a traditional final event of touristic season in Skierniewice Engine Shed. This year we decided to celebrate the Day earlier, on Saturday 23th November, the closest to this holiday.

And so, on the foggy but snowless morning, we’ve once again invited all interested to visit our shed. During this railway holiday we always try to show something beyond our rolling stock collection. This year’s main theme was the modern passenger cars of PKP Intercity. Diesel engine class SM42-223 arrived at the shed from Warsaw with an elegant conference carriage type 508A coupled with the slipping car type 305A. Consequently, Skieniewice were visited by a nealy complete “business” train which provides conditions for undisturbed office work round the clock.

To underline that railway consists not exclusively of passenger traffic, we invited PKP Cargo’s shunting diesel class SM31-126 from Łódź. The list of guest appearances was closed by the Unimog emergency vehicle from PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe infrastructure maintainer. Unfortunately, “Traxx” engine from Lotos-Kolej didn’t reached the shed, while being deployed in more important freight task.

Thanks to the initiative of Przewozy Regionalne, our visitors could travel back home free of charge, using their one-way ticket with stamp of our Engine Shed.

Except the rolling stock exhibition, visitors had the occasion to see (and take a photo) of “vintage” railwaymen. Our president and three members of the association wore the 1958 railway uniforms, modeled after their 19th century counterparts (ex. long, double-breasted mantels). The uniforms are original and represent their epoch in the finest detail.

While closing the touristic season, we didn’t forget about very important, round anniversary. 160 years ago, summer 1853, Ignacy Łukasiewicz constructed the first kerosene lamp. This path-breaking invention is closely related to railways. Namely, the first large batch of lamps was ordered by Kaiser Ferdinand’s Northen Railways (KFNB). Kerosene was vital for railroads nearly to the end of 20th century. At the beginning it produced light everywhere – from offices and warehouses to train headlights and signals. Lately the need for kerosene lamp was limited to the old mechanical signals. To celebrate the anniversary, in the smithy we’ve placed a row of kerosene lamps, still in working order, ranging from small signaling lamps to the big headlight of the last class Tp4 switcher from Skierniewice.

The last open day in the year was also an opportunity for countless meetings and summaries. In the morning we were visited by Mr Leszek Trębski, City President of Skierniewice. With pride we’ve presented to the officials the result of this year’s renovation works: refurbished roof of the roundhouse (sponsored by Department of Culture and Heritage and Łódź Voivodeship Restoration Fund) and ongoing preparation of the railway communication exhibition. City President wished all the best on the occasion Railwayman Day. Pupils of the Primary School No 4  also didn’t let us down on that day. Under the supervision of the tutor, Mrs Beata Więckowska, they brought us a special gift – very long paper chain – train.

As each year, a meeting of retired railway workers took place in the dispatcher’s office. Several people, most the former workers of Skierniewice’s shed, enjoyed their time. It was an unique opportunity for us to hear recollections and stories from the good, old times when steam beasts ruled the roundhouse. It’s worth noting, that one of the participants began his career in Skierniewice engine yard back in 1946…

Special open day was also the occasion to finalize the audience competition for the best photo at the “History Enchanted in Iron” exhibition. Visitors of the gallery, placed in the machine shop, could vote for their favorite work during each Open Day. The winners were Anna Bryjak and Łukasz Gładki.

During this last open day of season 2013, we were visited by 375 people. Summarizing, during this year we’ve once again broke the attendance record reaching 6000 visitors!

Skierniewice celebrated the railroad holiday not only in the Engine Shed. The next day, on Sunday, a mass for railroad workers and members of PARE took place in the Church of St. Jakob. It was an occasion to recollect our friends, who passed during the relatively short (when compared with the timeline of railway history) time of the Association’s existence. PARE was represented by standard bearers with the historical 1907 standard of Warsaw-Vienna Railroad workers: Judyta Kurowska-Ciechańska and Paweł Mierosławski. They were accompanied by Mr Kazimierz Miastowski from Railwaymen Ministry, a former worker of Skierniewice Depot.

During the short autumn and winter days, simultaneously to the renovation works, we organize our workshop’s backroom. It required new stands where we could store the tools and spare parts. Therefore we were very glad when two days before the Railwayman Day, a very useful gift reached the shed.  Courtesy of the company of Mr Zdzisław Ciesielski, our workshops storeroom has been equipped with a couple of new stands. Thank you!