Traditionally, in the last days of the old year, we would like to summarize it in couple of words, not forgetting about thanking to our Volunteers and Sponsors, without whom the results of our activity would be much more modest.

The most import part of our activity was renovation of the historical buildings of the Engine Shed. Year 2016 broke all records in this category. For the tasks related to renovation of the main roundhouse we spend a total of 253 087,06 PLN. The most expensive operation was general overhaul of the roof spanning the area above stands 14 to 23 – it took 139 317,41 PLN. 90 000 PLN was granted by Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Conservationist of Łódź Voivodeship granted another 25 000 PLN for this purpose. The remaining amount was sponsored by Bank Spółdzielczy from Skierniewice (3500 PLN) or was coming from your support, from 1% of income tax (20 814,41 PLN). There is still small portion of roof to be repaired above stands 12 and 13, which we hope to accomplish in 2017.

The biggest challenge was starting the reconstruction of the skylight above roundhouse. Despite we gained much experience in planning and carrying out roof repairs, the skylight made us learn everything from scratch. After several weeks of careful planning and fixing the agreements, out long-time contractor, construction company “Marbudex”, started the reconstruction. The first stage of rebuild, spanning stands 1-3, was worth 113 769,65 PLN. Again, 100 000 PLN was granted by Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the remaining amount was nearly fully sponsored by Freightliner PL.

A grant of 6500 PLN from City Council of Skierniewice was fully devoted to track works in Engine Shed. The money were spend to buy and transport pre-stressed concrete sleepers. The ballast was obtained for free. Yet, the track relying work had to be carried out with the effort of our own members and volunteers. Thanks to the warm autumn all heavy work like digging new track cess, positioning the sleepers and lying new ballast was completed before the first snow.

During 2016 we realized two projects to popularize volunteering in Engine Shed. Thanks to the support of National Heritage Board (10 000PLN), as a part of programme Volunteering for Heritage, we organized four parts of Volunteers Camp during which the participants helped in the upkeep of surroundings of the Shed and by the renovation of class Ol49-4 steam engine. As a part of the project we completed the equipment of the educational sightseeing route, which allows our guests to sightsee the outside of the shed on their own. A similar project, directed more towards the technical education, was a part of Active Youth Foundation supported by Bank BZ WBK (2 200PLN).

To sum up, from grants and sponsors we received over 250 000 PLN for renovation works. This means that the initial capital coming from 1% from income tax (from 2016 we received from Tax Office over 28 000 PLN) was multiplied nearly tenfold!

The rolling stock renovation was focused mostly around the renovation of passenger steam engine class Ol49-4. We continued the external paint job and completed the build of boiler cowling. Thanks to the completed roof works, we were able to move the engine inside the roundhouse, on stand 3 where class Ol49 is better protected against elements and can be easily accessed for further repairs, also from below. This work was completed partially from funds collected from 1% of income tax and partially as activities during the Volunteer Camp. The beer refrigerator car was also taken care of as the wooden construction of the walls has been nearly completed.

We intensified the works on our future railway telecommunication exhibition which will be located on the ground floor of administration building. The exhibition will be placed in three adjacent rooms, one of which already hosted partially reconstructed KATS railway exchange and remaining two were the former office of Rolling Stock Repairs Department. After completing the major renovation of the interiors, in 2016 we build a new framework for Siemens Einheitbasa racks and mounted the racks. This way we liquidated the old exhibition (the room can we renovated now) and freed lot of storage space. The future exhibition will be a unique Siemens railway exchange coupled with Strowger exchange of type FT-200 with equipment for manual connection, maintenance, commutation and teletransmission. The works are advanced in 60%.

We also broke in 2016 several records in terms of guests attendance. Not only did we surpassed our record so far – 6134 visitors, but we also exceeded the most optimistic estimation of 6500 guests. We finished 2016 with a guest count finishing at 6684 tourists. This remarkable result was possibly mostly due to large interest in engine shed among organized groups and special events addressed mostly to the fans of vintage cars.

On behalf of members of PARE, volunteers and the railway vehicles saved from rust we would like to express our gratitude to all sponsors in 2016: