Healthy and peaceful Christmas
and a much better New Year 2021

 wish you

volunteers, members and board of the Polish Association of Railway Enthusiasts

Dear visitors,

We would like to remind you that due to the current epidemic measures we have to cancel the Railwaymen Day in the Engine Shed, planned for 28^th November. Let’s hope that we will be able to make for the lost Open Days next year.

We would also like to inform you that due to the uncertain pandemic situation, the issue of the events calendar for 2021 will be delayed at least till the New Year.

Sorry for inconvenience.

A couple of months ago we received an offer from the Marshal of Łódź Voivodeship, Mr Grzegorz Schreiber, to include in our collection an EMU class EN57-919 – the oldest unit of this type still in use by the Voivodeship.

After long discussion, taking into account that the vehicle is still in running order and the Shed lacks the proper infrastructure (no overhead power supply for electric rolling stock), we decided that we have to decline the offer. To fulfil the will of the donor, we started looking for a facility better suited to take care of the historical unit. An obvious choice was the Railway Heritage Park in Zduńska Wola Karsznice operated by the Museum of History of Zduńska Wola. The museum was glad to accept the offer and take care of the EMU.

On Wednesday, 4^th November 2020 in the early morning, the unit has reached the Zdunska Wola Południowa station on its own and later was shunted to the premises of the heritage park.

We would like to express our gratitude fro a fruitful cooperation. We would also like to congratulate the new owners an interesting new exhibit in their collection.

Many years ago an interesting diesel engine joined our collection of rolling stock – class Ls60-336, the last shunting engine used in Skierniewice’s industrial sidings. The engine was donated by the windows manufacturer “Veka”, who discovered the engine on the premises of its plant, previously belonging to the factory of iron casting equipment “Fumos”. Unfortunately, before “Veka” took over “Fumos” buildings, the little locomotive was left abandoned with coolant still in the engine. During one of the freezing winters this led to the splitting of the engine block rendering it inoperable.

From time to time we got back to the idea of a major overhaul of the locomotive, which would require buying a new S324 engine. Finally, we realized that the engines of this type are becoming rare in the market. Simultaneously, another shunting engine from our collection – class Ls40-4572, despite being in running order, was already in poor condition when added to our collection 25 years ago. This pushed us to action. The first inspection of the potential candidate for new hearth for class Ls60 also resulted in an unexpected but very useful investment by our volunteers – an old “Żuk” cargo van which will be indispensable in haulage of heavy parts.

We checked several other offers for a new engine, but eventually decided that due to the price and condition, our first choice was the best one. In October, as further search was pointless, our volunteers departed for a special mission to Częstochowa. There, after finalizing the transaction, “Żuk” with a precious cargo went on its way and reached Skierniewice the same day. We hope that in a couple of months the new engine will be mounted on class Ls60, and the little locomotive will move on its own, for the first time since being abandoned in the walls of “Fumos” factory.

Dear visitors,

Due to the increasing limits related to the pandemic, we are forced to close the Engine Shed to the visitors until further notice. Consequently, the remaining events (the Railwaymen Day) have to be cancelled till the end of 2020.

Sorry for inconvenience and see you in spring!

Dear visitors,

Due to the ongoing pandemic and the related restrictions, we would like to strongly advise to adhere to the recommendations of Health Services and cancel your visit to the Engine Shed. The Engine Shed will be closed to visitors until further notice.

Consequently, the first events in this year’s season will be canceled – the Open Day on 2^nd May,the Railway Night of Museums on 16^th May  and Childrens Day on 2^nd June are called off.

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. Take care and hope to see you soon.

The Board of the Polish Association of Railway Enthusiasts

The collection assembled by PARE in Skierniewice Engine Shed is not limited to the rolling stock and railway traffic control. Whenever possible we try to gather any documents related to the history of Polish railways and railways in Skierniewice in particular.

In the beginning of January, Mr Jarosław Wiśniewski from Skierniewice donated to us several priceless artefacts including the seniority list of Warsaw-Vienna Railway engineers from 1911 and a set of historical welding tools.

Thank you!

We are happy to report that in the last hours of 2019 we received 4 000 PLN for the renovation of the Engine Shed. We would like to express our gratitude to the company Silesia Transport, specializing in public transportation services, for this surprise donation which allowed us to close our budget for 2019.

Our colleague, dr Ariel Ciechański for years have been investigating the history of special railway cars for transporting beer. Thanks to the cooperation with many various railway enthusiasts he managed to come across many interesting documents like the Austrian State Railways (KKStB) journal of announcements and ordinances. This and similar sources encouraged us to take a closer look at one of our exhibits, the tank wagon № 552 178, and try to reconstruct its history.

So far our knowledge was restricted to the identification numbers of the car. One of them was № 507 590 from the times when the car belonged to KKStB. Still we do not know who was the manufacturer of the tank wagon. Nevertheless we are quite sure that the original recipient of car was the Czech company František Xaver Brosche a syn a.s., owner of distilleries in Prague Libeň and Rájec (currently Rájec-Jestřebí).

The last town was a home depo for this car, which at that time was used for the transport of spirit. Before 1910, the car was taken over by k.k. privilegierte Österreichische Nordwestbahn (ÖNWB), probably with the identification number 136 557. Later, after nationalization of ÖNWB and takeover by KKStB the car received the above mentioned number 507 590.

According to the information provided by our Czech colleagues, the car was still owned by a private company during the inter-war period. Czech state railways took over the car under the last known number that we are using currently, № 552 178, which was found stamped on the undercarriage. The specification of the car is similar to the parameters of our tank wagon except the number of axles (three in Czech and two in Polish documents), so it might be that we have made an error assuming that 552 178 was a Polish State Railways number. It is interesting that the car suddenly disappeared from Czech registers before 1948 and simultaneously a tank wagon № 0552 178 appeared in the PKP inventory.