On Saturday, 24th November, we opened the gates of the Shed for the visitors, for the last time in this year. 82 guests decided to visit us, including the pupils of the Primary School № 4 in Skierniewice, who delivered their greeting on the occasion of the Railwaymen’s Day. To sum up, this year a total of 5811 guests visited the Shed.
We would like to say thank you to all who visited us this year and invite you for the next season, starting 4th May 2019.
Continuing the tradition, we would like to conclude this year by announcing the events calendar for the new year 2019.
We reserve the right to alter the published schedule.
On 19th November, the Foundation of Santander Bank Poland, announced the results of the IV edition of grant competition Here I Live, Here I Change. We are happy to report, that we received a support in the value of 5000 PLN for our project Volunteers helping in renovation of Skierniewice Engine Shed. This amount will be devoted for further activities aiming to improve the aesthetics of the Engine Shed, that we will continue in the spring of 2019.
We would like to invite all interested in helping us to contact us via email wolontariat@psmk.org.pl.
On Friday, 16th November, a conservationist’s inspection of the repaired sections of roof above stands 21, 22 and 23 took place. The works completed by the building company Marbudex were worth total of 94751,49 PLN.
We were supported with the grant of 61600 PLN by the Council of Łódź Voivodeship as a part of public activity Revitalization and adaptation for museum the Engine Shed Skierniewice – emergency repairs of the roof above stands 21 to 23 of the engine shed from 19th century. The required initial assets in value of 20000 PLN were covered by our partner Freightliner PL. The remaining required cash was covered from the 1% of the income tax.
On Thursday 15th November, a steam engine class Tp3-36, which was one of the vehicles from our collection outside Skierniewice, made is safely from Zbąszynek to the Museum of Armoured Warfare in Poznań, where it will be our deposit. The engine made the trip on its own wheels pulled by a maintenance train. Thanks to the full devotion of the crew from our association, the engine had no issues to cover the 100km trip. After reaching station Poznań Wola, the engine was transported from the siding to the musuem near the Poznań-Ławica Airport.
There are partners that always remember about us, and support us each year like Freightliner PL (part of the american concern Genesee & Wyomng). This company sets the safety as its priority and was eager to help us in our strive to improve the safety of our guests by the renovation of the buildings of the Shed. The company donated 20000 PLN as initial asset for the final repairs of the roof of the main roundhouse, which will be further donated by the Council of Łódź Voivodeship. We are glad that we are not alone on our endeavours.
To fulfil our earlier obligation, we would like to summarize the assets collected to transport the maintenance vehicle class SR71-04. The collection totalled at 11850,50 PLN and the actual spendings amounted to 8549,39 PLN. Due to the fact that we tried to gather assets from a couple of different sources, we ended up with a surplus of 3301,11 PLN, which will be devoted for the renovation of the engine of this vehicle and to cover the costs of the technical inspection.
| Incomes | Amount [PLN] | Expenditures | Amount [PLN] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zrzutka.pl | 4237,00 | Transportation costs by “Panas Transport” | 7995,00 |
| Donations by members of PARE | 950,00 | Zrzutka.pl fees | 127,11 |
| Donations by individual donors outside of PARE | 1663,50 | Costs of presents and their distribution to donors | 427,28 |
| Donations by legal entities | 5000,00 | – | – |
| TOTAL | 11850,50 | TOTAL | 8 549,39 |
Once again, we would like to express our gratitude for such a positive response and support to this action.
Before commencing this year’s series of volunteers camps, we were met by the news of changes in the rules of the financing programme of the National Board of Heritage. We expected a major slip in the schedule, but fortunately, the Board has published the results of applications much earlier than expected. This way, with some effort, we were able to start the first camp in the second half of the summer vacations. The official name of the camps, as seen in the application, is Volunteering for the Engine Shed in Skierniewice – maintenance of the Shed’s sorroundings as patriotic care for the history of Polish railways. Our main aim was to enlarge the base of volunteers helping us in maintaining the Shed and to refresh the acquaintance with those who participated in camps in previous years.
Based on this year’s guidelines by the Board, we focused on the mundane, but required jobs of clean-up and upkeep of the Shed’s surroundings. Due to this fact, the planned renovation of class Ty51-1 engine was not the focal point of our activities. During the first stage of the work (11th to 15th August) the participants focused on the removal of graffiti and repainting of the gates in the wall facing the station. To keep the aesthetics of the work, we also refurbished another entry gate in this part of the wall and the internal gate on track № 63.
We also started to get rid of the overgrown self-seeders, first behind the round-house and next in the coal-storage, starting from track № 53. Simultaneously, we cleaned-up the remains after the older roof repairs and plant litter left after previous attempts to clean this area. To avoid leaving the plant waste again, we immediately got the wood chopped and transported away for recycling. During the subsequent camps, we continued the clean-up of the vicinity of tracks № 61 and 63.
The weekend of 20th and 21st October were the last days of this year’s camps. During the total of 13 days Volunteers cleared a large portion of the coal storage from the weeds and bushes. Among the participants were colleagues from organizations similar to PARE – Żuławy Commuter Railway from Nowy Dwór Gdański and Upper Silesia Narrow-gauge Railways from Bytom.
The National Board of Heritage was not the only supporter of the camps. We managed to convince other partners to provide us with tools required for our work. Company “Agentools” equpped us with gardening power tools, invaluable in clearing the coal storage. The distributor of abrasives Pferd and VSM provided us with copious amounts of wire brushes required in cleaning the metal parts of the fence and gates.
The project was concluded in the afternoon of 21st October with a sightseeing trip around historical industrial object in the vicinity of Skierniewice. We visited the first in the world welded bridge in Maurzyce and the heritage park of folk architecture located nearby. Later, we visited the branch of the Station Museum in Sochaczew to see how a professional railway museum functions. In the end we visited what remained from the former linen loom in Żyrardów. It was a rather sad visit which reminded us of the usual fate of industrial heritage in Poland…
Aside from the main clean-up activities, we continued renovation of some of our exhibits – signalling devices and class Ty51-1 steam engine.
As a part of the project, we organized two open meetings regarding the history of railway. On Sunday, 12th August a screening of a documentary “17 days that decided of Poland” took place. The film is notable due to the fact that some of the vehicles from our collection took part in the film. After the screening we had a moment for a short meeting and discussion with the director of the film, Leszek Staroń, and his crew.
On Saturday, 6th October, we invited the participants of the volunteers camps to the presentation by Ariel Ciechański, PhD “Modernity vs authenticity in railway museums” discussing the various approaches to the conservation of railway heritage across the Europe. We had the opportunity to see examples from Romania (steam engine exhibition in Sybia), Austria (LokPark Ampflwang, Heizhaus Strashoff), Belgium (TrainWorld Brussels) and Czechia (Děčín – stavědlo 15, Železniční muzeum ČD Lužna u Rakovníka, depozitář NTM Chomutov). The presentation was followed by the discussion on this topic.
Summary of the project:
| Position | Factor | Unit | Value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planned | Completed | |||
| 1 | Volunteer camps organized | pcs. | 5 | 5 |
| 2 | Participating volunteers | persons | 25 | 38 |
| 3 | Organizers, coordinators | persons | 5 | 5 |
| 4 | Events organized | pcs. | 2 | 2 |
| 5 | Participants of events | persons | 25 | 27 |
| 6 | Partners, sponsors | entities | 5 | 8 |
| 7 | Listed objects renovated by the volunteers | pcs. | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | Other historical objects renovated by the volunteers | pcs. | 0 | 0 |
In the shadow of the eradication of self-seeders from the coal storage, a much more precise work was conducted in the secluded area of the signalling exhibition. We were continuing refurbishing the rare, small lever frame of the intermediate signal box.
After the successful assembly of the interlocking cam’s box, we proceeded to fix the signal’s levers. It took long than expected to bring those parts to a proper condition. We actually disassembled the levers into their elementary parts – for some volunteers, students of the railway school, it was an interesting and invaluable experience. Another step was a thorough cleaning and removal of the paint. The complex shape of the cast-iron parts forced us to experiment with different techniques, including a crude blast-sanding. Meanwhile, we started to complete new equipment of the exhibition’s mechanical back-room, e.g. a new grinding machine allowed us to eliminate the countless trips to the main workshop to clean every tiny detail. Eventually, after repainting, the levers were put back on their place at the frame.
Another element of the frame which required our attention was the block device. This time we decided to completely disassemble for easier clean-up. The effect was worth the effort – the repainted frame is now waiting for the installation of block assemblies, electromagnetic lock and the generator. After that we will face the much more complex task of recreating the electric circuits of the device. What we found initially inside was far from proper (the frame was a teaching aid in a railway school). The challenge was nevertheless accepted by our volunteers, who find in it another opportunity to excel their skills as signal fitters.
The lever frame was not the only exhibit we focused on. At last we took care of the second five-aspect semaphore present on the exhibition. This one was also a teaching aid and initially was equipped with a simple control box to automatically switch the aspects. Unfortunately, the original circuit based on the exchange step-by-step switch gave at some point a puff of smoke, and the semaphore was left in the corner only to present what is the use of indicator W31 (“disregard this signal”). We started by inspecting the wiring of the lights and repainting the chambers. Next, we prepared a new control system, this time based on Arduino micro-controller. We also ordered new background plates to be cut in place for the missing ones.
Below is a short video from the first test run of the semaphore.
For 9 years now PARE members have the honour to take part in the Old Souls Day collection organized by the Social Committee for the preservation of Old Powązki cemetery. Representatives of other entities of railway industry are also participating in the collection – together with our colleagues from Warsaw’s Commuters Railway (WKD) and PLK we will be present near the grave of Stanisław Wysocki (1805 – 1868), the head architect of the Warsaw-Vienna Railroad (catacomb avenue, column 6/7). The collection will take place on 1st (Thursday), 3rd (Saturday) and 4th (Sunday) November.
Also for the eleventh time we are meeting for the annual All Souls Day walk. This year we will visit the refurbished graves of railwaymen e.g. of Leon Miaskowski (1822-1892), the first Polish train driver. We start on 2nd November at the St Onorata’s gate at 10:00 AM.
