New hearth for class Ls60-336
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.
