Polish pkp railways

[Unit basher]

Hi everyone,

 

Having no idea where to put this post I thought I would try here. 

 

A recent trip to Poland was interesting to say the least. Whilst it was a work trip I did see plenty of railways about. I thought this was interesting & different to everything else I've seen in modelling. It got the juices flowing after a long spell of none modelling & I thought this might be a new venture to model. 

 

Now where to start?

 

I know model trains are available from various continental brands but are there any suppliers of buildings & are there any sources of information for branchlines etc that would be suitable to model. Its very hard to find information on new subjects & where to look. A small modern branch would be fun to make if anyone has inspiration 

 

Thanks 

[SM42]

There are a few buildings from Auhagen that are suitable and indeed a lot of German (Prussian)  looking kits would fit the bill given Poland's history as part of that empire when the railways were being built. 

 

In terms of branches there is a multitude of things to look at. Each region has look nowadays with the various operators with their own liveries. Some areas architecture is different to others but there is a lot of almost standardisation as fair as I can see having travelled around the country.

 

It is surprising just how much is electrified too

 

I've not found much in print, but then haven't really been searching. 

 

Google Earth can be a good source. Just have a fly around. 

 

It's surprising where they got to by UK standards and the roads and railways are often side by side.

 

Hopefully once building work finishes at SM42 Towers I will be able to build something to run my Polish stock on. 

 

I have numerous ideas loosely based on places I have visited either in person or via Google.

 

One thing I have noticed is that branch doesn't always mean small. There is a lot of railway for your money in places that don't seem to warrant it

 

 

Happy hunting

 

Andy

Edited May 7, 2022 by SM42

[Nick C]

On 07/05/2022 at 10:27, SM42 said:

One thing I have noticed is that branch doesn't always mean small. There is a lot of railway for your money in places that don't seem to warrant it

I've just done a bit of measuring on Google maps - my mother-in-law's local station, a simple passing station on a mountain branch in Małopolska, works out at 700m long, for a town of less than 6,000 people. For comparison, Alresford station in Hampshire is about half that length, for a similar population - and as Andy says, a lot there is electrified - even down to a virtually mothballed branch that has one train a week!

 

Perhaps a good example of a small modern branch would be Hel, on the coast - but even that is nearly 1km long! The smallest I can find in a brief search is Krynica-Zdroj, Małopolska - just under 600m

 

Quite a lot of lines that were closed, were actually just mothballed (rather than being ripped up and the land sold off), so you find a nice branch terminus on the map, and find it actually isn't - the line continues through the bushes! There's a lot of investment going on there now, with some of those mothballed lines being refurbished and reopened, and new lines being built.

 

I've not been able to find any decent literature either, at least not in English (and my Polish language knowledge is a long way off being able to read specialist books!)

 

Maps

[EddieB]

Perhaps worth remembering that the railways of modern Poland were built mainly during times of division under the Prussian and Austro-Hungarian empires, such that construction was to meet their organisational and militaristic requirements.  Both made use of standardised architectural styles within their jurisdictions, which obviously differ between the regions of the modern state.  Of course, there are examples where “socialist austere” later prevailed - but small, local stations were unlikely to have been replaced.

 

In common with many other countries, towns and villages developed along a single main road, the station accessed through a side street or narrow lane.