THE ABANDONED TRAIN GRAVEYARD IN POLAND
This is the ‘Cmentarzysko Lokomotyw PKP’. It is a graveyard for old rolling stock of the Polish National Railway PKP, or Polskie Koleje Państwowe. On this graveyard, proud old worn-out locomotives are rusting and quietly waiting to be scrapped. Partly the locomotives are restored and also parts are re-used in the close-by workshop.
The PKP is the dominant railway operator in Poland. It is the main provider of railway services, holding an almost complete monopoly on long-distance passenger services. It is both supported and partly funded by the government. In Poland there are 18.513 kilometres of railway tracks managed by PKP.
Classes and Types of Locomotives
We found a SM42 ‘Colorado Beetle’. This four-axle diesel locomotive with electric power transmission was developed for the change from steam to motor traction in shunting and light track service at the end of the 1950s. The simple and robust design of the locomotive became very successful and the production of the SM42 series continued until 1992. In total 1.822 machines were produced.
The ET22 is a Polish six-axle electric freight locomotive built by Pafawag from 1969 to 1989. With 1.183 units, it is most numerous standard gauge electric locomotive built in Europe. It was nicknamed ‘Bull’ because of its size. Another Pafawag loc we found was the ET21, an electric freight locomotive produced between years 1957 to 1971.
The ET41 is a modification of the EU07 locomotive, and was designed for the purpose of heavy transport. It is made of two connected bodies of EU07, minus the cabs at the inner ends. Due to its length is tends to be called ‘Dachshund’ by polish train enthusiasts.
We also photographed the SP32, the Romanian built passenger locomotive. The SU45 has been made for universal use, for both heavy transport and passenger transport. Lastly we photographed a ST45 freight diesel locomotive.
For obvious reasons, the site is heavily guarded to scare away metal-thieves and other looters. I visited ‘Cmentarzysko Lokomotyw PKP’ in 2018. Thanks to Marek!
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