…unless ‘White Knight’ appears with 180,000 zloty
Ol49-80 at Elk. Photo Roman Miotke.
The OL49 offered for sale by tender in May (see BTWT, 16 May) has been bought by a scrap merchant. He is giving railway enthusiasts 7 days to raise 180,000 zloty to buy the locomotive, before he cuts up the engine for scrap.
Such a price is well beyond the reach of Polish railway heritage societies, leaving the loco’s fate dependent on the miraculous appearance of a ‘White Knight’.
The loco was built for PKP at the Feliks Dzierzynski locomotive factory in Chrzanow in 1953. Its tragic progress from a prize exhibit at the erstwhile ‘skansen’ at Elk to a ‘Barry wreck’ is illustrated on “Tomi” Czarnecki’s website Wciaz pod Para.
The photographs on OL49-80s page on Czarnecki’s website aptly illustrate the ignorance and stupidity of all those officials responsible for the demise of the Elk Skansen. Sadly, unless official policy changes with respect to PKP’s railway heritage rolling stock inventory many other Polish steam engines are likely to follow suit.
A hat tip to Marek Ciesielski for the story.
More:
- ForumKolejowe.pl – Lokomotywa parowa Ol49-80 na sprzedaż
