Wielichowo flashback

Wielichowo station on the Smigiel Railway in 1991. From a photo by UVW.

(Click the thumbnail above to see the original photographs.)

UVW has published two glorious colour photographs on the www.drehscheibe-foren.de historical forum. They were taken in Poland in the Autumn of 1991. The first is of a beautifully clean 4-6-0 Ok22-31 at Wolsztyn depot. The second was taken at Wielichowo on the Smigiel Railway. The period detail here is interesting. The paint on the railcar has lost some of its freshness and is heavily scratched on the left hand corner of the front. The cinder track to the goods yard is well used. There is a white painted rock to discourage lorries from driving over the pointwork and the vegetation has been cleared from the track in the area of the switch blade. Though the services to Rakonowice have long gone, the level crossing barriers across the road are still in place as are the warning signs on the road. Apart from the general air of abandonment, the greatest difference today is the absence of the engine shed which was demolished in 2002.