Just pretend!
...pretend it's a steam locomotive!
SM42-1239 (ex-1034) is awaiting departure time with its evening regio train from Poznań Główny to Wolsztyn, which should have theoretically been run with a steam engine (it even says so on the DB app :))
Many might have heard of what had been happening at the world-famous steam locomotive depot in Wolsztyn. For those who haven't here's a quick recap:
For a solid part of 2022 and most of 2023 there were ZERO steam locomotives in service at Wolsztyn, which until recently took great pride in being the last place in the world doing daily steam service. This of course was quite sad for us railway enthusiasts, but oh well, things happen.
What happened later turned out to be even worse though. Once Pt47-65 returned to its hometown after a lengthy repair in Kolín, Czechia (yes, there are no places in Poland which service steam locomotives as of now), strange things started to happen. The town still advertises itself in the same way that it used to, however in reality, it rarely provides the advertised services. The workday services between Wolsztyn and Leszno are rarely hauled by the steam locomotive, and the Poznań services have been almost completely suspended (There was a steam service on 13.01.2024, last train with a steam loco before that in early November 2023, previous one - God knows when). It is really not a pleasant sight to see a family running towards the train at departure hour and the children saying 'Hey! But that's not a steam locomotive!'.
Of course every sensible person understands that the finantial situation is not the best and you can't run services 7 days of the week with just one locomotive at the depot. However, it should also be obvious, that when you aren't capable of doing something, you shouldn't advertise yourself to be! The opinion of a lot of people is it makes no sense to run workday services to Leszno to get on the nerves of normal commuters and that it would be better to just run the train once or twice on the weekend on the route to Poznań, which is almost exclusively used by steam-thirsty tourists. By stating that clearly, you avoid the problems of overworking the locomotive to death and get rid of the bad PR, when a steam service is cancelled.
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus
Just pretend!
...pretend it's a steam locomotive!
SM42-1239 (ex-1034) is awaiting departure time with its evening regio train from Poznań Główny to Wolsztyn, which should have theoretically been run with a steam engine (it even says so on the DB app :))
Many might have heard of what had been happening at the world-famous steam locomotive depot in Wolsztyn. For those who haven't here's a quick recap:
For a solid part of 2022 and most of 2023 there were ZERO steam locomotives in service at Wolsztyn, which until recently took great pride in being the last place in the world doing daily steam service. This of course was quite sad for us railway enthusiasts, but oh well, things happen.
What happened later turned out to be even worse though. Once Pt47-65 returned to its hometown after a lengthy repair in Kolín, Czechia (yes, there are no places in Poland which service steam locomotives as of now), strange things started to happen. The town still advertises itself in the same way that it used to, however in reality, it rarely provides the advertised services. The workday services between Wolsztyn and Leszno are rarely hauled by the steam locomotive, and the Poznań services have been almost completely suspended (There was a steam service on 13.01.2024, last train with a steam loco before that in early November 2023, previous one - God knows when). It is really not a pleasant sight to see a family running towards the train at departure hour and the children saying 'Hey! But that's not a steam locomotive!'.
Of course every sensible person understands that the finantial situation is not the best and you can't run services 7 days of the week with just one locomotive at the depot. However, it should also be obvious, that when you aren't capable of doing something, you shouldn't advertise yourself to be! The opinion of a lot of people is it makes no sense to run workday services to Leszno to get on the nerves of normal commuters and that it would be better to just run the train once or twice on the weekend on the route to Poznań, which is almost exclusively used by steam-thirsty tourists. By stating that clearly, you avoid the problems of overworking the locomotive to death and get rid of the bad PR, when a steam service is cancelled.
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus