The exodus of semaphores
Visiting Germany, the thing that always surprised us was the amount of mechanical semaphore signals still in use. We always looked up to Germany and their DB as the symbol of developement and overall technological advancement. Oh, how surprised were we to find out that so many stations in the land of our western neighbours still posess our favorite bits of railway infrastructure.
On the other hand, Poland seems to be really pushing forward the modernisation of railway safety equipement and new signals are placed everywhere day by day. Many of them in northern Poland, due to the total modernisation of many lines (the east-west mainline in Warmińsko-Mazurskie and the Gdańsk-Szczecin lines).
Branchlines are also getting a fair share of the new signals. The current objective of PKP PLK doesn't seem like eliminating mechanical semaphores completely, but rather removing the need for staffing two signal boxes per station, which is done by completely overhauling one part of the station and then remotely steering it from the other side, which is left almost untouched. In the past years, this happened to many stations on the old coal mainline - Serock, Lipowa Tucholska, Bąk and Somonino.
The infamous Ostbahn is now meeting a simmilar fate as many stations are undergoing a modernisation. One of the most surprising modernisations was Starogard Gdański and it came to me as a completely unexpected fact, which I had found out about from... one of Stefan's posts from last December!
Luckily for me, the western part of the station still has semaphores and an amazing climate, which served as the background for the evening ROS 55314 Hel-Chojnice hauled by the heritage unit SM42-523, as it was departing with a delay of 17 minutes towards Chojnice. It was 523's first train back to Chojnice after it got a repair and the new-old livery.
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus
Post scriptum - on the 25th of August 2022 I met some foreign railfan on the bridge on the other side of the station, greetings to you if you're reading this! :)
The exodus of semaphores
Visiting Germany, the thing that always surprised us was the amount of mechanical semaphore signals still in use. We always looked up to Germany and their DB as the symbol of developement and overall technological advancement. Oh, how surprised were we to find out that so many stations in the land of our western neighbours still posess our favorite bits of railway infrastructure.
On the other hand, Poland seems to be really pushing forward the modernisation of railway safety equipement and new signals are placed everywhere day by day. Many of them in northern Poland, due to the total modernisation of many lines (the east-west mainline in Warmińsko-Mazurskie and the Gdańsk-Szczecin lines).
Branchlines are also getting a fair share of the new signals. The current objective of PKP PLK doesn't seem like eliminating mechanical semaphores completely, but rather removing the need for staffing two signal boxes per station, which is done by completely overhauling one part of the station and then remotely steering it from the other side, which is left almost untouched. In the past years, this happened to many stations on the old coal mainline - Serock, Lipowa Tucholska, Bąk and Somonino.
The infamous Ostbahn is now meeting a simmilar fate as many stations are undergoing a modernisation. One of the most surprising modernisations was Starogard Gdański and it came to me as a completely unexpected fact, which I had found out about from... one of Stefan's posts from last December!
Luckily for me, the western part of the station still has semaphores and an amazing climate, which served as the background for the evening ROS 55314 Hel-Chojnice hauled by the heritage unit SM42-523, as it was departing with a delay of 17 minutes towards Chojnice. It was 523's first train back to Chojnice after it got a repair and the new-old livery.
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus
Post scriptum - on the 25th of August 2022 I met some foreign railfan on the bridge on the other side of the station, greetings to you if you're reading this! :)