The next sand train
I assume a lot of people who see this photo will relate to the circumstances in which it was taken - getting intel about a very interesting train, hopping on an overnight train journey in a normal coach for over 600km, going to the desired spot and finding out the train had already passed it. By sheer coincidence we managed to change course and chase it to a different spot.
Here a loaded sand train from Kotlarnia can be seen upon leaving the post EW (near the Rybnik power plant) while heading towards the station in Leszczyny. Machines on duty that day were 21D-008 (ex-TEM2-093) and 21D-006 (ex-TEM2-277). In Leszczyny, the train enters the public PKP railway network, and it will continue from there onwards to Katowice Murcki. The sand from the Kotlarnia mine will be used for construction works on the railway line, which suffered a slump due to the ongoing coal mining in the region. Such places, where terrain is visibly shifted or slumped are commonplace in Silesia and the railway needs to account for that by regularly maintaining embankments on the railroads. Such sand transports, leading out of Kotlarnia only happen less than 10 times a year and I have been lucky enough to have photographed a lot of them in 2024. Those pictures, along with their stories, you can see in our TEM2 album.
This post is a good occasion to talk about more developements in the Kotlarnia sand mine. The production there is still being scaled down and an end is innevitable. The quarry does no more night shifts (the pictured train has been loaded the day before and waited for the crew on the morning of 18.07.2025). Additionally, KPK has started selling a large chunk of its rolling stock (either for scrap or further reusing), and it seems like their main souce of income nowadays is lending TEM2 locomotives to various private carriers, who seek heavy diesel locomotives, which are now in high demand.
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus
The next sand train
I assume a lot of people who see this photo will relate to the circumstances in which it was taken - getting intel about a very interesting train, hopping on an overnight train journey in a normal coach for over 600km, going to the desired spot and finding out the train had already passed it. By sheer coincidence we managed to change course and chase it to a different spot.
Here a loaded sand train from Kotlarnia can be seen upon leaving the post EW (near the Rybnik power plant) while heading towards the station in Leszczyny. Machines on duty that day were 21D-008 (ex-TEM2-093) and 21D-006 (ex-TEM2-277). In Leszczyny, the train enters the public PKP railway network, and it will continue from there onwards to Katowice Murcki. The sand from the Kotlarnia mine will be used for construction works on the railway line, which suffered a slump due to the ongoing coal mining in the region. Such places, where terrain is visibly shifted or slumped are commonplace in Silesia and the railway needs to account for that by regularly maintaining embankments on the railroads. Such sand transports, leading out of Kotlarnia only happen less than 10 times a year and I have been lucky enough to have photographed a lot of them in 2024. Those pictures, along with their stories, you can see in our TEM2 album.
This post is a good occasion to talk about more developements in the Kotlarnia sand mine. The production there is still being scaled down and an end is innevitable. The quarry does no more night shifts (the pictured train has been loaded the day before and waited for the crew on the morning of 18.07.2025). Additionally, KPK has started selling a large chunk of its rolling stock (either for scrap or further reusing), and it seems like their main souce of income nowadays is lending TEM2 locomotives to various private carriers, who seek heavy diesel locomotives, which are now in high demand.
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus