SU45-067 at Zawada, Poland. 1996.
Catching the early morning light with a frost still evident SU45-067 is seen calling at Zawada with overnight train 62206 the 20.00 Wrocław Główny to Hrubiesów Miasto. The standard gauge line the train is on forms a branch from here to Hrubiesów Miasto which was once a through route to Izów in the Ukraine. It lost its passenger service beyond Hrubiesów in 1944 but was retained as a cross border freight line until 1978 when the line was finally closed reducing it to a dead end branch from here. The following year in 1979 the new 1520mm gauge LHS (Lina Hutniczo Siarkowa) opened parallel to this route known in English as the Steel & Sulphur Railway. If you look extreme left in this image you can see the back of a signal painted silver on the Russian gauge line. The LHS formed a major freight artery for steel and mineral traffic from the heavily industrialised Silesian Basin area of Southern Poland with the line starting from yards east of Katowice at Jaworzno Szazakowa. In the Soviet era it had a limited passenger service geared to Russian and Ukrainian immigrant labour and supported just 4 stations in Poland in 379km length to the border. The main train being an Olkusz to Magnitogorsk service which took several days to reach the Russian 'Steel City' in the Ural Mountains where European Russian meets Asia. As well as this long distance service there were direct sleeping car trains to Moscow and one to L'viv in the Ukraine.
SU45-067 at Zawada, Poland. 1996.
Catching the early morning light with a frost still evident SU45-067 is seen calling at Zawada with overnight train 62206 the 20.00 Wrocław Główny to Hrubiesów Miasto. The standard gauge line the train is on forms a branch from here to Hrubiesów Miasto which was once a through route to Izów in the Ukraine. It lost its passenger service beyond Hrubiesów in 1944 but was retained as a cross border freight line until 1978 when the line was finally closed reducing it to a dead end branch from here. The following year in 1979 the new 1520mm gauge LHS (Lina Hutniczo Siarkowa) opened parallel to this route known in English as the Steel & Sulphur Railway. If you look extreme left in this image you can see the back of a signal painted silver on the Russian gauge line. The LHS formed a major freight artery for steel and mineral traffic from the heavily industrialised Silesian Basin area of Southern Poland with the line starting from yards east of Katowice at Jaworzno Szazakowa. In the Soviet era it had a limited passenger service geared to Russian and Ukrainian immigrant labour and supported just 4 stations in Poland in 379km length to the border. The main train being an Olkusz to Magnitogorsk service which took several days to reach the Russian 'Steel City' in the Ural Mountains where European Russian meets Asia. As well as this long distance service there were direct sleeping car trains to Moscow and one to L'viv in the Ukraine.