A FAIRY TALE COMES TRUE
On May 15, regular steam services are set to return to a preservation outpost - six days a week.
Do fairy tales really come true? As I write it seems they do because regular steam should be about to return. Not just for three days, as recently on the Settle-Carlisle, but six days. Every week. It isn’t the S&C of course - that really would be a fairy tale - but somewhere that would normally be outside the scope of ‘Down Main’. However, it is very much the main line, and assuming it works out as planned it’ll be unique: indeed it will have a decent claim to being the world’s only regular main line steam passenger service. Not specials. There’s a more than ‘honorary’ British link too - even if the operation itself is actually outside our shores… and you may now be starting to work out where I mean. I’m talking of Wolsztyn in Poland. There’s been talk of a return ever since the regular trains disappeared three years ago - but on April 29, at the annual engine parade, the ‘great and good’ proclaimed that it really would come back - on May 15. After all the hopes, doubts and mooted dates, the remarkable return of main line steam was officially, publicly and loudly announced. One person who has never given up is Howard Jones MBE. Howard came across Wolsztyn more than two decades ago as it happens, in leading Steam Railway trips - and decided this was something worth staying for. That led to the birth of Wolsztyn Experience footplate holidays; the organisation is 20 this year. Yet why would you actually do that? Why give up on the British main line scene widely thought to be the biggest and most vibrant anywhere on the planet - to set up in a completely different country?
OLD OAK ATMOSPHERE
“You don’t see this anywhere in preservation - just as I went round Old Oak Common as a kid, it is real,” says Howard. “We had the ‘Prairie’ here [Bill Parker’s No. 5521] and you could just see another
engine out of the corner of your eye - and I was going round Old Oak again. It’s real and I love it.” Until the end of March 2014 the Wolsztyn ‘experience’ meant regular trains - but then they came to an end and the fight’s been on ever since to have them reinstated. Howard is but one of a number of supporters who have kept going; they include the town’s mayor, and a local promoter that through its own special trains has effectively kept Wolsztyn steam occupied through the difficult last three years. It wouldn’t be happening without money from the regional government, either. The preparation to get to this stage has been substantial - engines put through shops and a new foundation created to take on their operation. Since regular trains last ran the shed has also gained a new roof. Why pick up on this in ‘Down Main’ now? Well, if you think about it, the prospect is quite remarkable. Assuming it happens, a steam operation that finished will come back - against all the tide of recent history. The plan is for two return trips over a 29-mile route from Wolsztyn to Leszno MondaysFridays; and two returns on the longer 50-odd mile stretch to Poznan on Saturdays. Will this month truly include a day on which the princess kisses the frog? It looks like it. “It hasn’t been the same, I agree,” says Howard about the time since the end of March 2014, “but now it’s back on track.” “It’s a credit to a lot of the people involved and the atmosphere of the place. “The official confirmation was made by all parties at the parade - and it’s starting on May 15.”