Polish electric which helped derail communism may yet run again
AN ELECTRIC locomotive which played an early part in the fall of communism in Poland is being restored to main line operating condition by enthusiasts in Warsaw.
The city’s Klub Sympatyków Kolei we Wrocławiu (Railway Sympathisers Club) is raising money to renovate BoBo No. EP05-22, which featured in the nationwide protests in June 1976 that sowed the seeds of rebellion against the Soviet-controlled regime.
The June 24-30 protests involved demonstrations and strikes across the Polish People’s Republic, after Prime Minister Piotr Jaroszewicz announced plan for a sudden increase in the price of many basic commodities, in particular foodstuffs, as his government fell into increasing debt.
Protests
A major centre of the protests was the Warsaw suburb of Ursus, with its large Zakłady Mechaniczne tractor plant.
The workforce there defied management to strike and on June 25, 1000 people blocked part of the main line railway, sitting on the track and bringing traffic to a halt.
The first train to be stopped was the fast service Opalanin, headed by EP05-22. Workers unhooked the locomotive from the train and pushed it by hand off the tracks to futher block the line.
That evening, the government announced that the hated price increases would be cancelled, but protesters still in Ursus were beaten up and 131 were arrested by the police.
These events brought together workers and the Polish intellectual opposition for the first time, and three months later the Committee for the Defense of the Workers was formed, as the cycle of reform prompted by repression gathered momentum.
Developments
In early August 1980, a new wave of strikes resulted in the founding of the independent trade union Solidarity, led by Lech Wałęsa, who became the country’s president after 1989 saw the first of the succession of transitions from communist rule in central and eastern Europe as the Iron Curtain fell.
Class EP05 is a Polish modification of Czech Class EU05 which was built between 1957-60.
One of the last of its class in service, No. EP05-22 was saved in 2000 at the Prokocim depot in Kracow because of its historical value.
In September 2019, it was transferred to the Wrocław club.
The group is raising money for paints, welding and renovating the EP05-22’s aluminium finishes, and renewing its headlights.
They hope to have it fully restored by June, the 45th anniversary of the protests, and have launched a crowdfunding appeal to raise about £7000.