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THOMAS BRIGHT get his first taste of authentic Polish steam at the Wolsztyn Experience.
Firing an express passenger ‘Mikado’ at speed on the main line – it’s the ultimate steam fix and you can experience it for yourself. In our annual round‑ up of driving and firing courses, Thomas Bright tells you how.
A FIRM TAP ON MY SHOULDER CALLS ME TO THE SHOVEL, AND WITH THE FIREHOLE DOOR OPEN, I AM EXPOSED TO THE INFERNO WITHIN
It’s 4am on a dark and bitterly cold morning. Wolsztyn is still asleep. However, over in the roundhouse, a giant beast is stirring from its slumber. Our charge for the next four days is Pt47-65, an enormous 2-8-2 designed to haul 700-ton sleeper trains at 100kph across one of the largest countries in Europe. Such is Pt47-65’s hunger for coal, this example – like other members of the class – was once fitted with a mechanical stoker, feeding a grate measuring 48 square feet. This is only two square feet shy of its British counterpart, the Gresley ‘P2’ – Britain’s most powerful express passenger locomotive. That alone demonstrates the task that lies ahead, for I am not just a passenger on this trip – I am the fireman. For someone with limited footplate experience, the prospect of keeping this beast fed is daunting, but also extremely exciting. The Wolsztyn Experience is as authentic as it gets. If you want to truly understand what it was really like for footplatemen, this is the place to come. Nowhere else in the world can you take charge of an express locomotive out on the main line, with fare-paying passengers in your care. Making the climb up into the capacious cab, I am immediately greeted by the amiable Polish crew, Driver Andrzej and Fireman Henryk. The former hands me a cap emblazoned with the letters ‘PKP’ (Polskie Koleje Pañstwowe – Polish State Railways). No niceties for me. With that cap on my head, I am a member of the crew – an honorary PKP engineman – and by the time this trip is over, I will have earned it. I take my seat on the fireman’s side and just after 5am, Pt47-65 steams off into the early morning. Sparks aplenty erupt from the chimney as we charge light engine across this flat, mostly featureless landscape, accompanied by the hypnotic, rhythmic silhouette of telegraph wires and poles. The only light comes from the bare incandescent bulb hung from the cab roof and the bright glow of the fire as Henryk and I put on round after round. Conversation is limited. The crew’s grasp of English is as strong as my understanding of Polish (not very!) and aside from the occasional prompts of “water on” and “water off” (directing me to open and close the injector as necessary), we barrel along in almost total silence.
WARTS AND ALL
It is truly exhilarating, and the crisp cold air combined with the intoxicating smell of coal smoke, steam and lubricating oil is more than enough to stimulate the senses. What a rush! If you love steam, you have to come to Wolsztyn. On the Wolsztyn Experience, you enjoy the warts-and-all reality of working on the footplate. And it is magical. It’s daybreak by the time we arrive in Poznan, and our water stop allows me the opportunity to clamber down from the cab and truly admire our steed. It’s an impressive beast – eight enormous driving wheels, a chunky boiler and a round-topped firebox, the smoke deflectors standing proud of the bluff smokebox, and the austere, single chimney. The ‘Pt47’ isn’t as elegant as British locomotives, but there is a handsomeness to its design. It’s not as convoluted or overly ergonomic as some of its continental relations, and its stark lines convey an aura of extreme power. My vantage point, in the six-foot in the sidings at Poznan station, highlights the stark difference in attitudes between the UK and Poland. There’s no way I’d be allowed to stand here on a British preserved railway, let alone out on the main line, and there’s certainly no chance that an amateur like myself would be permitted to fire an express passenger locomotive out on the main line either. Poland affords a freedom not available to enthusiasts at home. That’s the allure of Wolsztyn and Polish steam. If you’re an enthusiast who considers foreign steam to be of little consequence, this place will change your mind. At almost every station there are reminders of Poland’s steam past, from enormous roundhouses and water towers, to semaphores and point rodding. Over the course of the rest of the tour, I enjoy numerous stints on the footplate, slowly honing my firing skills. A true stand-out moment of the trip is the run from Somonino to Gdynia. The line is largely downgrade – a twisting, sinuous route that wends its way through villages, rolling countryside and expansive pine forests.
The timetable assumes chimney-first running at 70kph, but instead we are running tender-first, and thus limited to 50kph. At that speed, we have no chance of maintaining the tight schedule. Setting off from the wayside station at Somonino, we sweep down the gradient. There’s no speedometer in the cab – the experienced crew regulate their velocity by eye and by ear – but our forward (or is that backwards?) momentum builds with an exhilarating rapidity. Henryk and I pay careful attention to the gauge glasses, keeping the boiler topped up with water and the firebox with coal to maintain both speed and adequate steam pressure. Looking through the rear spectacle plate, over the length of the tender, I can see the beautifully laid track fall away in front of us. “Faster yet and faster, eating up the miles…” The memorable commentary from No. 6220 Coronation’s 114mph record-breaking run to Crewe rings in my ears... Only a single signal check slows our progress, but aside from this brief decline in speed we catapult towards our destination with relentless ferocity. All the while I am using the injector with split-second timing, all under Henryk’s ever-watchful guidance. A firm tap on my shoulder calls me to the shovel, and with the firehole door open, I am exposed to the inferno within. I shovel like I have never done before. The heat is indescribable. Henryk gives me directions on where to sling the coal, and when I flop back into my seat he takes over to compensate for my sloppy technique. Before long we sail into Gdynia, where a series of glass and steel tower blocks loom alongside the track, and as we slow for our approach to the station I catch the reflection of the train (and myself at the cab window) in the walls of glazing. My ear-to-ear grin says it all. I clamber down from the footplate – singed, tired but totally exhilarated and in a state of utter euphoria. It’s hard to imagine anything will top that. My best footplate experience ever? Not half! Then comes the news. We have arrived three minutes early, tender-first, on a schedule that assumes chimney-first high-speed running.
ROUGH DIAMOND
Wolsztyn is the beating heart of Poland’s railway scene. It ensures the days of steam are not consigned to the history books and it is to Howard Jones’ credit that it is still going, keeping the delights of steam alive for future generations to enjoy. It’s grimy, rough around the edges and unglamorous. But it is about as real as it gets – and with real steam dwindling rapidly in the remaining redoubts around the world, Poland is quickly becoming one of the few places on Earth to experience it – and for a relatively small outlay. Enjoy it while you can. ●● Want to do this yourself? Visit www.thewolsztynexperience.org/ footplating.php to book your Polish footplate experience and try your hand at firing a ‘Pt47’ or ‘Ol49’.