News

Two thousand tons of railroad history

One of the logistics operations performed as a part of the works performed by Trakcja PRKiI S.A. that are related to restoration of railway traffic at the Warsaw Main station was relocation of the historical rolling stock owned by the former Railroad Museum - currently the Museum Station. The task was to move 40 historical railroad vehicles (steam and other locomotives and cars) to a new location. An especially difficult challenge was to properly prepare the historical vehicles, some of which (the Oi-29 and TKi119 steam locomotive) were parked in the same place for almost 40 years.

A committee consisting of representatives of, among others, the Museum Station, PKP PLK, Trakcja PRKiI, and a historic preservation officer, oversaw the final preparatory works for nearly two weeks. Before the steam engines, cars, and other units were safety moved, many of their mechanisms had to be examined and serviced. The works included restoring flow in the lubricant ductwork of wheel sets and coupling rods with a penetrant agent, cleaning and derusting or hot loosening of the screws fixing the countercranks, crank bushings, and coupling rod bushings. This required approximately 300 liters of kerosene, lubricants, and oils. In order to prepare the infrastructure, it was necessary to secure parts of old ramps and reinforce the tracks with special clamps.

The most precious exhibits of the Museum Station include:

  • Pu 29-3 - the largest fast steam locomotive built in Poland before World War II - only three of those locomotives were built and only one returned to Poland after the war;
  • Tkb3 - the oldest steam locomotive at the Museum Station - manufactured in 1880, also the oldest existing steam locomotive made by the Hohenzollern company;
  • OKa1-1 - the only preserved steam locomotive of this type in Europe.

Thanks to the excellent organization of the operation, the process of relocation of the exhibits was completed in just 8 hours. The total length of the rolling stock was over 0.5 km and its weight was greater than 2 thousand tons.

We encourage you to see the photo gallery from the relocation of the exhibits.

 

 

Media Information

Robert Kuczyński

human resources and communication director

r.kuczynski@grupatrakcja.com

Back to list