Why does Poland still run its steam engines? - Wolsztyn Steam Experience Review 

For those wondering - the reason these trains still run is mostly because while Electrification went quite smoothly and fast in Poland, switching non-electrified lines to diesel traction did not. For a long time coal was cheap and diesel fuel was relatively expensive here, and whatever money the communist government had to spent on railways went to electrification and diesliefication of Intercity services, and local services stayed steam-hauled on many lines. Fewer and fewer, but a few places survived untill 90's. After the fall of communism rail transport was extremely underinvested, and quite a few lines were closed unfortunately. It wouldn't be until mid 2000's and us joining EU that situation would improve. While other surviving steam-engine depots were either shut down or converted for diesel operations, Wolsztyn remained so long that it basically stopped being obsolete and started being heritige and tourist attraction. Still there was a period that these trains were not running for a few years, but combination of enthudiast pressure and some donations allowed for the service to be reinstated.

spot on pronunciation of polish town names, respect

What I like in your videos is that you always try to pronounce local names as well as you can! Really appreciate that effort, because almost no one else bothers ^^

I’m amazed at how well the Superlabs Travels guy is pronouncing Polish words. Impressive!!!

€3.20 for a steamed-locomotive journey? That's a f***ing bargain! 10:03 Great video (Just for the steam locomotive). Riding on a steamed-locomotive, regular service? That's a dream every train enjoyer wants and you made it true

BTW - "parowóz" literally means steam locomotive in polish. Fablok is also funny name. It is shortened form of "fabryka lokomotyw" wchich means just "factory of locomotives/train engines". Sadly this factory it is not longer operating.

They need to start advertising these type of things somewhere. I’m polish and I’ve never heard of this service. And my birth town Zdunska Wola is only 2 hours by car from Leszno and I’ve never heard of it

Fun fact: Steam engines operated in Poland mostly hasn't any kind of speedometer ;). In Poland we have two main steam engines depot: Wolsztyn (which is the only one serving regular route) and Chabówka (serving seasonal routes to Zakopane and Kasina Wielka) both with steam engines of course. Some narrow railways also have steam engines (eg. GKW - Górnośląskie Koleje Wąskotorowe with route from Bytom to Miasteczko Śląskie)

It might be the last public operated steam train on normal gauge tracks. However the HSB (Harzer Schmalspurbahn) operates public steam trains in the German Harz mountains, which are also in scheduled service

Back in 1990,A friend of mine and I booked a train for travel in Yorkshire, UK through the national train company British Rail. To our complete surprise, we found a steam train at the designated platform, which turned out to actually be our train. It was an amazing experience.

A mixture of old and new trains in Poland. Plus I do like how you pronounce station names perfectly. As always keep up the good work 👍

They used to also operate on Saturdays but between Wolsztyn and Poznan instead. I managed to fit in a trip from Poznan to Wolsztyn and back in October 2020 just before the lockdowns came back. 1007 Poznań Główny to Wolsztyn and 1403 Wolsztyn to Poznań Główny. Trains between Poznan and Wolsztyn are currently replaced by buses for part of the journey. Hopefully the stream will return when the buses are finished and the line re-opens.

Superalbs: Why do you still run a steam engine passenger service? Poland: Why not? Superalbs: ...understandable, have a great day And getting off at the modern Wolsztyn station really makes you feel like you just exited a time machine. And I agree, it is indeed fantastic to see a steam engine thriving in regular passenger service. The charm of the Polish countryside is the perfect match for it. What an experience

Impressed by the pronounciation, well done! Respect!

If anyone plans to visit the Wolsztyn line, word of advice - on the weekends the trains used to go to Poznan, however due to renovation works between Grodzisk and Drzymałowo the line is closed and will remain so until at least November 2022. So the Saturday steam services between Wolsztyn and Poznan are suspended until then.

Superalbs Travels: It's PKP Class Ol49-69- Me: *NICE* Superalbs Travels: Just look at this beautiful machine Me: I agree, that 69 is indeed beautiful Fun fact, while the majority of those class Ol49s were made for PKP, four of them were actually sent to us in 1952. Back when Poland and us were good friends. We still have embassies in each other's capitals, though

I visited Wolsztyn twice in the early 2000s, both times enjoying the ambience of steam and on the first visit firing and driving between Wolsztyn and Poznan as part of the Wolzstyn Experience available then. The local engine crews were very welcoming and Wolsztyn is a lovely town. Glad to see the steam is still going, even though its been touch and go recently.

I say this last year in north Poland after big hurricane we don't have 3 days electrecity on that area and trains where stuck with ppl inside ,so they get from Bialogard 2 steam working locomotives and they carry thru all trains that where stuck and working on lines thru near by cities for 3 days.

Finally, someone checked it out! It's on my Polish railfan bucket list, one other point (Tarnów-Krynica line) I did recently (mountains, 3 tunnels, uphill climb after Grybów with stunning views and used as a test route for trains, Piwniczna-Muszyna part running along Poprad river which is the border with Slovakia; I rode on an Impuls EMU which was very comfortable (Dolina Popradu train)but if someone wants older trains you have TLK intercity trains and EN57/EN71 too). Huge props for showing the route and the pronunciation; our country has other interesting routes, aside from one mentioned above Lower Silesia has great mountain routes: Jelenia Góra- Szklarska Poręba, Wałbrzych- Kłodzko, Kłodzko- Kudowa, and railway to Hel peninsula is also cool

I was in Tatry, there was a slow steam train but I still loved it, before the ride, I ate yummy fries and it didn't cost much, it's still in service!

I wish we had something like this in the United States!! We have plenty of tourists railroads that use steam power with maine excursions but a regular steam service like this one I don't think exsist in the states. Thanks for the video and I hope you find more trains like this one!!

First of all - I'm genuinely impressed by your pronunciation of the city names. And some additional information about Wolsztyn is that, (I think) every year around may holidays (1-3th may in Poland) they held kind of a train festival, with steam engines at it's heart. Was there twice, and some locomotives came from Czech Republic and Germany.

As a Polish person i seriously respect you for being able to pronounce the names if the stations nearly flawlessly. Love your content, bro!

I live close to Leszno and Wolsztyn in Wschowa which you stop on when going from Leszno to Głogów. Every year there is parada parowozów (steam locomotive parade) when steam locomotive from Poland, Germany, Czechia and even sometimes the UK come. Sadly for the last two years it has been canceled and now there is a big problem with money to keep up running the steam trains. Last year there were 3 steam locomotives running, now there is just 1. In Wolsztyn there is also the fastest polish built steam locomotive the pm36 which is sadly not running since 2012.

You just got yourself a new sub, my friend. The detail, the narration and pronunciation of native names and sentences, just amazing!

What a beauty!! Absolutely amazing 🤩 back in time! Love it 😍

Really enjoyed this video. Great to see a regular main line steam service - and what a handsome and well turned out locomotive!

Amazing journey! Thanks so much for sharing! Liked it very much

This is not the last Steam Train in Europe, there are others. Croatia has some Mining Operations with Steam Trains going on, there are regular scheduled Trains up the Harz Mountains, Bad Doberan has a Steam Train going right through the Streets of Downtown, and so on.

Thank you for this video, I am adding this train trip to my "to do" list!

I've been watching your videos for a good while and to be honest I'm delighted you enjoyed the experience of my town's heritage. Didn't expect it but it brings me joy, thank you.

My school is located next to the track in Leszno, so it is really nice to see that locomotive through the window

im polish and you got the names of towns and railway companies spot on

Why Poland still run steam (coal) locomotives? It's two reasons. One it's a technical artefact and tourist attraction - especially for children. Two - it's demanded by a polish "defence/crisis law", a dozen steam locomotives need to be operational, ready to run. Steam locos doesn't need an electric energy or gas/diesel. It just need a coal and water - both is in Poland. This steam locos are adjusted to pull a cargo wagon. One of the biggest locomotive at Wolsztyn Museum is a "Pm-36" type called "Piękna Helena" (The Beautyfull Helen). This model is quite powerfull to pull very heavy trainset (1300 kilo Watts/1700 HP power, 13 tons of drag force, 130 kph speed).

In the 1960s I used to travel from Warsaw to Rzeszow overnight (sleeper car) and it was always pulled by a steam engine. I remember lying in my bed late at night gazing dreamily at the window: pitch black except random moving street lamps and such casting moving shadows inside the compartment, the darkness punctuated by horizontal bright orange lines of sparks (from the engine). Unforgettable moments.

As a kid, I went to visit my grandmother who lived in Eisenach, East Germany in the early 1970s. I don't remember crossing the inner-German border - but as we arrived in Eisenach shortly after, the train was towed by a steam engine spewing out smoke upwards and steam sideways. Since many buildings had a brownish colour from the coal burned everywhere, I remember these moments like a sepia shaded black-and-white movie.

2:54 In Polish railway slang we call RegioTramps "Żelazko" which means iron because of their appearance

"Last steam train in Europe" is incorrect. Bosnia - still in Europe! - has a small fleet of ww2 vintage Kriegslok steam trains which also operate for-profit freight rail operations. so there's there's at least two steam train lines left in Europe. no wait, there's three, if you include the narrow-gauge Vasser Valley forestry line in Romania which also has steam engines in regular operation.

That’s epic! Thanks for sharing 🤩

Dude! Full respect to you that you took the effort to learn the pronounciation of our town names and company names. Not many foreign youtubers do that, so I bow to you for doing so ;)

I was in Poland 2 times and also on steam train :)

I once saw it going through Warsaw couple of years ago, i don't know why and where it was going, but I'd miss the view if i didn't hear an "odd sounding train horn" that made me look out my window

Great video. I live in UK now but my childhood was full of steam trains in Leszno, surrounding towns and villages. You brought a lots of memories… thank you very much. As a 4 years old I could spend days sitting on the platforms and watching trains, that’s what my mum said. Lot’s of memories…

I love steam locomotives!!!,great video,so relaxing,thank You for sharing!!!

I'm amazed at how clean and well-kept the station infrastructure is. In contrast, UK railways are dirty, litter-strewn and nasty. But then we have left the EU and all the examples of just how good things might have been!

I like how you put your life and soul into the pronunciation😂And you pronounced everything very good👍🏻

This engine used to run a holiday service on the Gdynia - Kościerzyna route a few years back. I remember riding it and I remeber it passing just next to my house each sunday.

You could almost smell it! Thanks for the video.

It's always cool to see steam engines mixed in with more modern stock.

In Switzerland we also have some regular steam train operating but on narrow gauge The Briez Rothorn Bahn is a rack railway which is only operated with steam engines For standard gauge and mainline operation we have many associations witch run regularly on the railway network

Great video! Greetings from Leszno!

Beautiful video sir, kind regards from Wolsztyn ;)

Actually this isn't the last steam train in regular service in Europe. In Germany the regional railway operator HSB (Harzer Schmalspurbahnen ≈ Harz Region narrow gauge railways) runs a daily service of steam trains all year round. On peak days, their services require 10 steam locomotives to run simultaneously, so this route really has regularly scheduled steam trains. Although I have to admit that the so called Brockenbahn - the Brocken mountain railway - is mainly aimed towards tourists, it is totally possible to use it as a normal regional railway connection between the villages and towns in the Harz Region and people actually use it that way. This goes so far that you can even use the 9-euro-regional railway ticket to ride the HSB's trains. In my opinion it's a really interesting service and you might want to take a look at it. Greetings from Germany ; )

I've been on this route too! While the trains in the afternoon are pretty empty, the train at 6 a.m. is VERY crowded! Not with train fans but just with students. I also made an video about it a few years ago: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-If2jmLh6yZo.html Back then, everyone thought that 2020 would be the last year with regular steamtrains in Wolsztyn but its great to see that they're still going strong!

I'm really impressed by your polish accent. You were pretty damn close to having it right most of the time. Much applause.

Nice video- greetings from Wolsztyn- my town 😍

The Wolsztyn steam locomotive depot still has a ride in the steam locomotive cabin in the price list = 75 euro on this line and back again, but I am not sure if it is available this season.

You have to ride one of the german narrow gauge railways! I can recommend the "Rasender Roland" on Rügen and the "Harzer Schmalspurbahn" throughout the harz mountain area. The "Harzer Schmalspurbahn" has a bigger network and climbs all the way up the Brocken, the highest mountain of the Harz

Fantastic trip report 👍👍👍 Greetings from Poland

Parowozownia Wolsztyn (Wolsztyn Steam Locomotive depot in English) is one of the few steam locomotive depots who has one of finest yet original (not for the interior unfortunately it seems) carriages... Wolsztyn Steam Locomotive Depot is in possession of quite a few locomotives, a Ok1-359 locomotive, along with Ok22-31, Pt47-65, Ol49-59 and the Ol49-69 (former Ol49-99) shown in the video... Suprisingly only the Ol49-69 is in service as of 2022... Since Ok1-359 along with the locomotives mentioned earlier are what we call "Eksponat nieczynny" (Static Exhibit in english). However, Ol49-59 is currently under a P5 level main repair in ZUT Wągrowiec. So i'm sure it will return to the Operational state one day or another... Also, you may ask what happened with those 1st 3 locomotives... Well, during the Steam Locomotive Depot's financial crisis of 2014, they had no money to maintain those locomotives + the Pt47-65's boiler certificate of technical performance expired apparently in 2021... as what i have heard from my friend, who also is the Steam locomotive enthusiast.

I'm Polish and I live in Poland! I have to have a ride on this!

"Have you ever been on a steam train in the mainline service? Leave a comment below, I'm interested to hear your experiences" - well, since you asked... Yes, I have. As a kid - back then steam operated mainline trains were still kinda-sorta regular things. Needless to say, for a kid I was back then the sight and sound (and smell!) of a steam loco was fascinating, if not outright mesmerizing. Couple of years ago I attended that "Wolsztyn Steam Parade" thingy (or whatever it is called), and... Well, it's like rereading a fairy tales from your childhood -nice, but... I turned to look but it was gone I cannot put my finger on it now The child is grown The dream is gone Thanks for the video anyway : )

Excellent video and pronunciation - well done. I was lucky enough to work in Poland in the 90s and rode the Poznan and the Leszno services frequently to Wolsztyn. I have a really large library of photos from this time and have added many others in my frequent visits back. GFR

I'm riding this train in a few weeks. I can't wait!

The price you paid is a bargain. Here in the USA, the only steam is for tourists. And you pay for the pleasure big time. I do hope that they preserve those abandoned steamers. It sounds like you are very fluent in Polish.

Well you may heard that the locomotive that was pulling the train was a ol49 and im from poland too

Thanks for the beautiful & very informative sharing. Very recently, last sept 2022 was my first time visited eastern europe trip, including to poland, didnt have the chance on train, only bus trip.

What a great video, next time when I will go to Poznań with my family for sure I will go to Leszno and go by steam train to parowozownia Wolsztyn. So much thanks for your video. Regards.

When I was young there were ONLY steam trains. Then the first diesels came and took over the principal trains very quickly. Yet it was another ten years before any were suitable for the light lines. It means that I still have the memories of the sounds and the smells of those engines and associate them with trips into the countryside.

증기 기관차도 신기한데 경적 소리도 신기하네요. 이런 영상을 볼 때마다 유럽으로 기차 타러 가야겠다는 생각이 드네요~

If I've ever been on a steam driven train on regular service, it was before 1954. I may have been, though, because my mother and grandfather would sometimes travel with me by train. It was probably around 1953-55 that my parents and grandfather wanted me to look at the steam locomotive crossing the road in front of us where we were stopped at a crossing. It's a fairly dim memory, but I mainly remember one of them saying, "They're almost all diesel now." This was in the U.S., maybe western North Dakota or further west. If my wife and I ever get to Poland again, I wouldn't mind riding that one that you showed us.

My answer to the quesyion on the end of the video: Yes, On this route. Also your pronounciations are really good

Also in Latvia they run a steam train on a regular basis with a schedule.

Great trip. Feels like back to the past. In my country, few of them serving as tourist train

Nice video! 👍 I have been there as well around ten years ago. There has also been steam train services between Wolsztyn and Zbazynek.

Great video

Nothing can beat the look, the sound and the whistle of a steam locomotive!

I love the wondow and the view

Great Vid!

Great video! I’m planning to go there myself soon :)

Hello greetings from Wolsztyn ! :-) Nice video!

mad respect for your VERY proper pronounciation of Polish names and places.

Good to know they are still running it. I remember I managed to ride the stream train on full route from Leszno to Zbąszyń, it was quite a few years ago though.

Not gonna lie, you nailed the pronationation all the names of small cities. Good job!

Nice document! And you pronounce Polish names quite well! Well done!:) Greetings!

love your videos

Great video 👌🍀👍

well done mate

Cool video, and im from Poland

U nailed the pronunciation man, good job

great find, I didnt know we have such a route in poland

Thanks for sharing 👍♐️

I love this video

That's so good to see my village on your video. In Wilkowice we have a bit more than this destroyed station. Once a year we have Tractor Festival, great landscapes, 2 churches (1 former protestant), old houses and abandoned German cementary. In Krzycko is a great lake and nice landscapes, Włoszakowice has small palace and Wolsztyn has trains museum, very pretty architecture and lake. Southern Wielkopolska region is very beautiful and I really recommend to visit it.

Great video! I was there in December 2006, firing and driving the steam loco's through the efforts of the Wolsztyn Experience, Absolutely stunning weeklong once in a lifetime experience. At that time the Wolsztyn-Leszno turns were timed to take students to Leszno: Morning train there and afternoon train back with a multi hour layover in Leszno. The Poznan turns were a very early commuter run into Poznan. Very businesslike, relatively fast service, with about 20 stops requiring brisk acceleration. Nothing at all like the slow museum line operations we are used to. Yes, this is real steam railroading, don't miss it!

thank you for bringing attention to this!

Finally someone who took their time to look up how to pronounce foreign place names, thanks!

Not on mainline service but when I was a kid, frequently on a NJ commuter line to NYC via ferry. Always memorable.

Please come to Slovenia soon. Love your videos.

Great video and yess we go a lot by steam train more than the normal one (yes on the main line). In Rotterdam NL is a steam depot.