|
 If you thought steam trains were for anoraks, a small town in Poland may change your mind. Catherine Quinn gets behind the controls of a 25-ton locomotive
Steam train enthusiasts have a certain reputation to contend with. After all, hanging out in anoraks jotting down engine numbers is hardly a sexy pastime. But head to Poland, and you may find an altogether more hands-on way to discover a love of steam engines. In the small town of Wolsztyn, just outside Poznan, you can learn how to drive your own steam-powered train, and even shuttle passengers back and forth.
The Wolsztyn Experience offers train enthusiasts the chance to get behind the controls of a vintage train, and drive it between several Polish towns. It's a fully interactive experience in which participants not only drive the train, but learn manoeuvres such as changing tracks and the theory behind powering a coal-hungry engine.
Be warned though, getting on the footplate is no tourist trip. These are real trains running real commuters along a working railway track. What's more, the schedules have tightened up in recent years, meaning that those hoping to prove their mettle on the tracks work hard to do so. If you imagine just pulling the odd lever, or shovelling the occasional pile of coal, you are in for a rude awakening, as you confront a fiendishly complicated setup of levers, dials and buttons, and work alongside full-time Polish train operators.
As any British train driver will tell you, sticking to the ambitious schedules required to deliver a fully functioning train service is no joke. And no one on the experience will thank you for being a faulty cog in the otherwise well-oiled machinery.
The real-life nature of the work is really what makes it. While you may shudder at the thought of early starts and fierce manual labour, driving a steam train in Poland is experiencing the country's culture first-hand. When they're not driving trains or learning the finer points of changing tracks, students on the course are housed alongside other learners in the small town.
Visitors to the experience also work alongside locals who are employed full-time for the purpose, and down vodkas and beers after work in the same restaurant and bar available to all who live and work there.
It's the ultimate in trainspotting, and while the Wolsztyn Experience has no shortage of real-life anoraks, ready to take their hobby to the next level, they are by no means the only guests to the footplate.
The experience offers a back-to-basics appeal which in many ways offers the same "getting away from it all" of an unspoilt island or beach paradise. Admittedly, you're not in danger of getting a suntan with conditions in the Wolsztyn area reaching -20oC, but it is an opportunity to step back in time to a role where your focus is radically shifted from life back home.
This was certainly the thinking of Howard Jones who engineered the experience based on his own desire to eschew a successful career in the UK for something far closer to the simple life.
Having accomplished his goal, Howard's role is now to preserve the Wolsztyn steam trains, which are the last in Europe still to keep public train schedules.
For those who would like to see this type of transportation remain in use, taking part in the experience is also a way to keep these magnificent machines on track. www.wolsztyn.co.uk
W Wolsztynie, niewielkim polskim miasteczku, możesz nie tylko nauczyć się kierować parowozem, ale nawet samodzielnie przewieźć nim pasażerów.
Wolsztyn Experience to szkoła, w której można nauczyć się obsługi parowozów, a także zdobyć wiedzę teoretyczną na temat silników parowych. Najwięcej entuzjazmu budzi oczywiście prowadzenie maszyny oraz wykonywanie różnych manewrów, takich jak, na przykład, zmienianie toru.
Ale uwaga, stanięcia za sterem maszynisty nie należy rozpatrywać w kategorii atrakcji tury-stycznej. Parowozy z Wolsztyna to prawdziwe pociągi rozkładowe, regularnie pokonujące trasę między Wolsztynem a Poznaniem, a także między Wolsztynem a Lesznem.
Wszystko dzięki pasjonatowi parowozów, Howardowi Jonesowi, który poświęcił swoją karierę zawodową w Wielkiej Brytanii czemuś bliższemu zwykłemu, prostemu życiu. Celem Howarda jest uratowanie wolsztyńskich parowozów, które jako ostatnie w Europie regularnie kursują w ruchu planowym, zgodnie z rozkładem jazdy pociągów. Ci, którzy chcieliby zobaczyć parowozy w użyciu, mogą wziąć udział w kursie, przyczyniając się tym samym do utrzymania w użyciu tych wspaniałych maszyn.
|
