Witaszyce
Poland
Gauge : 600mm
Status : Ceased
(Click on images for full size picture)
On the outskirts of Witaszyce, an industrial railway of 600mm was used to bring in clay and sand to a large brickworks situated alongside the standard gauge mainline. In the works compound there was a sprawling network of tracks. One of the sidings led to a small brick built loco shed. Inside at this time were a further three of the small 4 coupled Poznan built diesel locos.
A further building was used as the repair depot at the back of the works. Here both locos and skips were maintained.
After one of the yard shunters had assembled a train of empty skips from the cable hauled incline, another similar type of locomotive waited to make a return trip to the clay pits.
At this date, in 1992, this loco was the only one in use for main line work, photographed
about halfway to the pits, passing a rather bleak landscape. The railway was still working for at least a couple of years after this date, but sometime in the late 1990's the main running line to the pits was taken up. By April 2000 the railway was only in use within the works itself. A single loco is used to move clay from a stockpile to an incline to the mill.
Just before the location of the above photo, in 1992 a rail crossing was still in place where a second 600mm line crossed the claypit line. This was the abandoned Witaszyce to Zagorow PKP line. It had been out of use for a couple of years when this picture was taken.
As the railway entered the pits, it divided up, with separate tracks leading to the sand and clay pits. The line descending to the clay pit was operated by a cable hauled incline. There was a run round loop at the bottom on the incline, and the pit can be seen in the distance.
At the bottom of the incline a loco has just brought in a loaded train, and waits for the skips to be hauled up prior to their trip back to the brickworks.There were at least eight of these locos on the railway, although not all in working order.