A mixed-gauge curiosity in Central Poland

Fancying a change from the steam action at Wolsztyn, my fascination for narrow gauge railways takes me on a day trip to a place called Pleszew, one hour south of Poznań Główny station by regional (KW) train and location for the only mixed narrow/standard gauge railway in Poland.

Here there is a 3km (1.9 mile) branch line that runs from Pleszew Wąsk. (narrow gauge), adjacent to the main line station, to Pleszew Miasto (Town) station, a line that has closed, then re-opened in recent years, was operated by 750mm locos and railcars, but now has its regular passenger services formed by ex-Czech Railways (CD) 4-wheel railcars.

There seems to be some fairly important freight traffic on the branch, some of which may come from a large industrial plant in the town, but this is also home to a major overhaul centre for freight leasing company GATX and all the wagons I saw in the extensive standard gauge sidings at Pleszew Miasto were new looking GATX tank wagons.

While there are a total of four of the standard gauge ex-CD railcars, only two (810-165/569) were in serviceable condition on my 9 May 2025 visit, and there is a fair amount of 750mm rolling stock in the station yard, some of which certainly looks like it still sees some use on the line.

There was a pair of centre cab 0-6-0 diesels (Lyd1-252/3) the first of which stands in a 750mm loop with a train of tourist passenger coaches. Also in evidence was B-B diesel loco Lxd2-328 and a smart looking maroon-liveried railcar with no number visible, but probably Romanian-built MBxd2-216, which had worked branch services in recent years.

Besides the NG rolling stock and the GATX tank wagons there were also a number of standard gauge locos present, belonging to operator SKPL and in an attractive light blue colour scheme. These comprised Sm31-015 and Sm42-954/1013 along with another Sm42 in a maroon livery and looking as if it had been dumped

My 9-minute journey on 9 May 2025 was aboard 810-569, which carries the name Albert and seemed to be attracting a reasonable level of passenger traffic. There are around a dozen passenger services each weekday and the return fare is a modest PLN7.00 (£1.40) or a mere PLN4.41 (90p) for the over 60s, who get a 37% discount with operator SKPL.

SKPL (Stowarszenie Kolejowych Przewozów Lokalnych) took over the branch when Polish state operator PKP got rid of its remaining narrow gauge railways in 2001. Besides this route, SKPL was also operator of the last other regular narrow gauge services in Poland, at Smigiel (closed 2010) and Krosniewice (closed 2008).

This is a fascinating line to travel, with separate 750mm and standard gauge platforms at Pleszew Wąsk, but mixed gauge tack then all the way to the single platform at Pleszew Miasto, whose former station building has been beautifully preserved and is now a library.

There is a plinthed Px48 steam loco at Miasto station (as seen above) and an interesting historic feature at each end of the line is disconnected semaphore signals protecting entry to the termini. These show two raised arms (as seen in the top photo), the lower of the two being equivalent to a distant signal in the UK and cautioning the driver to only pass at 30km/hr.

The surviving 3km line to Pleszew Miasto was part of a more extensive 750mm network, known as the Krotoszyn District Railway that once extended north from the junction station to Broniszewice (11km) and south-west for 36kms to Krotoszyn, with the latter section closing in 1986.