Rogow

This line was built by the German army in October 1914 to 600mm gauge, from Rogow (on the standard gauge Warszawa - Czestochowa line) to Nowe Miasto on the Pilica river. After the summer offensive of 1915 the front moved east, and the railway became redundant. The track was lifted to Slupce, 4km from Biala Rawska. After the war the government intended to dismantle the rest of the line, but due to local pressure it was retained, and in 1922-26 much reconstruction took place to bring the 'temporary' military line up to the standard required to provide a permanent public transport service from Rogow, through Rawa Mazowiecka, to Biala Rawska.

In 1960 the line was regauged to 750mm. In 1989 there were 49km of track on which 64,798 passengers and 189,066 tons of freight were carried. All trains are worked by Lxd2 diesel, with Romanian coaches for passengers and 'Rollwagen' for freight. The 2000 summer timetable was as follows:

This timetable was somewhat different from that which had operated for several years.  The 02.50 departure from Rogow was a new addition, and harks back to the days when many of the narrow gauge lines had services in the middle of the night.  In line with virtually all Polish narrow gauge lines a revised timetable was introduced in early 2001 with a train leaving Rogow early in the morning for Biala Rawska, making a short run to Rawa Mazowiecka and back and then heading back to Rogow.  The Rogow – Biala Rawska and Biala Rawska – Rogow workings were given slower timings to permit operation as mixed passenger/freight trains, but a visit in May 2001 showed no freight anywhere on the line and there did not appear to have been any for some time.  The passenger timetable theoretically provided two return workings between Rawa Mazowiecka and Biala Rawska per day, but the first was in the early hours and the second returned to Rawa Mazowiecka about 10am.  By mid-day the loco and single coach train was back at the depot in Rogow and clearly this token service would not last long.  Services ceased in June 2001 and, although some freight traffic may have continued, this is likely to have ceased at the end of September.  The line has been taken over by the Polish Narrow Gauge Railway Foundation, and trains were run on 1 November 2002, but it is not known what is planned for 2003.

More photographs can be found at Wieslaw Firlag's site (Polish language): http://poczta.pnet.pl/~koleje/

September 1997	September 1997	September 1997
Rogow Wask is a somewhat 'basic' station which sees one departure and one arrival on weekdays only.	This LAS steam loco appeared operational	This Px48 was definitely not operational
September 1997	September 1997	September 1997
General view of Rogow shed	Lxd2 with train awaiting departure from Biala Rawska	Freight Vans on Rollwagen at Biala Rawska
September 1997	September 1997	September 1997
Awaiting departure at Biala Rawska	Ready for the next departure at Rawa Mazowiecka	General view of Rawa Mazowiecka yard

Return to Narrow Gauge Railways of Poland		© Andrew Goodwin, Stephen Goodwin & Dave Meller 1996-2003 Last Updated 14 October 2003