Cracking the code to save Polish railway heritage
When a strange letter arrived at the offices of the British-Polish Chamber Of Commerce in early 2003, there was consternation. It appeared to be in Polish, but no-one could make head or tail of it. Eventually, it landed on the desk of BPCC Portal editor, Mike Dembinski. Mike took one look and smiled. It was easy to crack the ‘code’. The letter was a computer translation of an English original. By ignoring the Polish text, and translating the words back into English the sense emerged.
An English railway enthusiast called Mike Pease had visited the collection of steam locomotives and vintage rolling stock in the open air railway museum at Chabowka near Rabka. He was thrilled to bits to discover that so much of the collection was in working order, but when he visited the office of Grazyna Sysiak, the Museum Director, to pass on his congratulations he received a nasty shock. Mrs Sysiak’s bosses at PKP Cargo had sent her a closure notice the day before.
Mike Pease was incensed that such a priceless tourist asset was about to be destroyed. He wrote an angry letter and put it through a computer translation programme. He sent, what he took to be a perfectly acceptable Polish text, to the bosses of PKP Cargo and, for good measure, copied it to the BPCC.
Having deciphered the letter, Mike Dembinski called together a committee of friends including Andrew Goltz, Piotr Lis-Kozlowski, Adam Robinski and Sylwia Talach. They decided to help Mike Pease organise Poland’s first ever railway and industrial heritage conference. It took place at the end of October 2003 and attracted representatives from nearly all of Poland’s heritage railways. What’s more, the conference was attended by representatives of PKP Cargo, who decided to rescind the closure notice on Chabowka. Today Chabowka is a thriving ‘living museum’ running special vintage steam trains and attracting more visitors than ever before.
Two years passed and another letter reached the Chamber. This time the author was Andrew Goltz who had discovered an 1910 art nouveau design power station containing vintage steam turbines buried in the heart of Lodz’s decaying textile mills. Three days later the scrap men started cutting up the remaining machinery. Andrew Goltz remembered Mike Pease’s tactics and started by writing an angry letter to the local authorities. A month later he helped to set up a local action group. One thing led to another and soon Poland’s second railway and industrial heritage conference was being organised in Lodz.
BPCC CEO, Martin Oxley, responded to the call for help, Piotr Grabowicz, BPCC Łódź Honorary Chairman, and his assistant, Magda Olszewska, provided essential logistical support. The Conference was formally organised by the New Europe Railway Heritage Trust and Towarzystwo Opieki nad Zabytkami Oddział w Lodzi, but Mike Dembinski’s informal 2003 Committee were the guys who actually made it happen together with Anna Mokrosinska of Grupa Fabricum. Other sponsors included The City of Lodz, Passim and Remmers and PR support was provided by Meetings Management.
The Conference took place on 27 and 28 October and was opened by the Govenor of the Lodz Viovodship, Stefan Krajewski. Speakers included, guest of honour, David Morgan, the President of Fedecrail, the federation of Europe’s heritage railways; Wojciech Szygendowski, the Voivodship Conservator of Monuments; Przemysław Szymanski, the Govenor’s special representative for Ksiezy Młyn (a vast model town and industrial complex built in the 19th century) and John Fuller and keynote speaker, Mike Pease, both with board level experience of running heritage railways in the UK. Guests included representatives of Latvian and Belgian heritage railways and a seven strong contingent from the UK.
What are the results of the Conference? All are agreed that it was a huge success as a networking event for those involved with railway and industrial heritage. The jury is still out as far as the future of the Lodz power station. A number of Polish lines will incorporate ‘best practice’ guidelines learnt at the conference. A network of 6 narrow gauge lines is applying for a 120,000 euro grant. Andrew Goltz is now planning a new kind of “Business in the Community” initiative to provide Polish heritage lines with the management expertise needed to make their railways a success. And the next conference? Late October 2006 in Cracow.
An English railway enthusiast called Mike Pease had visited the collection of steam locomotives and vintage rolling stock in the open air railway museum at Chabowka near Rabka. He was thrilled to bits to discover that so much of the collection was in working order, but when he visited the office of Grazyna Sysiak, the Museum Director, to pass on his congratulations he received a nasty shock. Mrs Sysiak’s bosses at PKP Cargo had sent her a closure notice the day before.
Mike Pease was incensed that such a priceless tourist asset was about to be destroyed. He wrote an angry letter and put it through a computer translation programme. He sent, what he took to be a perfectly acceptable Polish text, to the bosses of PKP Cargo and, for good measure, copied it to the BPCC.
- Ol12-7 at Chabowka
Having deciphered the letter, Mike Dembinski called together a committee of friends including Andrew Goltz, Piotr Lis-Kozlowski, Adam Robinski and Sylwia Talach. They decided to help Mike Pease organise Poland’s first ever railway and industrial heritage conference. It took place at the end of October 2003 and attracted representatives from nearly all of Poland’s heritage railways. What’s more, the conference was attended by representatives of PKP Cargo, who decided to rescind the closure notice on Chabowka. Today Chabowka is a thriving ‘living museum’ running special vintage steam trains and attracting more visitors than ever before.
Two years passed and another letter reached the Chamber. This time the author was Andrew Goltz who had discovered an 1910 art nouveau design power station containing vintage steam turbines buried in the heart of Lodz’s decaying textile mills. Three days later the scrap men started cutting up the remaining machinery. Andrew Goltz remembered Mike Pease’s tactics and started by writing an angry letter to the local authorities. A month later he helped to set up a local action group. One thing led to another and soon Poland’s second railway and industrial heritage conference was being organised in Lodz.
BPCC CEO, Martin Oxley, responded to the call for help, Piotr Grabowicz, BPCC Łódź Honorary Chairman, and his assistant, Magda Olszewska, provided essential logistical support. The Conference was formally organised by the New Europe Railway Heritage Trust and Towarzystwo Opieki nad Zabytkami Oddział w Lodzi, but Mike Dembinski’s informal 2003 Committee were the guys who actually made it happen together with Anna Mokrosinska of Grupa Fabricum. Other sponsors included The City of Lodz, Passim and Remmers and PR support was provided by Meetings Management.
The Conference took place on 27 and 28 October and was opened by the Govenor of the Lodz Viovodship, Stefan Krajewski. Speakers included, guest of honour, David Morgan, the President of Fedecrail, the federation of Europe’s heritage railways; Wojciech Szygendowski, the Voivodship Conservator of Monuments; Przemysław Szymanski, the Govenor’s special representative for Ksiezy Młyn (a vast model town and industrial complex built in the 19th century) and John Fuller and keynote speaker, Mike Pease, both with board level experience of running heritage railways in the UK. Guests included representatives of Latvian and Belgian heritage railways and a seven strong contingent from the UK.
What are the results of the Conference? All are agreed that it was a huge success as a networking event for those involved with railway and industrial heritage. The jury is still out as far as the future of the Lodz power station. A number of Polish lines will incorporate ‘best practice’ guidelines learnt at the conference. A network of 6 narrow gauge lines is applying for a 120,000 euro grant. Andrew Goltz is now planning a new kind of “Business in the Community” initiative to provide Polish heritage lines with the management expertise needed to make their railways a success. And the next conference? Late October 2006 in Cracow.
- 1The campaign to save the power station has its own website.
posted by Jock at 2:15 pm
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