The exodus of semaphores - a photo on Flickriver

The exodus of semaphores

Visiting Germany, the thing that always surprised us was the amount of mechanical semaphore signals still in use. We always looked up to Germany and their DB as the symbol of developement and overall technological advancement. Oh, how surprised were we to find out that so many stations in the land of our western neighbours still posess our favorite bits of railway infrastructure.

On the other hand, Poland seems to be really pushing forward the modernisation of railway safety equipement and new signals are placed everywhere day by day. Many of them in northern Poland, due to the total modernisation of many lines (the east-west mainline in Warmińsko-Mazurskie and the Gdańsk-Szczecin lines).

Branchlines are also getting a fair share of the new signals. The current objective of PKP PLK doesn't seem like eliminating mechanical semaphores completely, but rather removing the need for staffing two signal boxes per station, which is done by completely overhauling one part of the station and then remotely steering it from the other side, which is left almost untouched. In the past years, this happened to many stations on the old coal mainline - Serock, Lipowa Tucholska, Bąk and Somonino.

The infamous Ostbahn is now meeting a simmilar fate as many stations are undergoing a modernisation. One of the most surprising modernisations was Starogard Gdański and it came to me as a completely unexpected fact, which I had found out about from... one of Stefan's posts from last December!

Luckily for me, the western part of the station still has semaphores and an amazing climate, which served as the background for the evening ROS 55314 Hel-Chojnice hauled by the heritage unit SM42-523, as it was departing with a delay of 17 minutes towards Chojnice. It was 523's first train back to Chojnice after it got a repair and the new-old livery.

Photo by Piotrek/Toprus

Post scriptum - on the 25th of August 2022 I met some foreign railfan on the bridge on the other side of the station, greetings to you if you're reading this! :)

Taken on: August 14, 2024

Tags:

sm42

sm42-523

heritage

unit

polregio

przewozy

regionalne

chojnice

hel

tur

r55314

ros

55314

regio

regional

passenger

train

rail

railway

railroad

old

diesel

shunting

shunter

loco

locomotive

engine

pomorze

pomerania

starogard

gdański

signal

box

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poland

polska « less

Sets appears in: • Piotrek • Diesel locomotives more » • SM42/SP42/SU42 locomotives • Poland/Polska - Trains/Pociągi « less

Groups appears in: • Klasyczne malowania PKP • East European Trains more » • Die schönsten Eisenbahnbilder aus Polen! « less

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, f/8.0, 1/400 sec, 89mm, ISO 125 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/400)
Focal Length:	89mm
ISO:	125
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	RawTherapee 5.8
Show full info

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