Z dziejów kolei w Krakowie – dworzec towarowy i stacja Kraków Główny Zachód (1887–2011)

FROM THE HISTORY OF THE RAILWAYS IN KRAKOW – THE KRAKOW GŁOWNY ZACHOD (KRAKOW MAIN WEST) FREIGHT STATION AND MARSHALLING YARD (1887–2011) The construction in the years 1910–1914 of a modern freight station with a marshalling yard on an area within Krowodrza, one of the territories which had then only recently been incorporated into the city, contributed to a series of wide-ranging activities undertaken with the view to modernizing Kraków. Among the most nagging drawbacks was the bottleneck in the communication system that proved incompatible with the growing interchange if goods. The complex discussed in the article was located on the first railway line (known as the Upper Silesian Railway or the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway – the Nordbahn) that linked Kraków with Silesia. In the period 1887–1888, in connection with the construction of a circumvallating railway line, the original marshalling yard had been built in the area to direct the traffic on the new line and to partially relieve the passenger station. The yard consisted of a set of tracks with auxiliary facilities (represented today by a stone and brick water tower with a riveted tank). The original flyovers (which have not survived) were also built at that time on both ends of the station (now over Łokietka and Prądnicka Streets). In 1907, once the Nordbahn had been nationalized, successful endeavours were made by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and Mayor Juliusz Leo to wholly redevelop the station and convert it into an extensive two-part complex, which has survived until the present. Part one of the structure was the classification yard where trains were formed; it comprised 33 tracks. Residential as well as technical and traffic direction facilities (signal boxes) were built on both sides of the yard. The buildings were uniform in style, made of brick on stone underpinnings and with elaborate detail. Part two was the freight station proper – a complex of one-storey wareuświadomienia house facilities formed into two stretches lined symmetrically along the central line. The brick-built warehouses were based on stone underpinnings and constructed with attention to detail. In the area of Kamienna Street, stately two-storey offices of the Nordbahn and the State Railways were built. The warehouses were accessible through sets of sidings that led to loading ramps. One of the innovations consisted in the saw-edged layout of the ramps which permitted handling the particular warehouse facilities via separate sections of tracks. Electric lighting and water supply and sewage systems were provided at the station as well, placing the complex among the most modern in its category across Austro-Hungary. In the interwar period (after 1934) the handling yards and the warehouse in the northern part of the station were redeveloped, and a branch was built that linked the station with the newly opened line towards Tunel; the station was adjusted to operate northbound freight. In the 1920s the southern part of the station was expanded to include a warehouse and a siding for the Aleksandrowicz i Synowie paper firm, while on its northern side a spacious depot for road vehicles of the Polskie Koleje Państwowe (Polish State Railways, PKP) was built in 1934 (it was burnt down in 2000). The liquidated Łobzów stop (which had existed since 1904 in the area of today’s Głowackiego Street) was replaced by a large shed for the army, the Piłsudski ramp, with a siding. On 7 February, the classification yard saw the worst disaster ever in the history of the railways in Kraków, in which four men were killed. During World War II the freight station (and the Kraków junction as a whole) was incorporated into the “Otto” and the “Ostbau” modernization plans aimed at upgrading railways on the territories occupied by the Third Reich. Some warehouses were redeveloped, and works were launched to improve the system of tracks. Three new traffic direction facilities (signal boxes) were built, but they were eventually left unfinished. Two of them are interesting examples of functionalism, a fashionable trend in the architecture of the period. The project that did see its completion (in 1943) was a new line between the Łobzów branch-off point (Rydla Street) and the stations in Płaszów and Prokocim, which permitted diverting cumbersome freight traffic away from the passenger station. The new tracks neighboured on the freight station from the north. The Piłsudski ramp was expanded significantly to suit the purposes of the Wehrmacht. In the period 1945–1947 a broad-gauge line run through the freight station; it was utilized by Soviet armed forces. In the first half of the 1950s, warehouses within the freight station proper were partially redeveloped, while a decade later saw the launch of the works aimed at modernizing the buildings (during which some of their historical features were destroyed) and the technical facilities; a number of new structures were built as well. In the years 1958– 1959 the Kraków – Katowice trunk line running centrally through the two parts of the complex and the circumvallating line were electrified. The early 1970s saw general expansion of the former classification station adapted for handling passenger trains; curbed by economic crisis, the works were completed in 1994. The modernization comprised signal boxes, tracks, the signalling system and other facilities. In 1977 the Kraków-Łobzów stop was put into use. At that time the freight station proper became the equipment base for the Zakład Maszyn Torowych, a rail equipment company. After 1990 the area served the purposes of a number of private firms which would rent the historical warehouse facilities, thus making them lose their original function. Now the freight station and classification yard complex with its surviving architectural layout constitutes a structure of considerable historic value which deserves preservation. The major topical issue is how to sensibly revitalize the area and invest it with a coherent new function.