Driver’s Eye View Plus - Part 2 - Żnin Narrow Gauge Railway - Poland - Gniezno Railway & Loco Depot

In Part 2 we rejoin our train at Gasawa for the trip back to Wenecja Narrow Gauge Railway Museum via Biskupin. We leave our train at Wenecja to take a look at the fascinating Narrow Railway Gauge Museum. On our return to Poznań we stopped at two places in Gniezno, firstly the Gniezno Narrow Gauge Railway (Polish: Gniezno Wąskotorowa) followed by the Gniezno locomotive depot (Polish: Parowozownia Gniezno) On the 1st July 1894 the first section the Żnin Kleinbahn railway opened between Żnin and Rogowo (19.4km), along with a branch from Biskupin to Szelejewo via Gasawa (8.2km), at the time this part of the country was under German occupation until 1918. On the 9th June 1895 the Rogowo line was extended to Osno, in 1908 a branch was opened from Rydlewo to Ostrowce along with another branch also opened in 1911 from Żnin to Obiecanowo. In 1912 another branch opened from Uscikowo to Wola and in 1913 the Szelejewo line was extended to Grochowiska Szlacheckie. In 1928 the system’s total length was 78km following the opening of a final short extension from Obiecanowo to Zuzoly. Following Polish independence in 1918 the railway system became known as the Żnińska Kolej Powiatowa until 1949 when it became a part Polish State Railways (Polish: Polskie Koleje Państwowe PKP). In 1949 the Żnińska Kolej Powiatowa was estimated to have carried around 800,000 tons of freight and 40,000 passengers. Following a decline in passenger numbers the system closed to passengers in 1962 and the rest of the system closed to freight in stages between 1963 and 1995. In the railways final years sugar beet destined for the sugar factory at Żnin was the main commodity carried. Things began to look much brighter for the stretch of line between Żnin and Gasawa when PKP set up a museum for its 600mm gauge railway stock at Wenecja, 6.75km from Żnin on the original 1894 line. In 1976 PKP started to run tourist trains in the summer months over 11.75 km of the original system between Żnin and Gasawa via Wenecja, and these services have continued until the present day. The tourist trains serve the Wenecja museum and an important archaeological site and museum at Biskupin with passenger numbers remaining consistently above 70,000 per annum in recent years. A big change came in 2002 after the PKP withdrew from all narrow gauge operations with control of the line passing to the two local authorities through whose districts the line ran and it reverted to being known as the Żnińska Kolej Powiatowa. Magna Polonia Fund, a telecommunications company obtained a majority stake in the railway resulting in new investment for the maintenance of the railway's rolling stock including it’s remaining steam loconotive, and conversion of a redundant building at Żnin station into an attractive bar and restaurant. Gąsawa - 00:23 Biskupin - 12:13 Wenecja Narrow Gauge Railway Museum - 28:26 Recording Date - 09.05.2025 This visit was part of a tour arranged by the Railway Touring Company, to see or book one of their rail tours, please click on this link - https://www.railwaytouring.net/europe For more information, please click on any ot these links - International Steam - the Żnin District Railway, 2012 visit - https://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/... Ghiezno Waskotorowe - https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnie%C5... Lrt Lokomotywowni Gniezno - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gniezno...