Współczesne wykorzystanie trakcji parowej do obsługi transportu kolejowego w Polsce
Contemporary use of steam engines in operating the railway transport in Poland

Summary/Abstract: The main issue of this article is to systematise current knowledge about the spatial and specific differentation of location steamengines in Poland. They are uniqe examples of historical vehicles run as tourist attraction. These engines are often called “livingmachines” and represent the highest organizational form of preserving technical heritage. Rail tourism based on the use of steam locomotives as “live exhibits” is part of the general trend in contemporary cultural tourism development. The ongoingmodernization of traction has affected Western Europe since the 1950s. However, some of these old vehicles were protectedfrom scrapping and reactivated by railroad enthusiasts, firstly in Great Britain and then all over the Europe. Due to the numberof active steam engines in a given country allows for assessing the state of its technical culture. To maintain working steam locomotive needs a lot of conditions including capital, “know-how” and crews with rare skills. Unfortunately, the level of maintaining technical monuments still differs in Poland from the European norm. The main barrierin the heritage railway are chronic lack of funds from local and national authorities. This may be the main cause of the exceptionally low number of active steam engines in Poland. That case seems to be at least incomprehensible, especially in Poland, which have one of the most colorful railway history from central european countries.

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