Poland

Wojkowice: The last domain for steam in upper Silesia were the industrial lines of the coal mines. The low costs for coal and water made it attractive to use steam until the middle of the 90s. One of the mines still using steam was KWK Jupiter at Wojkowice. 0-8-0T-locos (class Tkp) were used as yard pilots and the last class Ty45 engines (2-10-0) in whole Poland were hauling tipping trains to the stockpile. The line was round about 5 km long and had a steep gradient on it's end. All trains had to be divided before tipping. It took more than 3 hours to get a loaded train empty because many poor people were climbing the trains and looked for useable coal pieces.

At the shunting yard of the mine: Tkp-3415 and Ty45-345.		Tkp-3415 with a tipping train.
Ty45-345 at the station by the stockpile.		Coal-climbers in action...
Ty45-345 at the gradient before the tipping point.		Ty45-345 on the way back to the mine.

Tkp-3415 in front of the mine...