Is that a steam engine with kissing lips? This is the Fort Sadyba Pomnik Wilanowskiej Kolejki Wąskotorowej Sculpture. It is quite a sight. This monument commemorates the Wilanowska Railway. It was the first suburban narrow-gauge railway.
The Society of Friends of Sadyba commissioned the sculpture. Jarosław Urbański created it in 2005. Most of the material came from scrap metal. The locomotive weighs nearly six tons.
The Wilanowska Railway’s history is fascinating. In the early 1890s, three entrepreneurs had an idea. Wiktor Magnus, Henryk Huss, and Jan Keller founded a company in 1891. Their capital was 60,000 rubles. They started construction.
Engineer Huss secured permits from the Tsarist authorities. He also designed the railway line. The first station, Belweder, was at the corner of Sułkiewicza and Belwederska streets. It had a waiting room, a stable, and a carriage house.
The tracks ran to Chełmska Street. They passed through Sielecki Park to Czerniakowska Street. The first horse-drawn train to Czerniaków departed on May 16, 1891. It left at 7:00 PM. Construction continued toward Wilanów. The route went through Powsinska, Goczałkowicka. It went through Rembowskiego Square and Okrężna streets.
The grand opening of the Wilanów station was on May 5, 1892. The route was 6.7 km long. Only in the first summer season 119,282 passengers were transported. The company generated substantial profits.
In 1894, Huss obtained permission to extend the line. It went to Rogatki Mokotowskiej on today’s Unii Lubelskiej Square. The line was ready in early May 1894. It reached the Warszawa station via Spacerowa and Chocimska streets.
Horses struggled on Spacerowa Street’s incline. In 1895, the first steam locomotives were introduced. This reduced travel time by 10 minutes. The total journey took only 40 minutes. A cog railway was introduced between Warszawa and Belweder stations in 1903. It was based on a Swiss Winterthur license.
The railway operated smoothly until 1915. It even extended to Piaseczno. The station in Klarysewo remains from that time. Trains ran from 9 AM to 9 PM. On holidays, they ran from 7 PM to 1 AM.
In 1915, retreating Russians burned the entire infrastructure. A horse-drawn train provisionally ran from Belweder to Skolimów. Normal traffic resumed later. A dispute with the city council led to the demolition of the section. It was between Unii Square and Belweder in 1935. The tracks to Wilanów were removed in 1957. In 1971, the line to Piaseczno closed.
The artist Urbański was given creative freedom. The Fort Sadyba Pomnik Wilanowskiej Kolejki Wąskotorowej Sculpture features a jet drive. Inside the cabin is a cast of the artist’s lips for visitors to kiss. The Fort Sadyba Pomnik Wilanowskiej Kolejki Wąskotorowej Sculpture is a unique tribute to Warsaw’s railway history.