The first railway interconnection in
Piła opened on the 27th of
July, 1851. At this time, the
aforementioned rail route led through
Krzyż and Piła to Bydgoszcz, which
included the bridge over the Gwda River.
The route construction started in 1848.
It was lengthened to Tczew in 1852 and
it continued to Frankfurt upon Oder
River where it connected with the
railway route to Berlin in 1858. The
interconnection consisted of one track
at first and it was the part of Great
Royal Prussian Eastern Railway linking
Konigsberg with Berlin in 1867. Piła got
connected to Chojnice through Złotów in
the January of 1871. The newly built
route connected Piła with Poznań and
Szczecinek in the May of 1879. The last
built route connected Piła and Wałcz in
the November of 1881
Over 20 year period Piła became one of
the greatest railway hubs in former
Eastern Prussia. It had also a great
strategic and military importance. The
traffic in Piła’s rail station increased
systematically. Only in 1913 Piła's
station served 575 thousand people - we
should admit that more people served by
rail stations in Greater Poland were
only in Poznan /Posen/ and Bydgoszcz
/Bromberg/. The travelers had an
opportunity to use a well-equipped
station. In 1884 station buildings
consisted of: three waiting-rooms of
355 square meters, station offices with
telegraph, three post office rooms and
two flats. There were also two
water-towers and merchandising building
with storage room and roofed ramp. Many
people worked in blue collar jobs but
also
white-collar workers found jobs
during the construction of the railway
hub in Piła. A lot of people worked as
station workers, tropic workers, storage
helpers and watchmen. For many people,
Depot Repairing Factory became a place
of their work. 1870 - 74 is the period
of building round-shaped powerhouse. It
was an example of model to inspire later
roundhouses like these ones which were
built in Hamburg, Magderbug and Altona.
After research carried out by Office
of Technical Monuments in Wrocław, the
roundhouse in Piła proved to be the only
one which survived war and it's the
oldest one in Europe. Because of its
technical and historical value, it was
signed up to List of Monuments of
Greater Poland Voievodeship. Despite
this fact it is still a ruin.
Author: Krystian Szczelczyk
