From an Experimental Division to the Railway Research Institute

In 1923, in the then Ministry of Railways, an Experimental Division, with Professor Albert Czeczott as its head, was established. Th e purpose of the Division was to specify the characteristic structural and operational features of the particular types of steam locomotives, especially new ones, and to test inventions and devices in order to verify their value and usefulness. Most of the research was conducted in railway sections located in the Eastern Borderlands of the Second Polish Republic, in the Vilnius Directorate. By 1938, the features of 26 steam locomotives had been described. In connection with the introduction of new, heavier types of locomotives in the 1930s, new research on track response to increased dynamic load commenced. Th e research was carried out by Aleksander Wasiutyński, a professor of the Warsaw University of Technology. Th e research carried out at the Włochy post allowed, among others, the resilience coeffi cient of the track bed to be determined based on the vertical bending of tracks. In 1934, the Central Research Laboratory of the Polish State Railways was established in order to improve and standardize the quality of the materials supplied to the railways. Th e development of railway research in Poland was interrupted by World War II. However, in 1945, the Experimental Division of the Ministry of Transport was re-established and research on railway vehicles was re-commenced. In 1951, utilizing the resources of the Division and the Central Laboratory, the Railway Science and Research Institute (today’s Railway Research Institute) was formed.