European Railroad Discussion > European Railway Stations Part 18

Warsaw Centralna.  Following an excellent week of steam at Wolsztyn, I needed to get to Kiev to meet Yana. No flights seemed to fit my schedule with an overnight someplace required. But what about a train? Yep. A  daily sleeper train straight through. So I trained from Wolsztyn to Warsaw. Following a brief city tour and dinner, I had plenty of time to explore this massive station. The entire second floor is a shopping arcade. Escalators then drop from there to the tracks below street level. The train itself consisted of there Ukrainian sleepers behind a rake of Polish cars.  The highlight of the trip was the journey through the bogie works where the entire truck assembly is lifted out and replaced with Russian gauge trucks. The entire process takes place around midnight and took about 30 minutes for the three cars which were the only ones that went through to Kiev. Passport Control is also done at that time by both the Polish and very stern looking Ukrainian authorities. The Ukrainian guards actually take your passport away and you don't get it back until the train travels about another 15 minutes once the bogie switch is completed. Most on the train appeared to be Ukrainians. Tourists, not so many. So the Ukrainian border guard returns with my passport, extends his hand and says: "Welcome back to Ukraine." I thought that was really nice gesture for a regular visitor such as myself.  Kiev Passenger arrival was about 2 hours down. No idea why. After attempted scams by at least two taxi drivers (Yana doesn't like driving into the center city) trying to charge twice the normal amount, once they knew I knew how much the real fare was, I was off to the house in no time for about 500 Hryvnia. 

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Warsaw central station is pretty much the modern facility I would expect to find there.
I understand bogie changes are exchanging the trucks on a car so it can operate through on different gauges.
Also thought changes are made at international borders.
I have thought Poland is standard gauge; and Ukraine and Russia are a broader gauge.  Am I correct?
Appreciate any insight you can provide.
ALLEN

krm152 Wrote:
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> Warsaw central station is pretty much the modern
> facility I would expect to find there.
> I understand bogie changes are exchanging the
> trucks on a car so it can operate through on
> different gauges.

Correct.


> Also thought changes are made at international
> borders.

Also correct.


> I have thought Poland is standard gauge; and
> Ukraine and Russia are a broader gauge.  Am I
> correct?

Also correct. The former is 1435 mm, the latter are 1520.

> Appreciate any insight you can provide.
> ALLEN