Kashubia · Bytów–Miastko line · 1909–1945
The single-track line was 46 km long; it opened on 23 November 1909, and the viaduct over the Studnica was blown up in February 1945 [1]. Its trace may still be visible, but the trace alone does not mean there is a track, evidence or an established right of passage. This page keeps those three questions apart.
See the four points of the line ↓The track that isn’t there
Three separate questions
No track
The rails, sleepers or span are physically gone. Only the embankment may remain — that is a trace, not a track.
No evidence
There may have been a track here, but the available material does not describe the place. A source’s silence means neither “it is there” nor “it is not”.
Undetermined right of passage
A trace is sometimes visible, but the material does not establish whether anyone has the right or the possibility to walk there. That is a lack of information, not a prohibition.
Solid bar: the line in operation, 1909–1945. Hatching: what the supplied material does not establish. The symbols are a schematic of the categories, not a photograph or a map.
Four points, three questions
Each point on the line gets the same three questions and three separate answers. They cannot be added up: the track may be gone although the evidence exists; the evidence may be silent although a track once stood.
Points 1–4: Bytów → Studnica (whole line)
Historically · 1909–1945
This range belonged to a single operating line (opened 23 November 1909, 46 km) [1]. Dated break: the viaduct over the Studnica was blown up in February 1945 [1].
Today · according to the material
The material does not show a continuous route that can be walked. The points do not add up to a road: the spacing between them is not a distance.
- No track — confirmed in the source
- 4 of 4
- No evidence — a gap in the material
- 3 of 4
- Points with an undetermined right of passage
- 4 of 4
The three numbers deliberately do not form a combined score. The last one counts points for which the material gives no right-of-passage status — not prohibitions. “Undetermined” does not mean “not allowed”.
How to read the axis. The left, solid bar is the line of 1909–1945; the right, hatched one is a continuous route today, which the material does not establish. The gaps between points have different, editorial lengths: they are not distances on the ground, because the material gives no chainage.
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Point 1 · in range
Bytów — junction
In 1909 the new line forced a rebuilding of the junction: a new station, and the tracks were moved onto an artificial embankment c. 150 m south of the bridge over the Boruja [3].
Common assumption: the brick bridge over the Boruja is the viaduct of the line to Miastko. It is not — it is part of the junction’s context [3].
No track
Yes — per the sourceThe trackbed was dismantled after 1945 [1]. The 1909 embankment is described in [3]; the material does not give its present condition.
No evidence
No — the source describes itThe position of the embankment relative to the bridge is given in [3]. The material, however, contains no photograph of the embankment itself.
Undetermined right of passage
Not knownThe material does not say who manages the land under the former embankment or whether it can be walked.
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Point 2 · in range
Niezabyszewo — station
The diagnosis for the Bytów municipality lists the station at Niezabyszewo alongside Bytów and points to a clear trace of the line in the terrain [2].
Common assumption: a surviving station building stands here. The source is silent about buildings, and silence settles nothing either way.
No track
Yes — per the sourceThe trackbed was dismantled [1]; the earthwork trace of the line is indicated by [2].
No evidence
Yes — a gap in the material[2] does not describe the condition of the station buildings. That is a gap in the source, not information about the building.
Undetermined right of passage
Not knownA trace in the terrain is not the same as an accessible road; the material gives no information on plot ownership.
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Point 3 · in range
Earthwork trace
The line ran through varied terrain on embankments and cuttings; the last sections were still being dismantled in the 1950s [1], [2].
Common assumption: if the embankment is continuous, there is a continuous road. A continuous corridor is not a continuous way through.
No track
Yes — per the sourceInstead of a track, earthworks remain [2]. That is a trace, not a surface.
No evidence
Yes — a gap in the materialThe material gives neither the course nor the condition of the individual forms. I am not inventing chainage here.
Undetermined right of passage
Not knownV2 summarises the documentation in such a way that it does not define a route for walking or driving. Checking the plots and access remains to be done.
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Point 4 · in range
Studnica — viaduct, Miastko
Entering Miastko required crossing the Studnica valley on a viaduct. According to the municipal study, it was blown up in February 1945 [1].
Common assumption: it is possible today to walk or drive along the axis of the former bridge. The material does not settle this.
No track
Yes — per the sourceThe viaduct was blown up in February 1945 [1] — the only dated break in continuity in the material. Whether anything replaces it today, the material does not say.
No evidence
Yes — a gap in the materialThere are no data on the condition of the site today. The state of the viaduct and the valley needs independent checking.
Undetermined right of passage
Not knownThe material mentions no present-day footbridge, road or land manager. Do not assume a crossing along the axis of the former bridge.
Limits of this page
What I do not settle
- This is neither a guide nor a map. The page does not indicate where one may enter, and it does not replace checking the terrain, the land register or the land manager.
- The four points are a selection from the V2 material, not a survey of the 46 km.
- The axis is ordinal: the sequence Bytów → Miastko, without kilometres.
- Green would be reserved for access that has been independently checked. There is no such place in the material, so it does not appear on the page.
- The source summaries come from V2 and have not been compared word for word with the sources here; in V2 they appeared in quotation marks, here I give them as paraphrase. The dismantling dates in V2 differ (1945–1950 and the 1950s), which is why I write “after 1945” and “still in the 1950s”.
What I removed from V2 and why
- The assumptions detector with a “4 / 4” score. Its four contradictions remain as a “Common assumption” line at each point, without scoring.
- Notebook in the browser. One’s own field findings are not an approval of a route here; local saving was dropped, so the page remembers nothing.
- A photograph of the bridge from Wikimedia Commons. It shows the junction’s bridge, not the line, and the page is meant to work offline. The reference [4] stays.
What is missing
Dated photographs of the traces, a document for a specific section, and a present-day, separately checked way through. Without them I show the absence of a finding, not a reconstruction of the span.
Sources
References carried over from V2. They were not opened in this task: the description next to each is the V2 record and needs checking against the document.
- Miastko municipality: forecast for the general plan (PDF, in Polish) According to V2, p. 106: opening 23 November 1909, 46 km, viaduct over the Studnica blown up in February 1945, trackbed dismantled.
- Bytów municipality: diagnosis for the strategy (PDF, in Polish) According to V2, p. 10: stations Bytów and Niezabyszewo, a sequence of earthwork remnants of the line, no description of the stations’ condition.
- Bytów Town Hall: the bridge over the Boruja (in Polish) According to V2: the tracks to Miastko were moved onto an embankment 150 m south of the bridge.
- Wikimedia Commons: Old bridge in Bytów A photograph of the junction’s bridge, not of the line’s viaduct; not embedded here. Author and licence according to V2: Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan, CC BY-SA 3.0 — to be re-checked on the file’s page.