For those who know at least a little about numbers, traveling first class on civil airlines is hundreds of thousands of rubles for a one-way ticket and not in all directions this is possible, but here the ticket is cheaper than $ 100 and this is taking into account the fact that I bought two seats at once ...
I got up early and arrived with a large margin, an hour and a half before boarding, I was very afraid to be late for such an event, the first thing I did was to get into the waiting room for premium passengers. The room is very pleasant, spacious with many armchairs, tables and sofas. On the right, the door leads straight to the platform from where the train we need departs.
I was bursting with the desire to get inside as soon as possible, I came a few minutes before landing. Now the conductor is going to open the cherished door.
Then a virus attacked me, I have already seen this logo many times in social networks, could not resist and sawed down the same bow.
When boarding, I presented my passport and a ticket (ticket), although only a passport is enough for the passage, the ticket will be checked after the train has started.
The key is already waiting for me at the door.
And here it is, a completely new level of service from Russian Railways. Since I bought two seats, during the trip all this compartment is at my disposal. All the value is wide, soft and most importantly comfortable chairs.
And if you need to take a nap, you can expand the shelf, there are two of them. The bed will be disassembled on demand by the conductor and prepared for bed. I didn’t ask and took a picture of the same one, but in the next compartment. The travel time is less than four hours, so it was not useful to me.
But this is the most important and valuable thing, your own bathroom with a shower.
The water pressure is like in an apartment, the booth is certainly not huge, but it is quite possible to wash it, it even has a seat.
The monitor is superfluous, suitable for those who do not have a tablet.
The multimedia system here allows you to use all these functions on the screen of your own tablet. Of course, there is also the Internet.
A safe is a necessary thing, with a door you can press the front door so that it is open and does not swing when driving, but this is my own life hack.
In the compartment there are two such sets, from different sides, there is a connection with the restaurant.
Travel kit: slippers, sleep mask, ear plugs, shoe spoon, toothpick and disposable headphones.
The information board broadcasts all the necessary information online.
Cooler with drinking water in a common vestibule.
By some miracle, I caught a crossing in the lens and it was at a speed of 200 km / h.
The bar is another nice option.
And of course the restaurant car, this one exclusively for first class carriages.
On the way you will be sure to be fed, depending on the time of day, you will be served breakfast, lunch or dinner. Since I chose the morning flight, I got to breakfast, it can be brought in the compartment, but it was more pleasant for me to go to the restaurant.
Today my post will again delight lovers of beauty, autumn and steam locomotives. Today I will tell you about the most picturesque narrow-gauge railway in Saxony, passing through a stunningly beautiful area, especially beautiful in the autumn season. On this day, I was very lucky with the weather - it was sunny and very warm outside, and autumn played with red-red colors, turning the brightness to the maximum. Taking my camera with me, I headed towards the Dresden train station with specific plans for this day ...
01. The S3 commuter train takes me in ten minutes from the Dresden main station to the Freital-Hainsberg station, where the terminal station of the Weißeritztahlbahn narrow-gauge railway is located and from where regular steam trains leave.
02. After the train departs, from the station platform a view of the vast narrow-gauge economy opens up.
03. I pass the crossing under the railway tracks - and here I am at the narrow-gauge station. There are many interesting things around. The first thing that catches your eye is a narrow-gauge steam locomotive with platforms for transporting standard gauge wagons. This composition stands here for the entourage, like a museum piece.
04. A steam locomotive is being prepared for dispatch at the locomotive depot. It is he who will pull the train leaving in twenty minutes.
05. The narrow-gauge economy is very extensive here. Both in terms of area and the number of rolling stock units, this is the largest narrow-gauge station I have seen.
06. While I was walking around the station and taking pictures of the rolling stock, the locomotive left the depot and, puffing on the ferry, slowly headed towards the train standing by the platform.
07. A few words about the narrow-gauge workhorses. To date, the active train includes three types of locomotives. The first are the oldest steam locomotives of the IV K series, which also operate on the Lößnitzgrundbahn, another Saxon narrow-gauge railway. I did not see them on the line that day. The second type - Romanian narrow-gauge diesel locomotives FAUR L45H - were not found either. And the third type - the most powerful narrow-gauge steam locomotives made in Germany for the 750 mm gauge - steam locomotives of the 99.73-76 series are the main workhorses of the narrow-gauge railway, one of them will pull the train on which I will go on the road in ten minutes. Until then, I have ten minutes to take a closer look at the locomotive.
08. Locomotives of this series were designed specifically for the Saxon narrow-gauge railways, which pass through rocky terrain with rather high railroad climbs, which required increased power to confidently overcome. The first 13 locomotives of this design were manufactured at the machine factory in Chemnitz in 1928, then the plant in Chemnitz was liquidated and the contract for the production of locomotives of this series was transferred to the Berlin Machine Building Plant, where seven machines were produced in 1929 and another 13 in 1933.
09. As you can see from the nameplate - this steam locomotive was produced in Berlin in 1929.
10. Locomotives of this series are also actively operated today on two other Saxon narrow-gauge railways, which I have already written about: on the Lößnitzgrundbahn and on the narrow-gauge railroad in Zittau.
11. "Control panel" by a steel handsome man.
12. It is difficult to take the lens away from such beauty.
13. Coal storage. It works like this: a yellow excavator pours coal from a large pile into a blue pyramidal tank. From it, coal is poured onto a trolley standing below, which is lifted by a blue crane and manually thrown into the locomotive tank. A couple of pictures of this process at the very bottom of the post.
14. As in any narrow-gauge farm, there is also a snowplow car.
15. Probably here he is the youngest among the rolling stock - produced in the 80s.
16. The train hits the road and I take a seat in the open car. The weather was incredibly lucky: all weekend outside the windows was a warm Indian summer with a blue-blue sky and a bright yellow-orange palette of autumn foliage. In the photo on the right - the Weißeritz river, from which the name of the road comes: Weißeritztalbahn - literally, "the road along the bed of the Vaseritz river". The railway really goes along the banks of this small river for most of the route, which adds a lot to the expressiveness of the already beautiful scenery around. It is not for nothing that this narrow-gauge railway has the status of the most picturesque in Saxony.
17. The first two kilometers of the road passes through small farms and villages, occasionally diluted with the ruins of industrial enterprises.
18. Then he goes into the forest, where real beauty begins, for the sake of which it is worth taking a ride in this trailer.
19. Puffs of smoke are very beautifully illuminated by the sun's rays penetrating into the forest through the yellow-green foliage. A very beautiful picture that you can admire for a long time.
20. Beauty!
21.
22. While the journey continues, I will dilute the pictures with a story about the history of this narrow-gauge railway, which positions itself as the very first narrow-gauge railway in Saxony and the second in Germany.
23. The first two sections of the 22-kilometer line were inaugurated on November 1, 1882, and three trains, driven by a pair of locomotives each, entered the regular route. Initially, it was planned to build a standard gauge railway here, since there was no experience in the construction and operation of narrow gauge railways in Saxony at that time, but due to the peculiarities of the relief, it was not possible to lay a regular track along the planned route.
24. Almost a year later, on September 3, 1883, the last completed section of the narrow-gauge railway to the Kipsdorf station was put into operation. The total length of the line reached 26.3 km, and in this form it has survived to this day. In the first years of the line's operation, the demand for it exceeded supply, so new locomotives and an increase in the length of aprons and stations were urgently required. In the middle of the summer of 1897, a severe flood occurred in the region, which caused great damage to the railway track. All 40 bridges were damaged and some were completely destroyed. But by the end of August, regular trains began to run on the restored section of the track, and by 1898 the line was completely restored, although in 1899 it again suffered from another overflow from the banks of the accompanying Weiseritz River.
25. To counteract flooding, the local community decides to block the river with a dam in order to regulate the flow of water. The dam was built in the period from 1908 to 1913 and its construction resulted in the flooding of a large area, including along which a narrow-gauge railway passed. For this, on the site next to the dam, the narrow-gauge railway had to be shifted higher, for which a high embankment was built and four large bridges were built.
26. In the 30s, the Weiseritztalban narrow-gauge railway undergoes a thorough modernization and receives at its disposal new powerful locomotives of the 99.73-76 series, thanks to which it became possible to start trains not with a couple of steam locomotives, as it was before, but with only one the number of cars in the train is up to 14. Now one train could take on board 550 passengers.
27. With the outbreak of World War II, some of the personnel were called up for military service in the Wehrmacht, and as the war progressed, the narrow-gauge railway functioned less and less until it stopped completely in May 1945 with the arrival of the Red Army. At the same time, there was no damage on the narrow-gauge railway, since there were no hostilities in these places. On July 15, 1945, the Weiseritztalbahn railway resumes train traffic, which is in demand mainly among urban residents, who thus got out to the village in the hope of exchanging things for food. This phenomenon was called "Hamsterfahrten" and in the early postwar years the food crisis was so severe that city dwellers often exchanged jewelry or silverware for a sack of potatoes or a piece of bacon. In 1946, part of the narrow-gauge locomotives went to the Soviet Union as reparations.
28. At the end of the 1940s, due to the active mining of uranium ore for the Soviet nuclear program in the region, both freight and passenger traffic increased on the narrow-gauge railway, as workers from uranium mines used the narrow-gauge railway. And in the 50s, tourist trains began to run again and the work of the railway was gradually getting better. Everything is going well until, in 1964, the GDR government issued a decree to close all narrow-gauge railways in the GDR until 1975 due to poor profitability. The first result of this decree is the cessation of investments in the infrastructure of all narrow-gauge railways, which leads to gradual wear and tear and accidents. Another blow to the narrow-gauge Weiseritztalbahn was the creation of a regular bus service in the region, which was much faster than the railway. In such conditions, closing the narrow-gauge railway became a matter of the near future.
29. The narrow-gauge railway was saved only by freight transport to factories and enterprises in the region, which could not be completely transferred to road transport due to the lack of the proper amount of equipment. The role of the narrow-gauge railway increased even more in 1981, when the fuel crisis swept through the mill. Freight traffic on the line fell sharply with the unification of the country, which resulted in the closure of almost all factories in the region. The last freight train traveled along a narrow gauge in 1994, after which the narrow gauge began to play an exclusively tourist role.
30. In the early 1970s, voices were increasingly heard in favor of preserving narrow gauge railways in the GDR for their further use exclusively for tourism purposes. Under the influence of public opinion, the government decided in 1973 to keep the seven most important narrow-gauge railways in the GDR, including the Weiseritztalbahn. Despite the fact that after this decision, money will be allocated to upgrade the infrastructure of the narrow-gauge railway, no major repairs have been made and the narrow-gauge railway often hung only by a thread from complete closure due to the poor condition of the tracks. It was possible to avoid closure only thanks to the perseverance and dedication of the narrow-gauge staff, the help of volunteers, and the attraction of students to work within the framework of the "Student Summer" - three weeks, which the student had to work during summer holidays in agriculture or construction work. Thus, the party brought the future intelligentsia and the working class closer together. Those who grew up in the USSR are familiar with the "potato" trips, an analogue of this was in the GDR.
31. With the unification of the country, difficult times came for the narrow-gauge railway and it was again threatened with closure. Cargo transportation stopped due to the bankruptcy of almost all enterprises serviced by the narrow-gauge railway. Also, due to the massive departure of the population to the west, passenger traffic has decreased. Nevertheless, in the early 90s, the Reichsban leadership invested a lot of money in updating the infrastructure of the narrow-gauge railway, thanks to which it was possible to complete the modernization of the rolling stock and car fleet, which began in 1977. In 1994, a German railway monopoly, Deutsche Bahn, was created, which requires the complete liquidation of unprofitable narrow-gauge railways or their privatization. In order to save the narrow-gauge railway from liquidation, the state government of Saxony in 1994 included the Weiseritztalbahn, along with all rolling stock, in the list of historical and cultural heritage.
The narrow-gauge railway was hit hard by the largest flood in 2012, which caused huge damage to railways. In some areas, they were completely washed away by the overflowing river. Thanks to the started collection of donations for the restoration of the narrow-gauge railway, it was possible to restore its least damaged section, on which irregular passenger trains ran from 2003 to 2006. The restoration of the entire section of the track required 20 million euros. Thanks to financial assistance from the state government and many caring organizations and private individuals, it was possible to fully restore half of the line to Doppoldiswalde station. Work on the rehabilitation of railway stations, tracks and bridges proceeded in 2007-2008, and in December 2008, regular train traffic was launched on a 15-kilometer section to Dippoldiswalde station with a two-hour cycle. In 2009, the Ministry of Economy of Saxony made a decision on the complete restoration of the narrow-gauge railway and the necessary funds were allocated for this purpose. The complete restoration of the Weiseritztalbahn narrow gauge railway is planned by the end of 2013.
That's all about the history of this narrow gauge railway. Let's go back to the trip:
32. The sun's rays penetrating through the autumn foliage of trees surrounded by smoke is a colorful sight!
33.
34. Soon the forest ends and the road continues along the bank of the reservoir. The photo shows one of two bridges built in 1912, when the decision was made to build a dam in this area. On the picture road bridge.
35. And this is how these two bridges looked in 1912, when they were opened for traffic, in 1913 the dam was completed and the water rose to the level that can be seen in the previous photo.
36. The road in this place goes along an artificial embankment, on one side of which there is a forest and rocks ...
37. ... and on the other hand, the mirror surface of the reservoir.
38. Another road bridge on the other side of the reservoir.
39. Nice!
40.
41.
42. The train is approaching the terminal station - the village of Dippoldiswalde and houses are beginning to appear along the railway. Near one of the houses on the go I take pictures of such an interesting specimen. The photo got a little blurry so I put a filter.
43. And now we reach the final station, the steam locomotive goes to refuel with water.
44. I was pleased with the retro flashlight on a water pipe with an energy-saving light bulb inside :)
45. After refueling with water, the locomotive performs a maneuver to go ahead of the train. The road behind the locomotive, going further ten kilometers further, should soon be completely repaired, after which there will be an excuse to return and ride on the narrow-gauge railway again.
46. \u200b\u200bOn the platform, a few passengers of the train are watching the maneuvers of the locomotive.
47. The train sets off on the way back, and I decide to go half way back on foot, taking the last train at one of the intermediate stations.
Here is a map of the entire route of the narrow-gauge Weißeritztalbahn. The part of the track that is under repair is highlighted in faint color. I decide to walk about six kilometers on the tracks and take the return train at Seifersdorf station. I described the impressions of this walk with many bright autumn photos. And this, it seems to me, turned out to be one of the most beautiful posts on this blog.
48. I arrived at the Seifersdorf station half an hour earlier than planned, so it was time to take a leisurely walk around the station. Looking through the open doors of an old warehouse, I came across an installation dedicated to the station's centenary with a bunch of old photographs telling about the history of the narrow-gauge railway. There I photographed photo number 35 and this one:
49. After wandering around the station, I waited for the return train to arrive and took a seat on the balcony of the trailer immediately behind the locomotive.
50. So I drove for some time, watching the work of a large and beautiful car point-blank.
A short video for clarity:
51. Then he returned to the open trailer, where he drove to the terminal station.
52.
53. It's a pity that the shot turned out to be unclear, but I still like it. Until that moment, the train had been driving for several minutes through the thicket, through which the sun's rays practically did not penetrate, and then suddenly it drove out into the light. It was very beautiful, but because of the contrasting light and the shaking of the car, the footage was not successful.
54. Weiseritz River is the culprit of many troubles of this railway.
55. Industrial ruins typical of East Germany.
56. The last kilometer to the final narrow-gauge railway runs parallel to the regular railway line. The photo shows the suburban train S3.
57. The train arrives at the terminal station. A few passengers leave the platform, and for some time I watch how the locomotive is refueled with coal.
58. The driver manually overturns a trolley with coal into a locomotive tank.
After refueling, the locomotive goes to the depot. Today his working day is over. And I wandered around the station for a while, photographing old steam locomotives standing in reserve at the station's dead end. Photos 7-11 from the post about the abandoned narrow-gauge equipment from this place.
59. The sun is gently declining, and I, satisfied with this unforgettable autumn walk, head to railway station commuter train... Ahead is a pleasant evening, which I will spend watching and sorting through the footage that has absorbed the warmth and meditative mood of this autumn day.
On June 7, 1952, at 11:30 a.m., a special passenger train No. 526. He took the children of the Vyborg district to summer health camps located near the Kannelyarvi station, 75 kilometers from Leningrad.
Disappearance.
Electric trains did not go to Vyborg in those years, and passenger trains, driven by steam locomotives, dragged themselves to their destination for a long time. Nevertheless, a special train with young passengers awaited at Kannelyarvi station by fourteen o'clock the same day. But hours after hours passed, and the train with children at this station still did not appear.
At 21 o'clock the same day, an alarming message came to the dispatch service of the Finlyandsky railway station, to the Department of Internal Affairs of the Oktyabrskaya railway: a special train # 526 did not arrive at the terminal station.
This circumstance was all the more strange and inexplicable, since at 13:30 pm the duty officer at the Gorkovskoye station, located 10 kilometers from the Kannelyarvi station, informed the railway administration that the train with the children had safely passed through her station. It turns out that the train disappeared on a small section of the track between the stations Gorkovskoye and Kannelyarvi.
Unsuccessful searches.
The incident was extraordinary and completely inexplicable. How could a passenger train disappear in broad daylight on the every minute controlled section of the railway track?
Naturally, the Department of Internal Affairs of Leningrad and the Leningrad Region and the State Security Committee were seriously interested in the incident. The incident was immediately reported to Moscow. The next day, Lavrenty Beria already reported on an unusual emergency to Stalin. The leader's answer was short and stern: within three days, find a train and report everything that happened to him personally.
The entire Leningrad and partly Moscow police were raised to their feet. Hundreds of police officers, KGB workers, all kinds of detectives and informers arrived in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Kannelyarvi station. All sidings and sidings on the Gorkovskoye-Kannelyarvi section were examined. But there were very few of them. The single-track track to Kanneljärvi station was not replete with either siding or any branches. The search has reached a dead end.
Where have we arrived?
From those extraordinary, completely inexplicable events of the early fifties, let's fast forward forty years, already in our post-perestroika time.
On June 7, 1992, on one of the distant platforms of the Finlyandsky railway station, a strange passenger train suddenly appeared in front of amazed passengers and traffic workers, consisting of wooden cars of the pre-war model and an old steam locomotive of the IS series, standing under all steam. The cars were decorated with red flags, pioneer symbols, portraits of Lenin and Stalin. It looked like the train had just arrived: the conductors were opening the doors of the carriages, and passengers began to get out of the carriages. The passengers were boys and girls aged 10-13, in white shirts, with red ties on the chest. They looked extremely surprised at everything that opened before them.
They saw beautiful, roomy electric trains, numerous passengers dressed in a strange and unusual way, luxurious cars, from time to time rushing along Bezymyanny lane. But most of all they were struck by the new station building, with its sweeping arched ceiling and a high spire above it, topped with a five-pointed star.
The huge inscription on the pediment of the station was no less striking for them. "St. Petersburg", - the guys read not without new surprise and bewilderment.
Finally, all the children got out of the cars, lined up in one common column. After a little consultation with each other, the leaders of the guys, headed by the head of the train, Nina Vladimirovna Pozdeeva, decided to contact the station administration for explanations.
Hostages of the fatal event.
About forty minutes later, the teachers returned. From their absent-minded and depressed appearance, the guys realized that something unusual and amazing had happened. Many of them were in shock, some of the counselors were crying. The head of the train was pale and barely able to stand.
“Guys,” the senior counselor turned to the pioneers in a loud, loud voice, “everything that you see in front of you now is not our country and not our time with you. We became hostages of some terrible, inexplicable natural phenomenon that played a cruel joke on us. From the Soviet socialist state, from our correct and legitimate 1952, we have in some unknown way jumped 40 years ahead, into the distant and completely incomprehensible 1992.
A terrible, inexplicable metamorphosis has taken place, the meaning of which I cannot explain to you now. And now, quietly and calmly, you will enter your cars and will wait for our further instructions.
After hearing such a speech by the counselor, the guys silently began to enter the cars and, shocked, quietly sat down in their seats.
On the slice of time and space.
The counselors and educators of the lost train, having gathered in the first carriage, discussed the incredible event that happened to them today for a long time.
“It’s necessary for this to happen,” Nina Vladimirovna said quietly to her subordinates, “the communist party is in a semi-legal position, presidential rule, banks, oligarchs-entrepreneurs and ... unemployment. Is this possible in our country?
- Georgy Petrovich, - Nina Vladimirovna unexpectedly turned to one of the teachers, - as a physics teacher, explain to us what is happening with our long-suffering train?
“It’s hard for me to imagine anything else,” the physics teacher said thoughtfully, “like the circumstance that, perhaps, our train got into some anomalous zone that exists in near-earth space, where there is a different space-time dimension. Sometimes it is called the third dimension, but the essence of the phenomenon is the same: objects falling under its influence can suddenly be transferred from several hours, days, to several decades and even centuries forward or backward from their present time.
The duration of such a stay also varies: from a few minutes to several hours or even days. At the Kannelyarvi station, apparently, there is such anomalous zonethough not always manifesting ...
Return.
Now we will return again to the events of 1952, where the pioneer train disappeared in a strange way on the Gorkovskoye-Kannelyarvi section.
At about 2 pm on June 9, 1952, a passenger train, decorated with pioneer symbols, portraits of Lenin and Stalin, unexpectedly appeared on the third siding at Kannelyarvi station.
The appearance of the ghost train was so overwhelming that at first everyone who was at that moment at the station could not believe their eyes. After recovering a little, Olga Mikhailovna Petrova, the duty officer at the Kannelyarvi station, and the station workers immediately hurried to him.
The station attendant immediately bombarded the children and educators with questions:
- Where did you disappear, what happened to you? Why didn't they let you know about yourself?
- And we ourselves do not know what happened to us, - the head of the train began her story. - It seems that it was like this: on June 7, at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, already approaching the Kannelyarvi station, all of us on this train felt unwell: suddenly we were dizzy, everything swam before our eyes, some kind of white shroud enveloped us, and then - a complete failure of memory and consciousness. And when we came to our senses, we saw a large station, somewhat similar to our Finland, we saw a city that very much reminded us of our native Leningrad.
Investigation and verdict.
Immediately upon the return of the pioneer train from oblivion to the Kannelyarvi station, an investigation team was set up in the Leningrad Department of Internal Affairs to investigate this unusual and mysterious phenomenon. The so-called "Kannelyarv case" was created under the "Secret" label.
The head of the pioneer train, Nina Vladimirovna Pozdeeva, the senior pioneer leader Rufina Nikolaevna Kolokoltseva, the teacher Georgy Petrovich Burtsev, the duty officer at the Kannelyarvi station Olga Mikhailovna Petrova and some others were arrested and taken into custody. The pioneers acted as key witnesses to the incident.
From the very first days of the investigation in the work of the investigation team, an accusatory orientation clearly prevailed in the case under investigation. No arguments about a cruel joke of nature and an anomalous phenomenon were taken into account.
The investigation lasted six months. And the verdict was what one should have expected at that turbulent time: the train drivers Kubarev and Sechkin were shot, the attendant at the Kannelyarvi station was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the head of the pioneer train - 15 years in prison, senior pioneer leader Kolokoltseva and senior educator Burtsev - 10 years in prison. The rest, the counselors and educators who are indirectly involved in this matter - from 3 to 5 years in prison. So, because of an unusual, rare natural phenomenon, many innocent people have suffered undeservedly.
