In Russia, people started talking about the possibility of a railway back in the twenties. years XIX century, when information reached the emperor that the railway saves treasury expenses and even increases wealth, as happens in England (at that time the rails were used to transport coal).
The initial idea was to create a connection between St. Petersburg and Moscow, but the question of the efficiency, and most importantly, the profitability of such an enterprise for investors remained open.
As popular wisdom says, “if you don’t try, you won’t know.” The commission and all kinds of meetings that were convened to solve the problem did not give a clear and accurate answer. As a result, Franz Gerstner, a professor at the Vienna Polytechnic Institute and the builder of the first public railway in Europe, was invited in 1834 to build a road that would “link” the suburbs of St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo and Pavlovsk.
In order for the adherents of progress not to become discouraged and think that the necessary road will never be built in St. Petersburg, they added that the Moscow-Petersburg line will appear “not before the end of the road... and after learning from experience the benefits of such roads for the state, public and shareholders."
How money was raised for construction
Speaking of shareholders, it is worth noting that 700 people took part in the purchase of the relevant securities. Fifteen thousand shares were issued to create capital. The required amount of three million rubles was collected by subscription over a period of six months.
Count Bobrinsky became one of the main sponsors of the railway. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
One of the ardent supporters of the construction was the famous sugar factory, Count Alexei Alekseevich Bobrinsky, the son of Major General Alexei Bobrinsky, born in an extramarital affair between Catherine II and Grigory Orlov. The grandson of the great empress purchased shares worth 250 thousand rubles.
Road opening
On November 11, 1837, the road was officially opened. For such a solemn occasion, Nicholas I and his wife were invited.
A prayer service was served on the station tracks, Gerstner, as a driver, sat in the cabin of the locomotive and at half past one in the afternoon the train, amid loud exclamations of surprise and approval, moved towards Pavlovsk, where it arrived thirty-five minutes later. The maximum speed of the first steam locomotive was 64 kilometers per hour, but for the safety of passengers, the amazing machine did not show all its strength on the first trip.
Steel horse - steam locomotive
Gerstner personally was the first to travel by rail. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
In the Vedomosti newspaper that day one could read a note: “It was Saturday, the townspeople flocked to the old regimental Church of the Introduction at the Semyonovsky parade ground. They knew that an unusual railway was opening and that “a steel horse carrying many, many carriages at once” would set off for the first time.
However, not everyone was able to see the first train. Commoners were not allowed into the station itself, which had only recently been built.
Exactly at 12:30 a.m., the tiny locomotive blew a piercing whistle, and eight carriages with the noble public set off along the route St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo.”
The first days of the road's operation were trial ones, travel was free, and the quality, as they say, was at the risk of the buyer.
However, there were no dissatisfied people: up to fifty people were packed into each of the carriages - people of humble origin were given the opportunity to try out the new transport.
Despite the fact that the road had serious tasks, people considered the invention a kind of carousel: fast driving, a breeze blowing in the face, the smell of fields and arable land and a slight fright at the sounds of an oncoming train.
The excitement was monstrous, and the crowds besieging the locomotive were endless.
What the carriages of that time looked like
The carriages on the train were divided according to social status. Thus, the train of eight cars and a steam locomotive, which was built at the Stephenson plant in England and delivered to St. Petersburg by sea, consisted of four classes.
The most luxurious and clearly demonstrating the thickness of the gentleman’s wallet, who could afford to buy tickets for it, were the so-called “Berlins” - here the public could sit more relaxed in an easy chair, and people from the same social stratum sat opposite and to the side. There were eight such carriages in total, followed by “stagecoaches”, which could accommodate a large number of people, and “rulers” - open-type carriages. Those that had a roof were called “charabancs”, those that did not have one were called “waggons”. The latter had neither heating nor lighting.
In the first years, the fare for first and second class passengers was 2.5 and 1.8 rubles and 80 and 40 kopecks for third and fourth class. It’s curious, but despite the fact that the train was designed not only to cover long distances, but also to keep up with progress, until 1838, on non-Sunday and holidays They used only horse traction. The steam method has become a kind of symbol of festivities or Sunday rest.
Imperial way
Since 1838, the movement became regular and then the schedule was finally decided. The first train departed at nine o'clock in the morning, and the last at ten o'clock in the evening. The interval between movements was three or four hours.
Members of the Romanov family and European monarchs also used the railway. Only one train could travel along the so-called “Imperial Route”. In Pushkin, the train stopped at the “Imperial Pavilion” - the station where the royal family was met.
Traffic along the Tsarskoe Selo - Pavlovsk line was opened in May 1838. For the significant day, a concert hall was built there, where Johann Strauss himself performed.
Steam locomotive "Elephant" and "Bogatyr"
At that time, steam locomotives were made at seven factories: in Belgium, England, Germany and the St. Petersburg Leuchtenberg plant. Each locomotive had its own name: “Agile”, “Strela”, “Bogatyr”, “Elephant”, “Eagle” and “Lion”. However, the romantic attitude towards the locomotive soon changed, and the rejoicing at the sight of it was replaced by habit, and instead of names, the trains acquired a dry number and a series of letters.
People often went to the Pavlovsky Music Station simply for entertainment. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Despite the initial fear of shareholders not to make a profit from the enterprise, in the first five years not only all the funds spent on construction were recouped, but also what was spent on operation: the road brought in significant income and allowed us to assume that further construction of new stations would bring truly fabulous income.
The first steam locomotive became a revelation for St. Petersburg residents: newspapers wrote about it, posters were drawn, candy wrappers were full of its image, and the vaudeville “A Trip to Tsarskoe Selo” even appeared in the repertoire of the Alexandrinsky Theater, the main character of which was a steam locomotive.
Alena Yurievna Seliverstova
Intellectual game “We know everything about the railway”
Goals:
Strengthen children's knowledge about railway, railway transport, about safety rules on railway. Develop the ability to work in a team, help and support each other.
Develop visual and auditory attention, memory, logical thinking. -Shape interest in railway professions.
Equipment: 4 puzzles, multimedia board, visual aid, musical accompaniment, yellow flags, semaphore, visual aid.
Organizational moment. 4 teams participate in the quiz. For each correct answer, the team receives one puzzle; at the end of the game, the winning team must complete the picture. If the picture is not completely collected, the team gets 2nd place, etc.
Command View: teams choose a captain and say their name.
("Locomotive", "Martin", "Sapsan" And "Electric locomotive")
Poem about railway(Read by student).
What's happened road? this is sweat at the temples,
These are calloused hands, these are fathoms in the shoulders,
The sound of wheels under the carriage and the flashing of faces.
These are steel songs of endless paths
A string of green semaphore lights,
What's happened road?
To understand this, you just need road
Give your heart!
1 task: “Show me what I name”(children from each team are asked to show objects in the picture railway terminology). Appendix No. 1.
* Locomotive * Cars * Rails * Sleepers * Tunnel * Overpass * Barrier * Crossing * High speed train* Diesel locomotive
2 task: "Guess what's hidden"(children are shown part of an illustration on the topic « Railway» , team members must guess what is shown, 1 task for each team.
3 task: "Smart Questions"(questions are asked to each team in turn; if a player from one team fails, a player from the other team answers)
What do you call people who travel on a train? passengers
Which part railway can future passengers walk? platform
How should passengers transfer to another platform? bridge
What's at the station?
What do you buy at the railway ticket office? ticket
For what? to go
What is marked on the train ticket? name, date, place, hour of departure and arrival
Why do we need loudspeakers at a train station? what was heard everywhere
Tell us about your child’s behavior at the station.
What types of carriages are there? Passenger, cargo
if the yellow flag is folded, what does the driver do? (goes faster)
Expanded (slowly)
Who first invented the steam locomotive? Cherepanov brothers
4 task: "Collect a picture"(teams are offered cut pictures of a steam locomotive and an electric locomotive; using one of the fragments, children must guess which picture whose team is collecting, then collect the picture - who is faster)
While the teams are busy, a captain competition is held.
5 task: "Captains Competition"
Logic puzzle (one for everyone - whoever is faster): you are a driver, your train has 5 cars, each car has 2 conductors, each conductor is 25 years old. How old is the driver?
Which knot cannot be untied? Railway.
- “What am I talking about?”(definitions are offered to captains (alternately) by which they must guess about the hidden object). First, tail, mail, trailed, soft, blue, sleeping, overcrowded, tram, railway, compartment…. (car).
- "Who's faster?" (captains are offered a tongue twister to see who can pronounce it faster and more clearly): Thirty-three cars in a row, chattering, chattering, chattering, chattering.
Poem (child reads).
The train is rushing into the distance somewhere
Passengers have been sleeping for a long time,
Machinist on duty
Looking intently out the window
And won't go to bed today
Guide until dawn
Both the dispatcher and the repairman,
They won’t lie down for a moment
Because their job is
Transportation, long distance,
That's why these people
There's not even time to take a nap!
Task 6: « Railway signs»
Around the station, along the platform
Everywhere and everywhere there are rules,
You should always know them;
They will never leave without them
From the train station.
Each team is offered 2 signs that can be seen up close railway, children must explain their meaning. Appendix No. 2.
Task 7: "Merry Locomotive" (movable game) . The presenter has a sound signal and 2 yellow flags. Children walk to the music; at a signal, the carriages must line up behind their locomotive - the captain from carriages 1 to 5; during the trip, pay attention to the signals of the leader. If the yellow flag is minimized, they drive fast; if it is deployed, they drive slowly; if the semaphore is red, they stop.
8 task:
So that the ardor of fun does not fade away,
To make time go faster.
Friends, I invite you
Let's get to the riddles quickly.
Riddle competition (a riddle is prepared for each player; if he finds it difficult to answer, the captain comes to the rescue)
* There is a ladder in the field, a house is running up the stairs. (rails, sleepers, train)
* Although he has two eyes, he does not look with all of them at once, but always looks with one, the driver watches him. (semaphore)
* The brothers got ready for a visit and clung to each other. And they rushed off on a long journey, only leaving a trail of smoke. (cars)
* Both horse and worker, hunter of water. He snorts, drinks, and leads the house. (locomotive)
* Over long distances, he rushes without delay. This train suddenly disappeared, it’s called... (express)
* Iron the huts are attached to each other. One of them with a pipe leads everyone along. (train)
* I eat coal, I drink water, when I get drunk, I speed up. I’m carrying a train of one hundred wheels, and I call myself…. (locomotive)
* They come in different colors, green and red. They run along the rails into the distance, meet them everywhere and wait. (cars)
*Running, rushing iron horse, By iron thunders. Steam billows, smoke curls, rushes, rushes iron horse. (train)
* It is always at the station, trains approach it. (platform)
I'm the owner of a mobile home
I will always give you tea.
I work day and night without getting tired.
Name my profession! (conductor)
9 task: "Fun tasks"(each team is offered an ingenuity task in an envelope - (teamwork)
* The bus goes out of town. What happens if it goes off the rails?
* A steam locomotive and a steamship are running along the rails. Who will arrive at the station first?
* A diesel locomotive and an airplane flew across the sky. Who will fly faster?
* How it begins and how it ends passenger railway?
10. The presenter asks questions with options. answers:
1. What was it called in the century before last? railway workers?
a) Coachmen;
b) Drivers;
c) Travelers;
G) plantains.
2. Which of these professions exist?
a) Highway flyer;
b) Trackman;
c) Warden roads;
d) Platform controller.
(This railway worker regularly walking around the area assigned to him for the purpose of observation and protection railway track.)
3. Professional suitcase carrier railway station- this is... Who?
a) Carrier;
c) Porter;
d) Itinerant.
4. What position is on the staff list? railway station?
a) Rail compiler;
b) Compiler of protocols;
c) Train compiler;
d) Suitcase compiler.
5. What device allows the rolling stock (to trains) move from the main path to adjacent ones?
a) Arrow;
b) Barrier;
c) Semaphore;
d) Shoe.
(Switch switch.)
6. Which of these concepts does NOT exist?
A) Railway junction;
b) Railway line;
V) Railway track;
G) Railway spokes.
7. What is the end called? railway track?
b) Travel;
c) Driving;
8. What is the name of a unit of rolling stock that is specifically designed to pull trains and is not itself suitable for transporting passengers or goods?
a) Dynamo;
b) Locomotive;
c) Diesel;
d) Motrice.
9. What type of locomotives does NOT exist on Russian railways ?
a) Passenger;
b) Freight;
c) Maneuvering;
d) Sports.
Poem (child tells)
Across the expanses railway
Trains fly like birds...
Covering everyone with wind and smoke
And they honk at us: "Vivat!"
The sound of wheels is like the beat of a drum
The rail beats out the melody,
The cars sing along to the beat
The rumble spreads all the way to the skies!
And the diesel locomotives puff hysterically,
The entire train rushes forward by chance,
Passengers are sleeping peacefully in the compartment,
The conductor carries branded tea...
Well, we’ll wave our hand at them,
We wish you good luck on your journey!
We wish railway road,
Never go off track!
To create such a large-scale project as railways, a lot of effort, time and cash. Sometimes, great design geniuses reached crazy decisions and created ridiculous situations. Curious cases have become frequent in this reform activity. And also with the development of high-speed transport, the topic of trains and long trips began to be mentioned very often in art - music, films, theater productions; and even in politics. Here are the most interesting facts and mentions about railways:
1) Who lives at the bottom of the ocean?
In 1896 between English cities Brighton and Rottingdean start to run unusual vehicle called Daddy Long Legs - a cross between a tram and a ferry. Laying a railway overland along this route required a lot of engineering structures, and engineer Magnus Volk proposed laying the rails directly along the bottom of the sea - the total length of the route was 4.5 km. The platform with passengers rose above the rails on four supports 7 meters long and had a flag, a lifeboat and other marine attributes, since it was formally considered a ship. The service was canceled in 1901 when new breakwaters were decided to be built near Brighton and relocation of the route was considered too costly.
2) When and where did the uncontrolled train travel more than 100 km, accelerating to a speed of 76 km/h?
On May 15, 2001, in Ohio, USA, a railroad crew was moving a 47-car train from one track to another. Due to a technical error, an uncontrolled train called CSX 8888 picked up speed and set off for independent travel, during which it accelerated to a speed of 76 km/h. Having traveled more than 100 km, the train was stopped by the driver of a diesel locomotive that had caught up with it, who coupled up with the last car and applied rheostatic braking.
3) What mechanism received its name from the name of the inventor of the prototype bicycle?
The prototype of the bicycle was designed and patented by the German baron Karl von Dres in 1818. This mechanism had a wooden frame, metal wheels and a steering wheel, but there were no pedals - in order for it to move, you had to push off the ground with your feet. The name of the inventor was not fixed in the name of the bicycle, but it gave the name to the trolley - a device for moving on rails with mechanical traction.
4) How did Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol campaign influence the lyrics of the Time Machine songs?
During Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign, many works of art were censored. For example, Andrei Makarevich changed the lyrics in the song “Conversation on the Train”: after the line “Wagon disputes are the last thing,” instead of “when there is nothing left to drink,” he began to sing “and you can’t cook porridge from them.”
5) What was the main reason for the change to the time zone system in the 19th century?
Until the 19th century, there was no division into time zones; time was determined everywhere by the Sun. There was no need for time zones since there was no rapid transit. Unification was driven by the development of railways in England, because time differences in each city made it very difficult to create a normal timetable. It was the railway companies that ensured that the entire country had one time zone, Greenwich Mean Time. And then gradually the time zone system began to spread throughout the world.
6) Who became the victim of a murderer whose brother had previously saved the life of the murdered man’s son?
US President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in a theater by John Booth in 1865. Shortly before this, by coincidence, the latter's brother, Edwin Booth, saved the life of the president's son, Robert Lincoln, on a railway platform.
7) Where did the train accident occur, caused by the language barrier?
In 2001, a train accident occurred in Belgium in which 8 people, including both drivers, were killed as a result of a head-on collision between trains. Among other accidents, this one is unique in that its main cause was the language barrier. When the driver of the first train left the station despite the red light, the dispatcher called the next station to warn him about it. However, the dispatchers did not understand each other, as one spoke French and the other Dutch. Both of these languages are official in Belgium, and according to the rules of the railway company, staff must know at least one of them.
8) What accident did the Americans stage in 1896 to entertain the public?
In 1896, one of the American railway companies staged a show - a deliberate collision of two trains at full speed. 40,000 tickets were sold for the “performance”, and a temporary town was built for the spectators who bought tickets. However, engineers miscalculated the force of the explosion and the crowd was not moved to a safe enough distance, resulting in three deaths and several others being injured.
9) What were military armored tires?
It is known that in the wars of the 19th century, the First and Second World Wars, many countries used armored trains. However, in addition to this, they tried to fight with the help of individual combat units - armored tires. They were almost like tanks, but limited in movement only by rails.
10) Series Y?
From 1910 to 1920, freight locomotives of the Y series were mass-produced in Russia.
11) Why did the direct railway between Moscow and St. Petersburg have a curvilinear bend in one place?
The Oktyabrskaya Railway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg is now a set of straight lines, although there used to be a small curvilinear bend between Okulovka and Malaya Vishera. There is a legend that when designing the road, Emperor Nicholas I personally drew a straight line between the two capitals, and the bend arose due to the fact that the pencil went around the finger attached to the ruler.
In fact, there was a difference in elevation in that place, which made it difficult for trains driven by low-power locomotives to move. In order not to hitch an additional locomotive, a detour was created.
12) Who and where managed to survive without becoming disabled after his brain was pierced by an iron crowbar?
In 1848, American railroad worker Phineas Gage suffered a work injury when a metal rod pierced the frontal lobe of his brain, entering through his left cheek and exiting near the crown of his head. Less than an hour later, Gage came to his senses, and then went to the hospital and on the way calmly and calmly talked about the hole in his head. The wound developed an infection, but the worker recovered and lived for another 12 years. His memory, speech, and perception were not impaired, only his character changed - he became more irritable and lost his inclination to work.
13) What Soviet-era myth about the film “The Arrival of a Train” is still alive?
Contrary to popular belief (which even found its way into a Soviet textbook on the history of foreign cinema), the film “The Arrival of a Train” was not shown at the famous first paid film show in Paris in the basement of the “Grand Café” on the Boulevard des Capucines.
14) What was the name of the city where Anna Karenina threw herself under the train?
In Leo Tolstoy's novel, Anna Karenina threw herself under a train station near Moscow Obiralovka. During Soviet times, this village became a city and was renamed Zheleznodorozhny.
15) Who invented Morse code?
Morse code in its familiar form was not invented by Morse, but by the German engineer Gehrke. The original Morse code was cumbersome, although it was used on some American railroads until the 1960s.
16) Who has more?
An interesting fact is that the railway gauge in Russia is 8 centimeters larger than in Europe. There is an epic that when Russian engineers came to the tsar and asked how wide the track should be, the same as in Europe or larger, he replied: fuck...th more. So they made the track exactly that much wider. The European railway gauge was adopted long before the invention of the steam locomotive.
17) Whose standard?
The railway track exactly corresponds to the distance between the wheels of the ancient Roman chariots with which the Romans carried out their campaigns of conquest across the territories of modern England and France. The peoples of Europe made their chariots according to Roman models, and this standard was taken into account during the construction of railways.
18) Mail trains under escort
In the early days of the Nikolaev Railway's existence, mail was especially vigilantly guarded along the entire route. For this purpose, mail trains were sent under the escort of mounted gendarmes, who galloped at full speed along the railway.
19) Rescue benches
Third-class carriages on the first Russian railways were installed in the front part of the train, were equipped with hard benches, but... did not have a roof, and therefore passengers more often traveled under the benches, where they escaped from the sparks flying out of the locomotive chimney in sheaves and from the cold.
20) Paradoxical love
The most paradoxical is the fact that despite the small length of Russian railways (only 7 percent of the total number of railways in the world), the Russian Federation accounts for about 35 percent of the world volume of railway freight traffic. These figures are explained by the unusual popularity of railways among Russian businessmen, and this type of transport is preferred by both owners of large enterprises and individual entrepreneurs who need to transport small consignments of cargo.
The reason for the love of the Russian people, and indeed the entire former USSR, for railways is easy to explain if we recall, at least, the fact that this type of transport is considered the safest. Even if the speed of delivery leaves much to be desired, you can always be sure that the cargo will arrive at its destination safe and sound. After all, according to statistics, accidents on the railway happen tens of times less often than on highways, and in every news release, reports of another plane crash have become a common occurrence. High level security is especially important when transporting valuable and fragile products, and such products today constitute a significant part of the total flow of goods. While planes are falling, and roads, as we know, continue to be one of the main problems of the CIS, trains will occupy a leading position in the cargo transportation market. It's no secret that in remote corners In our countries, many roads in the spring-autumn period simply become impassable, so delivery by train remains the only possible option.
An important factor in favor of choosing rail freight transportation is its relatively low cost. You simply cannot find a more profitable transport for transporting timber and building materials. There are also no restrictions on the types of cargo - bulk, liquid, volatile and food - transportation of flour and cement, coal and alcohol is possible. All the cargo owner needs to do is select a suitable container (wagon, gondola car, platform, tank, refrigerator).
But despite all the economic attractiveness and reliability, rail freight transportation has a number of disadvantages.
Firstly, in small towns there are simply no railway stations, so you still have to use road transport to deliver the cargo to its destination. Secondly, there are a number of difficulties associated with different requirements for transportation technology in different countries. Therefore, international cargo transportation requires knowledge of many nuances and the ability to establish friendly foreign economic relations.
Today, transport companies, in order to provide maximum comfort to the customer and the recipient of the cargo, develop a logistics scheme for each individual cargo, agree on the features and conditions of transportation based on the characteristics of the product, and provide clear information about the route of the train and the time of its arrival at the station.
21) The first mechanical (not manual or horse-powered) elevator driven by a steam engine, called the “vertical railway,” was installed in the USA in 1850. By the 1880s, large hotels and wealthy buildings in the United States and Europe were equipped with this type of elevator.
22) The “Underground Railroad” in the United States in the 1850s was the name given to a secret organization of abolitionists ( social movement, seeking the abolition of slavery), transporting runaway blacks from the South to the North.
1. Two lengths of the equator.
The total length of railway lines belonging to Russian Railways is 85.2 thousand km. If all the existing Russian Railways rails were laid out along the equator, there would be enough for two circles and a little more left. Moreover, one of these two circles was electrified and electric trains and electric locomotives could run along it. The second circle would remain exclusively for diesel locomotives, smoking the sky from the chimney. The length of electrified lines is 42.9 thousand km.
2. Russian railways consume up to 6% of all electricity produced in the country, or 44 billion kWh per year, and 10% of diesel fuel.
3. High speed trains- the pride of Russian Railways. Their photographs are printed on posters and booklets, and banners with their advertisements are everywhere on the company’s website. Today, Russian Railways has five trains, which are called high-speed. Two of them - Sapsan and Nevsky Express - run between Moscow and St. Petersburg, between Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod There are Sapsan, Burevestnik (twin brother of the Nevsky Express) and Lastochka. And Allegro runs from St. Petersburg to Helsinki. The fastest of them are Sapsan and Allegro; in some places they travel up to 220 km/h.
4. The longest train route is Kharkov - Vladivostok (No. 053), distance 9722 km (in reverse side- 9715 km).
The longest direct routes are 10,267 km: Moscow - Pyongyang via Khabarovsk (direct car to train No. 001/002 Moscow - Vladivostok) and Kyiv → Vladivostok (direct car to train No. 053 Kharkov - Vladivostok).
5. At the very high point The railway track rises on the Trans-Siberian Railway between the Turgutui and Yablonovaya stations. The train moves here at an altitude of 1040 meters. The second place in altitude above sea level is occupied by the Kizha station, which is west of the Petrovsky Plant, whose height is more than 900 meters. And in third place on the high-altitude pedestal is the Andrianovsky Pass, which is located west of Baikal. Its height reaches 900 meters.
6. The coldest place on the railway is on the section of the Trans-Siberian Railway between the villages of Mogocha and Skovorodino. Interestingly, this site is not the northernmost in terms of geography, but the coldest in terms of climate. This place can be called a real pole of cold, since the temperature here in winter sometimes drops to -62 degrees. It is difficult to imagine how a railway was once laid in the permafrost zone.
7. Annually in Russia by rail used by 1,300,000,000 passengers. That is, every resident of Russia uses the train 9 times a year. However, this figure is far from the limit. In the USSR, there were 15 train trips for every person.
8. The Trans-Siberian Railway is considered the longest railway not only in Russia, but throughout the world. The length of this railway from Nakhodka to Moscow is 9438 kilometers. There are 97 major stations on this road.
9. The middle station of the Trans-Siberian Railway is called “Half”. From it to Moscow and to Vladivostok the same distance.
10. Before the revolution in Russia, there was the Main Society of Russian Railways of the same name, formed on January 26, 1857 in accordance with the imperial decree of Alexander II. The founders of the company were Russian, Polish, English and French bankers. The capital of the company was 275 million silver rubles. The first chairman of the management board of the company was Baron Pyotr Kazimirovich Meyendorff, and the main director was Karl Coldignon, the chief inspector of bridges and roads in France.
Basically, there is an opinion that a train is so banal, so boring, so ordinary, but airplanes with their hyperspeeds are another matter, like Mikhalkov’s lines “ Sat down in a chair, ate breakfast. What's happened? Arrived! Or huge ocean liners, breaking the endless expanses of the sea, like beautiful oases in the middle of the desert. But believe me, the railway is also capable of saturating its passengers with positive emotions and all kinds of interesting things.For example, the Qinghai-Tibet Single Track Railway, the highest mountain road on the planet, annually attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world to admire the magical Tibetan landscapes of the “roof of the world” at an altitude of more than 5,000 km above sea level.
There is no such romance at sea or air company cannot offer you. Of course, such extreme conditions require special trains. The cars are fully sealed, equipped with personal oxygen masks and an oxygen supply system if necessary, and at intermediate and observation stations passenger carriages Naturally, they do not open, since there is nothing to breathe outside them. The Chinese themselves feel extraordinary pride in their engineering structure and put it on a par with the Great Wall of China.
No less amazing is the Thai railway, which passes through a real market! 60 km west of Bangkok in the town of Maek Long, a food market located right on the railway tracks, several times a day quickly folds its food trays, twists its awnings and runs up right in front of the trains.
But the most amazing thing is that even during this time, trade does not stop! From the open windows of the train, money-coins fly towards the merchants, and fish, sweets, fruits and other purchases fly back through the windows. The main thing here is to be able to catch! :-) Although, I believe that the dexterity for this matter appears in passengers after rubbing their eyes from broken tomatoes and the phrase “I didn’t catch it again!” :-) After the trains pass, the boxes with the remaining vegetables, fish and other goods are again are returning to the rails and trade is becoming more civilized :-)
The Napier to Gisborne rail route is unique in that it crosses the main runway of Gisborne Airport in New Zealand. This is the only railway in the world where the air traffic control service allows or prohibits trains from crossing the runway to continue their route.
Sometimes planes and trains are separated from each other by literally a matter of seconds! This strange “decoupling” is perhaps the first offer to tourists from New Zealand guides! Agree, a steam locomotive and a plane rushing towards each other is an ordinary sight for Hollywood or Indian films, but not for everyday life!
If you have already found your soulmate or are still just looking, then the railway strongly recommends visiting the beautiful “Tunnel of Love”, located near the village of Klevan in Ukraine. This scenic three-kilometre stretch of railway leads to a fiberboard factory. The train runs here three times a day, supplying wood to the Orzhevsky woodworking plant. It is the train that forces the growing tree branches to bend around the tracks and maintains the tunnel in this condition.
The green corridor, beautiful in sunny summer, attracts couples in love, and in autumn and winter, photographers who want to capture this beautiful miracle of nature. It is believed that if you visit the “Tunnel of Love” you wish cherished wish, then it will definitely come true.
The Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest railway in the world, today it has 9,300 km of track and represents an entire network of railways between Moscow and the Russian Far East. In addition, the road has branches to all neighboring border countries. Construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began in full force back in 1891, under the personal control of Sergei Witte, who, being then Minister of Finance, clearly understood that Russia simply had to be a strategic partner between the West and the East. In order for the construction of the road and the accompanying infrastructure to keep pace with each other, the Russian leadership began construction from the east and west simultaneously, moving deeper into the country. To understand the full scale of the project, it is enough to say that only in 2002 was its complete electrification completed!
Having reconstructed some sections of the road in the early 2000s, Russia organized the first permanent corridor of large-scale freight traffic between China, Mongolia, Belarus, Poland and Germany, which significantly increased trade turnover and contributed to the further development of the Far East as a strategic region.
The original name of the road was the Great Siberian Way. And it is great not because the construction of the road took almost a century, but because the Russian government then deliberately refused Western “help”, not wanting to allow the influence of foreign capitalists to increase in the Far East. We built only with our own strength! And they did! Built!
No wonder they say that traveling along the Trans-Siberian Railway means seeing half the world. Is it a joke? The famous Photographer Todd Selby, who traveled a long way from Paris to Shanghai by rail, claims that this is the real truth: “It’s fantastic to wake up every time, look up from the map and try to understand where you are... It’s already the seventh day of the journey, and we still in Siberia! Siberia is very big. And Baikal is very big. But this is just part of great Russia!”
If all the previous facts about railways did not evoke any emotions in you, then do not despair. There is still one railway in the world, which people never tire of admiring to this day! Well, even if you are an avid critic and the word “admire” is not for you, then don’t worry, you will also find a huge “portion” for discussion and condemnation here for yourself. What kind of railway is this? It's BAM!
I would not like to argue with those who claim that BAM is a “dead end” of the Soviet era, that it was built by prisoners, that this entire territory of BAM is a huge zone or camp... Whatever one may say, there is still talk about this brilliant engineering project a huge number of tales and legends... But, nevertheless, for thousands of thousands of BAM residents, this construction site remained the happiest and brightest memory. And they speak of it as a bright, romantic, heroic and the best time in their lives. And so it was.
The best young people from all over the Soviet Union came, worked, and settled down. Families were created here, real labor feats were accomplished, discoveries were made. BAM was built by the whole country.
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Through passes, rivers and swamps
We will lay the highway for centuries. We are not afraid of any work,
We came here at the call of our hearts!”
BAM was designed as part of a systemic project to develop significant natural resources little-explored areas through which, in fact, the road ran.
It was planned to build about ten giant territorial-industrial complexes along the BAM route, but Gorbachev’s very “promising” perestroika allowed the completion of only oneSouth Yakutsk coal complex. Then, no less “promising” privatization, with great hopes, transferred a number of resource deposits into private hands, but instead of loading the capacity of the BAM and massive development of mineral deposits in the highway area, “at the exit” only oligarchs with yachts turned out. By the early 2000sAlmost all projects for the development of the Baikal-Amur Mainline zone have been suspendedunder “ideological” pretexts of inexpediency, and the decision of the Soviet leadership to build the BAM was carefully labeled as erroneous and futile. How truly “oligarchic” it is to hide behind the sudden “futility” of a project that for half a century was considered simply vital for Siberia and Far East according to all experts.
The only thing that warms the soul is that today’s leadership of the country is seriously aimed at reviving the BAM and the region as a whole. And these are not just words. RecentlyThe Elga deposit is operating successfully, where the first coal was mined in the summer of 2011. An access railway line is being built to connect it to the highway. In May of this year, the first super-heavy freight trains started running along the BAM, allowing them to transport 7,100 tons instead of the previous weight norm of 4,800 tons, which should increase the profitability of transportation several times over. This became possible after the commissioning of new powerful two-section locomotives of the 2ES5K Ermak series and 2TE25A Vityaz diesel locomotives. The trains successfully overcome the most difficult section of the route - Kuznetsovsky Pass.
The railway tracks themselves at the pass were reconstructed and strengthened, and the New Kuznetsovsky Tunnel was put into operation.Let me note for critics: “The trains have started, but they will not go. The pass has been reconstructed, but will not be there someday. "Ermaki" and "Vityazi" have been put into operation and are not at the design stage."
I am sure that BAM has a bright future because a road built with love cannot but live forever!
