Vintage railways. Railway. Marginal routes of communication

We will not talk about the Circular Railway; it deserves a separate topic. We are talking about an abandoned (at first glance) railway line, laid through the thicket of Losiny Ostrov by who knows when. It is located quite far from us. We go out onto the Abramtsevo clearing and stomp along it to the left, towards the main entrance of the Kremlin. We pass by it and go further along the fence, which after 500 meters turns right, but we are not on the same path. We continue to stomp straight ahead. Abramtsevo clearing crosses Bumazhny Prosek, and goes further, briefly becomes asphalt, then turns into dirt again, flies up a hill, dives down, climbs again, and a sharp descent to the railway line! And the clearing goes further and after 500 meters it ends at the Belokamennaya station, but we don’t need to go there (yet).

We are studying the find. It starts half a kilometer south, right from the Ring Railway. The traffic lights are almost always red. Making a smooth turn to the north, the railway dives into the forest:

About five hundred meters later it intersects with the Abramtsevo clearing. There is a crossing made of longitudinal sleepers, so you don’t even have to get off your bike. Straight as an arrow, the railway goes further into the thicket of the forest:

The rails are brown with age, the sleepers are wooden, and there are bushes close to the tracks. At first glance, it seems that no one has been here for a long time. We take a closer look: there is a strip of fresh knurling on the rails, the sleepers smell of tar - that means something is moving here after all. Next comes gravel and sleepers. The year of manufacture is indicated on them - 85th. On others 83 and 84. Thus, the last renovation was carried out almost 20 years ago. On both sides of the railway there are ditches for water drainage. In addition, there are hundreds of old sleepers lying there. Half are stone, dated 1967, the rest are apparently even older. It turns out that the road is at least 35 years old. But judging by the completely rotten wooden sleepers, she may be even older. But how much more? Judging by old maps of Moscow from 1931, this railway line was already in operation at the beginning of the 30s of the 20th century (see red arrow), but then it was removed from the maps. It turns out that our branch is neither more nor less, but 3/4 of a century old!!!

About two hundred meters later we get another proof that the road is not abandoned - trees that fell across the tracks during the 2001 hurricane. At first glance, the terrain on both sides of the road is very ordinary, a thicket of forest, with paths on either side of the road. But again, only at first glance. And on the second - it’s already more interesting. There is an old one to the left of the road. At its base there is a box for equipment, which is, of course, empty. There are no wires going to the pole and, judging by the shape, there never were, except perhaps underground. (According to Mufizal) this is nothing more than an old traffic light before the crossing on the Abramtsevo clearing, which (as we learn later) was previously guarded by sentries. Nowadays the forest is getting closer and closer to the tracks, and the traffic light has been standing among the trees for a long time. And on the contrary, to the right of the road, the first 200-300 meters from the intersection with the Abramtsevo clearing, here and there numerous remains of old brick buildings are scattered. Judging by the degree of destruction, maybe even pre-war. Only one house remained more or less “intact”, something like a station building, or a guard house, or something similar, and the rest were almost completely destroyed and overgrown so that they are difficult to distinguish from the landscape. Here and there you come across islands densely overgrown with tall, impenetrable bushes, as usually happens on the site of buildings that have been demolished or collapsed due to age.

In addition, next to the Abramtsevo clearing there are powerful gas taps sticking straight out of the ground. There’s a forest all around, it’s unclear who needs (was) gas here? What was this all about? One possible answer is old summer cottages. A long time ago, even before the war, in the early 30s, Losinoostrovskaya Street was built, and the areas to the north of it were then allocated for summer cottages. This can be seen in old map Moscow in 1929, shown on the page dedicated to the history of Metrogorodok. Perhaps we are dealing with the remnants of former dacha luxury. After the war, Losiny Island was declared a nature reserve, and the construction of summer cottages on its territory was prohibited.

We continue to stomp along the sleepers, there is no one around, silence, and only the birds singing in different voices. How cool it is... Suddenly a powerful locomotive whistle is heard from behind! We smooth the hair standing on end, take the heart out of the heels and turn around. Behind us, slowly parting the bushes, a shunting diesel locomotive rolls along and buzzes, effectively warning of its arrival. It pulls 2 freight cars behind it. Rumbling with a powerful diesel engine, the procession slowly floats past and drives off into the forest:

Initially, a switchman was provided here, and they even built it for it, but then apparently they decided that a switchman was not needed, and the house still stands, it’s beautiful on the outside, but completely shabby, although strangely enough, there’s not much trash there, and that really surprised me - on the floor, almost alone, lay a yellowed page from the magazine “Youth” of 1995. It lay there intact for eight years and no one even touched it!

Although the railway bifurcates, both branches have the same destination, the gate of which is no more than 500 meters away. This object is still famous for its secrecy. Rumor has it that this is a warehouse of weapons or harmful substances. Others say the facility has something to do with the production of equipment for submarines. But no one knows for sure, and those who know are silent. On the Internet you can find information according to which the object is an ordinary Voentorgbaza, which means that our railway line serves to deliver goods there. It looks like the truth, but... security! There is a triple fence with barbed wire around the facility and machine gunners on towers. There are even rumors that the Metro-2 line approaches it underground. A high hangar and several other lower buildings can be seen on the territory. If you compare a photograph from space and an aerial photograph of our area, you will notice that this military facility is thoroughly “covered up.” (According to Phontom) once on TV there was a program about the only warehouse of confiscated weapons in Moscow, in the footage of which it was easy to recognize our area. One way or another, the train approached closed gate along the right branch, a sad whistle sounded, the gates opened, and the train disappeared behind them for half an hour. The locomotive drove back without the carriages, stood for a while at the switch and drove off through the forest on its own. He did not use the left branch. Each of them leads to its own gate, and the left ones, oddly enough, were wide open (but only the outer ones):

So our journey along the “abandoned” railway line ended, which in fact turned out to be not abandoned at all. But the story doesn't end there. There are two stories ahead of you. The first one concerns the secret object mentioned above, and the second one contains interesting information about the past of our railway line.

Thus, this military facility has been hiding in our forest for more than 150 years! But the arrival there was with Yaroslavl highway. The branch line from the Circular Railway was built already in our century, as follows from the maps - in the early 30s of the 20th century. And one of the readers of the site - Sergei K. - had a chance to meet a man who was able to tell a lot of interesting things about history himself O th railway. I present Sergei’s story almost unchanged:

I received this information by chance, having once met a man who was lost there in the forest. It turned out that he also grew up in these parts, grew up all over Losiny Ostrov as a boy, immigrated to Israel in the 80s, and in the 90s, when the opportunity arose to come to Russia, he comes here every year for a month to visit his relatives and does not forget the old places . Obviously, his long absence from his homeland took its toll, which is why he got lost. According to him, this railway line was built before the War (1941-1945). It led to the military unit where the arsenal was located. As boys, in the summer they went swimming in ponds, which were also guarded by the military. Now, according to him, these ponds have not survived. Obviously these were some kind of fire reservoirs. Sometimes they were caught, and then they suffered greatly. Perhaps we are talking about those located next to the shooting range. There were towers with machine gunners already at that time. Unfortunately, from the conversation it was not possible to understand the exact location of these ponds, but they are definitely not related to the reservoir near the MGSU dormitory. During the war, this branch acquired strategic importance, and its security increased. The locomotive pulled carriages with weapons, and along the entire line at certain intervals there were sentries with machine guns. The crossing where the branch crosses the Abramtsevo clearing was especially heavily guarded. Here, to this day, old buildings have been preserved, where, obviously, the main guard guarding the branch was located. He also spoke about today this mysterious thread. It still functions, but diesel locomotives with trailers almost always enter the right gate. There really is a military trading base there. In general, this was never a special secret - along the former route of bus 75k, where it turned from Bumazhny Prosek to the right towards Kremlyovka, there used to be a small wooden house like a gazebo and there were signs near it: an arrow straight with the inscription “GUTMO Base” " and an arrow to the right with the inscription "Possession No....". The first sign was intended for service buses and trucks, who constantly shuttled to and from the base, poisoning Fresh air and disturbing cyclists, forcing them to keep pressing to the side of the road. The second sign is for vehicles carrying construction materials for the new Kremlyovka building. Obviously, the abbreviation GUTMO is the Main Directorate of Trade of the Ministry of Defense. Fortunately, in the early 90s, Bumazhny Prosek was closed to vehicle traffic, and cars began to approach the base exclusively from the Yaroslavskoye Highway. At the same time, it was necessary to “declassify” part of the military unit behind the pond near the MGSU dormitory - behind the preserved high but leaky fence with barbed wire, where machine gunners used to stand on towers, now there are private garages and free access to the trading base. I assume that the left gate leads directly to the territory of the military unit, or rather, what is left of it. And at one time it occupied a huge territory and went directly onto the Yaroslavl highway. There are still preserved gates and a fence with characteristic “Stalinist” architecture, but a block has now been built behind the gates modern houses, and you still need to get to the buildings of the military unit. As far as I know, at present the protected zone with towers remains only in the area of ​​​​the Babushkinsky cemetery, but there are no machine gunners there.

Along the sleepers - above the water

All lovers of the aesthetics of the worlds of the Strugatsky brothers will appreciate this location in the Losiny Ostrov park. An abandoned railway line, flooded in places, lost in the thick of the forest and forked, seems long forgotten.

Finding it turned out to be not very difficult - it originates not far from the Belokamennaya MCC station. By the way, the station even preserves a historical building built at the beginning of the 20th century. There are almost no people here - it seems that you have already left far from Moscow and now got off at the old stop.

Directly behind the platform is a fenced area. A lone guard says that there are not very many people who want to see the road, and points the way.

If you are traveling by car, you can safely enter the Abramtsevo clearing into your navigator: there the rails intersect with the road. However, to watch the line from the very beginning, you will have to go to the above-mentioned station.

For the first 500 meters the railway line runs almost parallel to the MCC line. The tracks are blocked with sleepers, the new LED traffic light is red. Here the rails seem less abandoned - we even have an idea that the road is still sometimes used. However, we quickly became convinced of the opposite, as soon as we went a little into the forest after the “piece of iron”.

Near the clearing, the road winds in a lowland, so after the rains the rails were under water. You can't drive through it, but it looks more than picturesque.

You have to walk parallel to the rails for about 200 meters because the water reaches almost to your knees. Tree branches converge over the road like a dome - it turns out to be a railway straight into a fairy-tale forest. On the side of the road stands a destroyed house, abandoned, apparently, for quite some time. It is quite possible that this could have been a building for railway workers. If you go a little away from the road, you will find the foundations of several more buildings heavily overgrown with grass and moss. A pole was discovered near the crossing - most likely, a traffic light was once attached to it.

Finally, you can go down and walk along the sleepers. Here, on the road, the consequences of the hurricane are clearly visible - fallen trees everywhere. In some places it is impossible to climb over them - you have to go around them. The rails are brown with rust - it’s clear that no one has ridden on them for a long time.

It seems that the road has not been used since the sleepers were changed, but along the slopes of the road there are cut down trees, to put it mildly, not the freshest. Most likely, they have been lying here since the hurricane in the early 2000s. They are neatly cut, suggesting that this road was still in use at the beginning of the century.

Sleepers deserve a separate discussion. Among them there are both concrete and wooden ones. If you look closely, you can see on the concrete sleepers the years of their replacement - from 1983 to 1985. That is, the road has not seen repairs for more than 30 years. Going deeper into the thicket, you can find old sleepers in ditches for water drainage. Most of the concrete ones date from 1967. It seemed that this was all, but under them there were also wooden ones that had been replaced earlier. Thus, in the mid-80s there was at least a third road repair.

As it turned out a little later, the road was indicated on maps of Moscow in the early 30s, that is, these same wooden sleepers could have been laid even when laying the “piece of iron”. She disappeared from the maps much later.

Meanwhile, we climbed over another fallen tree along the slope and came out into a relatively open space. Somewhere in tall grass the rails are completely lost, and you can only navigate by the sleepers. Open space- this is a whole clearing of fallen trees and wet, squishing earth underfoot. It is impossible to go deep without the risk of falling into a swamp.

The trees lie on the rails in a dense layer, so you can walk without fear.

In the meantime, our path again went into the wilderness. Here, surprisingly, the road was less damaged by the hurricane, but in some places puddles still spoil the walk. The total length of this branch is about 4 kilometers, and, judging by the map, it should split somewhere. We deliberately did not look where the road led - we decided that it would be more interesting.

Old maps of Losiny Island actually show dacha plots. However, no matter how we wandered around the vicinity of the road, we did not find anything except one foundation. Somewhere in the distance birds are singing. It seems that no trains ever ran here, and the rails were simply laid by mistake...

Finally, we came across a switchman's booth. You could try to move the needle, but it was already very rusty and wouldn’t budge. The booth practically collapsed. Having rummaged through old records, we find that the switchman has been gone for a really long time, and often, while the branch was functioning, the driver himself had to stop and move the switch. Based on observations local residents, back in 2003, trains ran here.

But the forking branch confused us. We were fully confident that it would lead to different objects, but it turned out that the branches converged at one destination. There is barbed wire, and behind it there are obviously some warehouses - you can’t go any further, and you can only look at them from afar.

The Moscow Railway reported to MK that the railway line from the Belokamennaya MCC station, located on the territory national park"Losiny Ostrov" was built to a military unit and is currently not in use. In the future, it is planned to dismantle this line - the railway workers have already sent a corresponding proposal to the design organization.

However, we began to wonder: what is this military unit? Having rummaged through the sources, we see that Losiny Island was used by artillerymen somewhere in the middle of the 19th century. At that time there was still no talk of a holiday village, much less a city, but there was a small farm here. It was precisely this that was chosen by the Artillery Directorate.

But if the warehouses appeared in the 19th century, then the branch is clearly younger. According to some reports, it appeared around the 1930s of the last century. Since the object was strategically important, the branch was heavily guarded. Apparently, over time, the guard booths, which, according to some sources, stood along the roadsides, finally collapsed.

The road acquired particular importance during the war. Several trains passed along it every day, and the crossing at the Abramtsevo clearing was especially carefully guarded. After the war, the reinforced security was removed, but those same destroyed buildings near the clearing, which we initially mistook for old dachas, turned out to be guard houses.

Judging by the maps of the 30s, somewhere near the warehouses there were two ponds, which, however, have now been filled up.

Until the line was laid, access was from the Yaroslavskoye Highway through Bumazhny Prosek. Back in the 70s there was a sign to the GUTMO base. This abbreviation means the Main Directorate of Trade of the Ministry of Defense.

Marginal routes of communication

By the way, such an object is not the only one in Moscow. A great place for a walk can be found not far from the Elektrozavod (or Moscow Electric Lamp Plant) - there the line runs parallel to the Moscow Railway. Its length is approximately 4 kilometers. The tracks were built back in the 20s of the last century and connect several industries at once. The road is half-dismantled, numerous switches have been dismantled, but it is quite possible to find surrounding locations here. In general, after the liquidation of the ZIL branch, this industrial railway became the longest unused in Moscow.

There are a total of 4 crossings on the branch, and it itself is strongly curved. It seems as if she is going around some invisible obstacle. And indeed, it turns out that the Khapilovka River used to flow here. Now it has been hidden in a sewer, but the curvature of the road itself remains. Moving, apparently, no longer works.

Most often, such roads were built by enterprises in order to facilitate logistics routes around the city and not create traffic jams. These roads were on their balance sheet, but now, due to the fact that production is being moved out of Moscow, there is no longer a need for such branches.

The press service of the Moscow Railway told us that there were indeed many such objects, but the official department has nothing to do with them. “There are branches on the territory of the city that do not belong to or are not maintained by Russian Railways. These railway tracks are on the balance sheet of various enterprises. We have no information about how many there are, where they are located, etc. The fate of these branches is in the hands of the owners.”

The walk itself takes about two hours. It is best to walk in such places in comfortable shoes, because after the Moscow rains the slopes of the roads are washed away. The road itself also looks very picturesque, surrounded by lush greenery - there doesn’t seem to be a feeling that there will be, as they said on the Internet, “syringes crunching like snow under your feet.” Sometimes it even seems that a locomotive whistle is about to be heard behind you...

In general, there is no impression of complete desolation, as in “Elk Island”. It seems that sometimes the road is even used. The Ministry of Railways confirmed to us, however, that they have nothing to do with this road and do not service it. “The railway line from the Lokomotiv MCC station, located in the capital’s Preobrazhenskoye district, does not belong to and is not maintained by Russian Railways OJSC. These are access roads that are on the balance sheet of a third-party organization,” the department reported.

This branch once had strategic knowledge. During the war, strategically important products and shells were produced at the factories to which the rails were laid. Now, most of the factory buildings are given over to offices, and at the once huge electric lamp plant you can rent a photo studio...

After vacant lots, very urban, heavily littered, at some point we find ourselves almost in the forest. The bright greenery contrasts strongly with the brown rails, which already seem to be a continuation of the trees - large thick roots.

Here and there you come across abandoned buildings - most likely, switchmen's booths or other outbuildings.

By the way, to walk along this line in comfort, you can even book an excursion.

“You shouldn’t go to places like this alone.”

Such locations attract both photography enthusiasts and other seekers of unusual places to walk.

However, in order to ensure that walks and photo sessions are not overshadowed by unpleasant meetings and other surprises, we decided to draw up a small set of rules for those who want to visit such places. Roman Vaseykin, a photographer and tourist with many years of experience, gave several recommendations.

“Any walk through such places should begin with collecting information. You need to clearly understand where you are going, what could threaten you there,” says Roman. In his opinion, in the case of the Electric Plant, the real danger is people. “As far as I remember, it was a rather marginal neighborhood, and the residents there were appropriate. You shouldn't go to such places alone. Even if you are confident in your abilities.”

In the case of Elk Island, people are likely the least dangerous. But it is quite possible to get injured and not get help. And here one more person is precisely the guarantee that qualified people will come to your aid. In general, you always need to calculate the worst-case scenario and be prepared for it.

Among other things, you need to be attentive to hanging wires - after all, for example, at the Elektrozavod the entire branch was electrified. And broken wires are also a reality of such places.

If we talk about photo shoots, then it’s better to just take all the uncomfortable, but appropriate clothes with you, and go in what’s most comfortable.

Maxim Khaldeyev, instructor mountain tourism, generally does not recommend visiting such places. But if a person decides to take such a walk for himself, then he agrees with his colleague: first you need to collect information. Then decide what you need to take with you. “Of course, no one says that you need to pack for a hike, but it’s worth thinking about what to wear and what’s good to take with you. Someone takes some kind of self-defense means, someone constantly carries a first aid kit with them - all this is not superfluous.

From Yandex photos, I’ll post another portion rare photos from there. For example, this. Photo of the tracks of the Kievsky railway station in Moscow in 1936. Shot from “the very skies,” the Photographer climbed onto the lacy trusses supporting the glass roof above the station platform and took this memorable photo. I wonder if there are any stairs leading there, or if the author of the photo used climbing equipment.

Gakkel diesel locomotive GE1 (Shchel1), one of the world's first mainline diesel locomotives, built in 1924 in Leningrad. Who's on the bandwagon? Isn't it its designer Yakov Modestovich Gakkel himself? Here, there is a photo where the same person was taken in the very center of a group of comrades standing in front of a diesel locomotive. Most likely this is him, and the photo was taken in November 1924, immediately after testing of the diesel locomotive began

The Russo-Balt car, adapted for travel by rail. Under the tsar, railway authorities rode these on inspection trips.

A group of comrades, filmed against the backdrop of C10-12, Suramsky Italian in the early 30s in Georgia. There is no caption under the photo and we can only guess who they are, these people, and what they have to do with the locomotive standing behind them.

Hungarian diesel train DP (three-car) in Sukhumi, 1950. Photo from the magazine "Ogonyok". I remember how amazed I was by the sight of this train when I first saw it in old newsreels from the early 50s. It was filmed in Abkhazia and drove along the road right along the Black Sea coast.

Railway workers against the backdrop of the only Soviet passenger electric locomotive PB21. Clearly taken after the war (judging by the shoulder straps). But where - Georgia or Perm?

Most likely Georgia. Here is a photo of the same people, but against a background of more exotic vegetation than we have in the Urals. The PB21 electric locomotive was sent to Georgia in 1952, which means both photos were taken in the early 50s.

And this is Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev himself on the step of an electric locomotive of the "F" series. The photo was taken during Khrushchev’s visit to France in 1960. Secretary General decided to personally “accept” electric locomotives made by Alstom for the USSR. By the way, isn’t this electric locomotive the same one that now stands in the museum at the Finlyandsky Station? That one is designated Fk07, and this one in the photograph is Fp07. But, as we know, the letter “k” appeared in the name of the locomotive only after its modernization in the USSR. So it is quite possible that the only F-series electric locomotive preserved in Russia is the one on which Khrushchev set foot.

This photo was most likely taken there and at the same time. Only at the door of the electric locomotive is General de Gaulle. Unfortunately, the Soviet comrades did not save the electric locomotive on board which the President of France set foot.

TASS DOSSIER. 180 years ago, on November 11 (October 30, old style) 1837, the first public railway in Russia opened.

It connected St. Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo.

The editors of TASS-DOSSIER have prepared a certificate about the history of Russian railways.

In Tsarist Russia

Ideas for creating railways in Russian Empire began to appear back in the 1820s, shortly after the launch of the first line in England. Proposals were put forward to build the first railway from St. Petersburg to Moscow, Tver or Rybinsk. However, all these projects were met with mistrust by the government due to the high cost, as well as uncertainty about the reliability of the railway in the Russian winter.

The beginning of testing of the first Russian steam locomotive in August 1834 is considered the birthday of the Russian railway industry. It was built by mechanics and inventors Efim Alekseevich Cherepanov (1774-1842) and his son Miron Efimovich (1803-1849) to transport ore at the Vyysky plant in Nizhny Tagil. The steam engine, called the “land steamer,” could transport more than 200 pounds of weight (about 3.2 tons) at a speed of 12-15 versts per hour (13-17 km/h).

Russia's first public passenger railway, Tsarskoye Selo, was opened in 1837 and connected St. Petersburg with Tsarskoye Selo; steam locomotives for it were ordered from England.

In 1840, traffic on the second railway was opened on the territory of the Russian Empire: with the money of Polish bankers, a line was built from Warsaw to Skierniewice. In 1848, it connected with the Krakow-Upper Silesian Railway (Austria) and became known as the Warsaw-Vienna Railway (total length with the Austrian section - 799 km).

On February 1, 1842, Emperor Nicholas I signed a decree on the construction of the St. Petersburg - Moscow railway with a length of 650 km. On November 13, 1851, its official opening took place. Exactly at 11:15 a.m. The first passenger train departed from St. Petersburg to Moscow, spending 21 hours and 45 minutes on the way. At first, two passenger and four freight trains. During the construction of the line, a gauge of 1 thousand 524 mm (5 ft) was chosen - it later became the standard on Russian railways (since the 1980s, railways in the USSR were converted to a compatible 1 thousand 520 mm gauge).

From 1865 to 2004, the country's railways were in charge of the Ministry (in 1917-1946 - the People's Commissariat) of Railways (MPS, NKPS).

March 17, 1891 Emperor Alexander III instructed his son Nikolai Alekseevich, the future Emperor Nicholas II, “to begin the construction of a continuous railway across the whole of Siberia, with the goal of connecting the abundant gifts of nature of the Siberian regions with a network of internal rail communications.” The solemn ceremony for the start of construction of the road took place on May 31, 1891 near Vladivostok. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway was completed on October 18 (October 5, old style) 1916 with the commissioning of a three-kilometer bridge across the Amur near Khabarovsk.

Even before the completion of construction, the Trans-Siberian Railway gave impetus to the development of Siberia, in 1906-1914 in eastern regions More than 3 million people resettled with its help. As of 2017, the Transsib is the longest railway in the world (9 thousand 288.2 km).

By 1916, the framework of the modern railway system in Russia had developed: all the main radii of the Moscow and St. Petersburg railways were built, and in 1908, traffic on the ring railway in Moscow was launched (now the Moscow Central Circle, MCC). The total length of railways, including access roads, exceeded 80 thousand km.

IN THE USSR

As a result of the First World War and Civil War More than 60% of the railway network was destroyed, and up to 90% of the rolling stock was lost. It was only in 1928 that transportation was restored to the level of 1913.

In the 1920s, electrification of Soviet railways began. The first electric train was launched on May 13, 1926 on the territory of modern Azerbaijan along a suburban route between Baku and Sabunchi. On October 1, 1929, electric trains connected Moscow and Mytishchi. In 1932, the first electric locomotives were built in the USSR. The construction of a new type of railway for the country also began: on May 15, 1935, the Moscow Metro began operating. Before the collapse of the USSR, it and other metros were subordinate to the People's Commissariat/Ministry of Railways.

The railways played vital role during the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945: 20 million wagons were transported for the needs of the front, civilians and entire factories were evacuated through them, and the wounded were transported. Railway continued to operate despite the fact that Nazi aviation dropped 44% of all aerial bombs intended for the USSR on its facilities.

In 1956, the last steam locomotive was produced in the USSR - P36-0251. By 1980 the railways Soviet Union were finally converted to heat and electric propulsion.

In the 1960-1980s, railways to the natural resource deposits of Siberia were especially actively built. In 1984, traffic was opened along the Baikal-Amur Mainline.

In 1984, regular operation of the first high-speed electric train, the ER200, began in the USSR. He cruised between Moscow and Leningrad, the speed reached 200 km/h. Travel time was 4 hours 50 minutes, but was subsequently reduced to 3 hours 55 minutes.

Russian Railways

In 2001, a reform was launched in Russia railway transport. As part of it, the Ministry of Railways was liquidated, its economic functions were transferred to JSC Russian Railways (RZD).

In 2007, as part of the industry reform, freight operators were separated from Russian Railways, including the First Freight Company (privatized in 2011-2012). The largest share of passenger traffic is by train long distance since 2010 it has been operated by a subsidiary of the Federal Passenger Company. Russian Railways has different shares in companies that operate suburban transportation and a number of other industry organizations.

On December 17, 2009, a new high-speed train, the Siemens Velaro Rus (“Sapsan”), set off on its first commercial flight with passengers between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Minimum time on the way when traveling - 3 hours 35 minutes. JSC "Russian Railways" operates 20 ten-car "Sapsan" ( maximum speed- 250 km/h) and more than 60 electric locomotives EP20 and ChS200, reaching speeds of up to 200 km/h. The joint company of Russian Railways and Finnish Railways (VR Group) - Karelian Trains - owns four high-speed trains of the Pendolino type ("Allegro", maximum speed 220 km/h).

Since 2013, Russian Railways has been operating Siemens Desiro Rus (“Lastochka” electric trains manufactured in Germany and Russia, maximum speed 160 km/h). They are also used on the MCC (passenger traffic on the Moscow railway ring was resumed after an 80-year break in 2016).

Statistics

According to Rosstat, the operational length of public railway tracks in Russia as of 2016 was 86 thousand 363.7 km, of which about 44 thousand km were electrified. In addition, about 60 thousand km of factory and service tracks are adjacent to the public network. At the end of 2016, Russian railway transport transported 1 billion 325 million tons of cargo (4 million tons less than the year before). Passenger traffic increased from 1 billion 26 million people to 1 billion 40 million people in 2016.

In total, about 1 million people are employed in railway transport, of which 774 thousand are in Russian Railways. The average salary in Russian Railways, according to the company’s annual report for 2016, is 46 thousand 852 rubles.

Regular high-speed traffic (over 200 km/h) is established on the Moscow - St. Petersburg line (645 km).

Among the main development projects are the expansion of the capacity of the Trans-Siberian and Baikal-Amur Mainlines, the development of the Moscow railway junction, including passenger traffic on the MCC, which opened in 2016, the development of high-speed communication, and the railway infrastructure of Siberia and the Far East.

In August 2017, traffic was opened along the railway line between Zhuravka (Voronezh region) and Millerovo (Rostov region) on the Moscow-Adler highway, bypassing the territory of Ukraine.