What kind of railway is it?

Railway communication has become so familiar that we forget how it all started. Currently, scientists are looking for solutions to increase the speed of passenger trains, to improve the comfort of trains.

The first Russian railway

The first Russian railway was built in 1837. It connected St. Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo. On October 30, 1837, the first steam-powered train departed from the Vitebsk railway station. This day is considered to be the beginning of passenger traffic in Russia. During the first three days, everyone could ride for free, because at that time this innovation scared the population and required attention.

The first Russian electric train

It took almost 100 years before trains began to run on electric traction. It happened in 1929. The first route of the train was made between Moscow and Mytishchi. Electrification of rolling stock made it possible to organize suburban communication between small settlements.

The longest highway

As of 2018, more than 120 thousand kilometers of railways are in operation in Russia. Of these, the largest is the Trans-Siberian Railway with a length of 9288 kilometers. It starts from Yaroslavsky Railway Station in Moscow and connects the whole country to Vladivostok. The fastest branded train "Russia" runs along it, the next one is on the way for a little more than six days. Near Irkutsk there is a station called "Half", symbolically dividing the highway in half.

On this highway there is also the highest place that Russian trains have ever climbed. Between the railway stations «Turgutui» and «Yablonovaya » there is a stretch located at an altitude of 1040 meters.

The Trans-Siberian Railway also holds another record. The city of Mogocha of the Trans-Baikal Territory and Skovorodino of the Amur Region is connected by a section of road on which there is a stretch recognized as the most frosty. The air temperature in the winter place there drops to -62°C.

Who hasn't heard about "Yerofey Pavlovich"? This name is assigned to a small station for a reason. Yerofey Khabarov was a pioneer and discoverer of the Amur Region. Grateful descendants immortalized his name in the village, which later became a railway station.

Mighty freight trains

Every year, more than a billion passengers and almost 1.5 billion tons of cargo are transported by Russian railway trains. It is the latter who have amazing achievements.

The longest train in 1986 was recognized as a freight train of 439 cars, which delivered 43,400 tons of coal from Ekibastuz to the Urals. The train stretched for 6.5 kilometers!

About speed

The first railway trains moved at a speed of slightly less than 33 kilometers per hour. Modern trains have an average speed of 320-430 kilometers per hour. Railway engineers are constantly improving the characteristics. There are already trains with a speed of more than 600 km/h. And this is not the limit!

Branded compositions

In 1930, the first branded Soviet train "Red Arrow" set off from the platform of the Leningrad railway Station in Moscow. Before the war, he plied daily until Leningrad was under siege. As soon as it was removed, the movement resumed. Later, branded trains began to run in other directions, connecting major cities. As a rule, such a train is characterized by increased comfort and level of service. Each composition bears the name of the region connecting with the capital, or the name of a great Russian.

In 2013, one of the most comfortable trains "Ingushetia" was created, running between Moscow and Nalchik. There are national motifs in its interior, and you can taste national dishes in the restaurant car.

Currently, 86 branded trains operate on the country's railways. Some of them have 2 floors, like Adler-Moscow or Moscow-Voronezh. It may seem that it was created quite recently. But this is not the case at all. The first experiments on the construction of such cars were started back in 1905 at the Tver Carriage Building Plant. They were supposed to transport people who expressed a desire to move to the Far East. Livestock was transported on the ground floor of such a car.

Unusual traffic lights

We are used to having 3 colors at the traffic light: green, yellow and red. On the railway, you can find traffic lights equipped with blue and white signals. They are installed on shunting sections of the railway track. The moon-white color allows movement, blue gives a ban.

Famous cup holders

Any passenger traveling by rail remembers the traditional tea drinking from a glass with a metal cup holder. This is an essential attribute of the trip. Historians believe that we owe its appearance to the Russian Minister of Railways Sergey Witte.

Metro

The underground railway allows you to save time while traveling. In Russia, the first metro was planned to be built back in 1902, but it did not work out. The construction of the Moscow metro was started only in 1931. The first train on the route from Sokolniki station proceeded to Komsomolskaya station on October 15, 1934.

Currently, the metro has been built in many million-plus cities: St. Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Samara. They are waiting for the opening in Chelyabinsk and Krasnoyarsk.

The business card of Volgograd is a high-speed tram. When laying the tram route, its central part was hidden underground, and on the outskirts of the city comes to the surface of the earth. 22 underground metrorama stations were built in 1984. Residents of the city like this format much more and they do not intend to rebuild it into a full-fledged metro.

Air railway

There are railway transport and "airways". This is a monorail railway. One of the rails of such a track is fixed on a high support. It seems that the cars seem to float above the ground. The speed that such trains can allow is much higher than on the ground. This is facilitated by the absence of obstacles and pedestrians. Which is remarkable. The first such road appeared in Russia, in the Moscow region in 1820. But we did not notice it, and in England they seized on the idea and issued a patent.

Central Museum of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation

In 1813, the Museum of Railway Transport was founded in St. Petersburg. It contains materials related to everything related to railway transport: international and domestic railways, rolling stock, inventors. Layouts and models for it were also purchased abroad. 5,000 rubles were allocated annually to replenish the exhibits. By the greatest decree of 1859, all institutions involved in construction were required to send models and drawings here. This applied both to the creation of transport and to the construction of civil buildings.