Interesting questions about the railroad. Interesting facts about trains (15 photos). Omsk railway station

For all mankind, trains have already become more than a familiar mode of transport. However, the world of wagons and railroad tracks is not at all simple. In this article, we will talk about some interesting facts related to this vehicle: from historical to funny.

• The railway connects cities, countries, and sometimes entire parts of the world! Such a road is the Trans-Siberian Railway. Its length is about 9300 km.
• The collection of Faberge eggs also has a copy depicting the Trans-Siberian Railway. The egg contains a clockwork model of the imperial train, made of gold and platinum.

• As in Bologoye, where, according to legend, the St. Petersburg curb turns into the Moscow curb, the Trans-Siberian Railway has its own middle - this is the Polovina station. Historically, the Trans-Siberian Railway ran from Vladivostok to Miass, and the "Half" divided this path in half.
• The first railway line was the road between Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the year of the death of Nicholas I, during which construction began, it was named Nikolaevskaya. For the first three days, the trip along the Nikolaev railway was free, since no one wanted to ride on an unfamiliar "terrible thing."
• The first train in our country with a refrigeration unit was designed and built specifically for transporting fresh oysters from Sevastopol to the royal table.
• In France, for a hundred years now, there has been a law prohibiting kissing at train stations. The reason for the release of such a rule was the frequent delays of the train due to the touching farewells of passengers and mourners.

In Russia, so far they are limited to simple warnings - at one of the airports you can see a poster with the words: “We ask passengers to start kissing right now so that the plane takes off on time.”

• Do you know what the similarities between a violinist and a lineman are? They both need absolute pitch. A railroad worker needs it in order to determine the presence of malfunctions in the wheels. But many thought that any person could cope with this work - go and knock at your pleasure.
• In our relatively flat country, there is no problem with the construction of high mountain roads. But in Peru, the paths pass high in the mountains - at an altitude of 3 km from sea level. Passengers on this section are offered oxygen bags.

• All branded trains in Russia have their own name written on the side of the carriage. But some trains also have names given to them by passengers. Such, for example, is the Rostov-Odessa train. He was nicknamed "Papa - Mama."
• The Australian Railway, passing through the desert plain, is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. On its section of 500 km there is not a single turn.
• A monument to a dog that has been waiting for the return of its owner who left by train for nine years stands at Shibuya Station in Japan. This story has become the most famous illustration of canine devotion and loyalty.
• On the first section of the road built between Liverpool and Manchester, the British decided to hold a competition between five locomotives. However, immediately before the race, the fifth participant was suspended from the competition with the wording "due to an outdated engine." Real horses were hidden under the skin of the locomotive.
• The Ahvaz-Tehran train driver was severely punished for moving during namaz (prayer). The fact is that during the ceremony, a Muslim must be turned strictly towards Mecca, and at each turn of the train, passengers had to spin in place.
• Safety experts advise buying tickets for seating in the center and avoiding the first and last carriages in case of an accident. In general, the safety of a train is estimated to be 45 times higher than that of a car.
• They say that once there was a case of a collision of completely different types of transport - a train and a steamboat. Lake Ohio in the United States burst its banks and flooded the railroad tracks with a meter layer of water. The driver decided to continue along the flooded track, but collided with the steamer. Obviously, neither life nor education prepared these drivers for such a turn.

People have always been fascinated by trains. And some of them gave rise to creativity. The Lumière brothers chose a steam locomotive as the subject of their first film. As we remember, the film was called "Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station" and plunged the audience into horror with its realism.

Trains are one of the most popular modes of transport. Every day they carry more than a million passengers around the world. But at the same time, few people know that many interesting facts are connected with trains.

1. Abandoned station

In New York there is a subway station, City Hall, passing through which the train slows down without stopping and without opening the doors. This beautiful station was opened in 1904 on a new metro line, but in 1945 it was closed due to low passenger flow and unsafe use. But today, train number 6 passes very slowly through this station every day so that passengers can admire its luxurious interior.

2. From kamikaze planes to high-speed trains

During World War II, the Japanese used special aircraft designed by designer Miki Tadanao to attack American warships. Thanks to an optimized streamlined shape, they picketed at great speed, hitting the target with lightning speed. But realizing how many pilots had died because of his kamikaze planes, Miki Tadanao focused on more peaceful projects. Using his knowledge, he helped build the first generation of bullet trains. During a trial run in 1963, they achieved a speed of 256 km / h. Today's bullet trains can reach speeds of over 600 km/h.

3. Steam vs Horse

In 1830, a railroad was built between Baltimore and Ohio, which ran horses and carts. Peter Cooper suggested using a steam engine instead of horses. To implement this idea, Peter designed and built a small steam locomotive, "Tom Thumb" - "Boy with a finger." His test was very successful. After that, Peter Cooper decided to arrange a demonstration race "Steam against a horse."

At the beginning of the race, the advantage was on the side of the horse, since the locomotive needed time to accelerate, but, gaining a speed of 29 km / h, it easily overtook the horse. However, after some time, the drive belt came off the locomotive, it slowed down, and the horse came to the finish line first. But, nevertheless, the superiority of the steam locomotive was obvious, and soon trains with steam locomotives began to run on the railway.

4 Hogwarts Express

The world of Harry Potter is filled with magic, and, of course, we all would like to see it in reality. And some traces of that world still remain in our lives. Arriving in Scotland, you will be able to ride on the same express train, on which students, including Harry Potter, traveled to Hogwarts, the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Trains with those same red trailers still run along the picturesque West Highland route today. They drive along the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct, and the same wonderful landscapes flash through the windows as in the Harry Potter movie.

5. American Civil War

Steam locomotives were widely used to transport passengers and goods. But, starting in 1861, during the civil war, they also began to transport soldiers and military equipment. In September 1863, the Allies delivered 20,000 soldiers to the front with the help of trains that covered 1,900 km in 11 days. Unfortunately, in the future, the widely used railways became the target of multiple terrorist attacks.

6. “Horsepower”

The horsepower unit of measure for power has been used for hundreds of years. But what is this unit and where did it come from? James Watt suggested using steam instead of horses in breweries. Watching horses, Watt noticed that a horse could drag a load weighing 14.774 kg over a distance of 0.3 m in 1 minute. Rounding 14.774 kg to 15 kg, he introduced the unit of power "horsepower". Comparing the performance of a horse and a steam engine using this unit, Watt convinced brewers to replace horses with steam, and as a result, the efficiency of the brewing process increased significantly. And the term “horsepower” has been widely used since that time.

7 Presidential Funeral Train

George Pullman drew attention to the fact that train cars were not very convenient for night trips and decided to improve them. In partnership with his close friend, Benjamin Field, he created a company to design comfortable railroad cars, and six years later the company produced two such cars, the Springfield and the Pioneer. In 1865, after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, his body had to be transported by train to Springfield. All along the route, in dozens of cities, there were mourning people. Lincoln's widow, seeing all this, upon arrival in Chicago, fainted from nervous exhaustion. Pullman, in order to make it easier for her to endure the rest of the journey, offered to use his Pioneer car. The convenience of this car was appreciated, and since then all trains have been equipped with sleeping cars.

8. Time zones

How to determine the time on the territory of a large country, in different parts of which the daylight hours are not synchronous. For these purposes, time zones were invented. In 1883, representatives of the railroad companies of the United States met to develop a convention to determine the common time. On November 18, at 12 noon, a telegraph signal was sent from the American observatory, according to which all railway stations adjusted their clocks. In 1918, the US Congress officially approved nine time zones in the country.

9. Railway fever

After steam locomotives began to be used in America, the need arose for large-scale construction of railroad tracks. In 1830, when the first steam locomotive was tested, the length of railroad tracks in the United States was 37 km. By 1861 it had reached 48,000 km, between 1890 and 1900 another 64,000 km had been added, and by 1916 the length of railroads in the United States (402,000 km) exceeded the distance from the Earth to the Moon. By 1930, the length of the roads was 692,000 km. In the future, with the advent of cars, the construction of railway lines began to decline.

10. Right on schedule

All trains in Japan run without delay, even a one-minute delay is very rare. The Japanese achieved this by taking train drivers seriously and punishing them severely for being late. If passengers are late at the station, an apology is made over the loudspeaker, and a document is issued confirming the delay of the train, indicating the reason. Passengers can present this official document to their employer if problems arise due to their being late for work.

And in continuation of the topic, a story about.

More than a billion people use the railroad every year. According to statistics, every Russian travels by train 9 times on average during the year. It is not difficult to buy train tickets now, but not all travelers know how much interesting and exciting the railway is fraught with.

It is interesting to know about such facts:

* Englishman Richard Trevithick became a pioneer in the railway. In 1804 he invented the locomotive-powered train. The train also included a car for passengers, however, people did not dare to ride it, so it went empty.

* In the same year, a competition was held between steam locomotives. Its main feature was that one of the participants decided to cheat and hid the horses under the iron shell. Fortunately, this was noticed in time and not a single animal was harmed.

* A train collided with a locomotive in Ohio. How could this happen?! The rails were flooded by the lake, but this did not stop the driver, which led to the incident.

* A flat road stretches for 500 km in Australia without a single turn.

* You can get train tickets and see the longest railway line in the world with your own eyes. The Trans-Siberian Railway stretches for 9300 kilometers across the Russian expanses.

* Every person on the train to Peru is given an oxygen mask. There is no way without it, since the road stretches at an altitude of 3 thousand kilometers. The highest mountain railway.

* The so-called "train of love" runs between Paris and Venice. It has a shower, TV and other amenities, as well as all the conditions for creating a romantic atmosphere.

* In New Mexico, on a platform equipped with a rocket engine, it was possible to accelerate an incredible speed equal to 9851 km / h!

* For a century, an unusual law has been in force in France - you can’t kiss on the platforms. This excludes delays and delays of trains.

* The freight train, which became the record holder, consisted of 440 wagons. The 6.5 km long train traveled on the Russian railway.

* Russia promises to develop and put into operation double-decker trains. They will have everything for the comfort of passengers, and tickets will cost less.

* Many routes and trains are given names. One of the most unusual is "Papa-Mama". This is the name of the route connecting Rostov and Odessa.

A lot of interesting and exciting things happen on the railway, so travel and observe to become a participant in amazing facts and incidents.

A lot of effort, time and money was spent on the creation of such a large-scale project as railways. Sometimes, the great design geniuses came to 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-distance trips has become very often mentioned in art - music, movies, theater productions; and even in politics. Here are the most interesting facts and references to railways:

1) Who lives at the bottom of the ocean?

In 1896, between the English cities of Brighton and Rottingdean, an unusual vehicle called Daddy Long Legs began to run - a cross between a tram and a ferry. Laying the railway overland on this route required a lot of engineering structures, and engineer Magnus Volk proposed laying the rails directly on the seabed - the total length of the track 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 maritime attributes, as it was formally considered a ship. The service was canceled in 1901 when it was decided to build new breakwaters near Brighton, and the transfer of the track was considered too costly.

2) When and where did an 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 unmanned train called CSX 8888 picked up speed and went on an independent journey, 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 the diesel locomotive that caught up with him, who grappled with the last car and applied rheostatic braking.

3) What mechanism got its name from the name of the inventor of the bicycle prototype?

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, it was necessary to push off the ground with your feet. The surname of the inventor in the name of the bicycle was not fixed, but 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 "Time Machine" songs?

During Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign, many works of art were censored. For example, Andrey Makarevich changed the text in the song “Conversation on the Train”: after the line “Carriage disputes are the last thing,” instead of “when there is nothing else to drink,” he began to sing “and you can’t cook porridge from them.”

5) What was the main reason for the transition to a time zone system in the 19th century?

Until the 19th century, there was no division into time zones, everywhere the time was determined by the Sun. There was no need for time zones, as there was no high-speed transport. Unification was driven by the development of railways in England, because due to time differences in each city it was very difficult to draw up a normal timetable. It was the railway companies who ensured that there was one GMT time zone throughout the country. And then gradually the system of time zones began to spread around the world.

6) Who was the victim of the murderer, whose brother had previously saved the life of the son of the murdered?

US President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in a theater by John Booth in 1865. Shortly before this, by coincidence, the brother of the latter, Edwin Booth, saved the life of the president's son, Robert Lincoln, on a railway platform.

7) Where did the train crash occur due to the language barrier?

In 2001, there was a railway accident in Belgium in which 8 people, including both drivers, died as a result of a head-on collision of 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 signal, the dispatcher called the next station to warn about it. However, the controllers 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 arrange in 1896 for the entertainment of the public?

In 1896, one of the American railroad companies staged a show - a deliberate collision of two trains at full speed. 40,000 tickets were sold for the "performance", and a temporary campus was built for the spectators who bought tickets. However, the engineers miscalculated the force of the blast and the crowd was not withdrawn to a safe enough distance, resulting in three deaths and several others being injured.

9) What were military armored rubbers?

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 rubber. They were almost like tanks, but limited in movement only by rails.

10) Series Y?

From 1910 to 1920, freight steam 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 collection of straight lines, although there used to be a slight 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 height difference in that place, which made it difficult for trains driven by low-powered locomotives to move. In order not to hook an additional locomotive, a detour was created.

12) Who and where managed to survive and not become disabled after his brain was pierced by an iron crowbar?

In 1848, an American railroad worker, Phineas Gage, suffered a work injury when a metal rod pierced the frontal lobes of his brain, entering through his left cheek and exiting near the top 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 another 12 years. His memory, speech, perception were not disturbed, only his character changed - he became more irritable and lost his inclination to work.

13) What myth of the Soviet times about the film "The Arrival of the Train" is still alive?

Contrary to popular belief (which even got into the Soviet textbook on the history of foreign cinema), the film "The Arrival of the Train" was not shown at the famous first paid film show in Paris in the basement of the "Grand Cafe" on the Boulevard des Capucines.

14) What was the name of the city where Anna Karenina threw herself under the train?

In the novel by Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina threw herself under a train at the Obiralovka station near Moscow. In Soviet times, this village became a city and was renamed Zheleznodorozhny.

15) Who invented Morse code?

Morse code in its usual form was not invented by Morse, but by the German engineer Gercke. The original Morse code was inconvenient, although it was used on some American railroads well into the 1960s.

16) Who has more?

An interesting fact is that the gauge of the railway in Russia is 8 centimeters more 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 more, he replied: nah ... more. So they made the track exactly so much wider. The width of the European railway gauge was adopted long before the invention of the steam locomotive.

17) Whose standard?

The railway track corresponds exactly to the distance between the wheels of the ancient Roman chariots, with which the Romans made conquests in the territories of modern England and France. The peoples of Europe made their chariots according to Roman models, this standard was also taken into account in the construction of railways.

18) Mail trains under escort

In the early days of the existence of the Nikolaev railway, the mail was especially vigilantly guarded along the entire route. To this end, mail trains were sent under the escort of mounted gendarmes, galloping at full speed along the railway.

19) Rescue benches

Third-class carriages on the first Russian railways were installed in front of the train, were equipped with hard benches, but ... did not have a roof, and therefore passengers often traveled under the benches, where they escaped from the sparks that flew out of the locomotive chimney in sheaves, and cold.

20) Paradoxical love

The most paradoxical is the fact that with a small length of Russian railways (only 7 percent of the world's total railway figure), the Russian Federation accounts for about 35 percent of the world's rail freight traffic. These figures are explained by the unusual popularity of railways among Russian businessmen, and both owners of large enterprises and individual entrepreneurs who need to transport small consignments give preference to this type of transport.
The reason for such a love of the Russian people, and indeed of 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. Let the speed of delivery leave much to be desired, but 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 ten times less often than on highways, and in every news release, reports of another plane crash have become a common occurrence. A high level of safety is especially important when transporting valuable and fragile products, and such products make up a significant part of the total cargo flow today. As long as planes are falling, and roads, as you know, continue to be one of the main problems of the CIS, trains will occupy a leading position in the freight transportation market. It is no secret that in the remote corners of our countries, many roads in the spring-autumn period simply become impassable, so delivery by train remains generally the only possible option.
An important factor in favor of choosing rail freight is their 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, bulk, volatile and food - it is possible to transport flour and cement, coal and alcohol. All that needs to be done by the owner of the cargo is to choose a suitable container (wagon, gondola car, platform, tank, refrigerator).
But with all the economic attractiveness and reliability, rail freight 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 cargo to your 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 ensure maximum comfort for the customer and the recipient of the cargo, develop a logistics scheme for each individual cargo, coordinate the features and conditions of transportation based on the characteristics of the product, and provide clear information about the train route and the time of its arrival at the station.

21) The first mechanical (not hand or horse-drawn) elevator driven by a steam engine, called the "vertical railway", was installed in the United States in 1850. By the 1880s, large hotels and wealthy buildings in the US and Europe were equipped with this type of elevator.

22) The "Underground Railroad" in the United States in the 1850s was the name of a secret organization of abolitionists (a social movement seeking the abolition of slavery) that transported fugitive blacks from the South to the North.

Basically, there is an opinion that the train is so banal, so boring, so ordinary, another thing is airplanes with their hyperspeeds like Mikhalkov's lines " Sat in a chair, ate breakfast. What? Arrived!" Or huge ocean liners tearing up the endless expanses of the sea, like beautiful oases in the middle of the desert. But believe me, the railway is also able to saturate its passenger with positive emotions and all sorts 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.

No sea or air company can offer you such romance. 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 naturally, passenger cars do not open at intermediate and observation stations, because there is nothing to breathe outside them. The Chinese themselves are extremely proud of 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 Maeklong, the food market, located right on the railway tracks, quickly turns its food trays several times a day, twists the awnings and scatters right in front of the trains.

But the most amazing thing is that even at this time the trade does not stop! Money-coin flies from the open windows of the train to 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 passengers have a knack for this matter 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 again return to the rails and trade becomes more civilized :-)

The Napier-Gisborne railway is unique in that it crosses the main runway of Gisborne Airport in New Zealand. This is the only railway in the world where it is the air traffic control service that allows or prohibits trains from crossing the runway to continue their route.

Sometimes planes and trains are literally seconds apart! This outlandish "denouement" is perhaps the first offer to tourists from New Zealand guides! Agree, a locomotive and a plane rushing towards each other is a common sight for Hollywood or Indian films, but not for everyday life!

If you have already found your soul mate or are still in search, then the railway highly recommends visiting the beautiful “Tunnel of Love”, located near the village of Klevan in Ukraine. This scenic three-kilometer stretch of railway leads to a fibreboard factory. The train runs here three times a day, delivering wood to the Orzhevsky woodworking plant. It is the train that makes the growing tree branches bend around the tracks and maintains the tunnel in this state.

A beautiful sunny summer green corridor 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" and make a cherished wish, it will surely come true.

The Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest railway in the world, today it has 9300 km of tracks and is a whole network of railways between Moscow and the Russian Far East. In addition, the road has branches to all neighboring border countries. The 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 East and West. 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 at the same time, striving inland. To understand the scale of the project, suffice it to say that only in 2002 was its full 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 is the Great Siberian Way. And it is great not because the construction of the road was carried out for almost a century, but because the Russian government then deliberately refused Western "aid", not wanting to allow the strengthening of the influence of foreign capitalists in the Far East. They built only with their own forces! And they did! Built!

No wonder they say that to drive along the Trans-Siberian Railway means to see half the world. Is it a joke? The famous Photographer Todd Selby, who has traveled a long distance from Paris to Shanghai by rail, claims that this is the real truth: still in Siberia! Siberia is very big. And Baikal is very big. But this is just a part of great Russia!”

If all the previous facts about railroads did not cause you any emotions, then do not despair. There is still one railway in the world, which they do not get tired of admiring to this day! Well, even if you are an avid critic and the word “to admire” is not for you, then don’t worry, you will also find a huge “portion” for discussion and condemnation here for yourself. What is this railroad? This is BAM!

I would not like to argue with those who claim that the BAM is a “dead end” of the Soviet era, that it was built by prisoners, that the whole territory of the BAM is a huge zone or camp ... This, whatever one may say, ingenious engineering project is still going around 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. So it was.

The best young people from all over the Soviet Union came, worked, settled down. Families were created here, real labor feats were accomplished, discoveries were made. BAM was built by the whole country.

« Through passes, rivers and swamps
We will lay the highway for centuries. We are not afraid of any work,
At the call of our hearts, we have come here!”

BAM was designed as part of a systemic project for the development of significant natural resources in little-explored areas, through which, in fact, the road ran.

On the way to the BAM, it was planned to build about ten territorial-industrial complexes-giants, but a very "promising" Gorbachev's perestroika, allowed to complete the construction 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 capacities of the BAM and massive development of mineral deposits in the area of ​​the highway, "at the exit" only oligarchs with yachts turned out. By the early 2000salmost all projects for the development of the Baikal-Amur Mainline zone were suspendedunder the "ideological" pretexts of inexpediency, and the decision of the Soviet leadership to build BAM was diligently hung up with the stigma of fallacy and futility. How truly "oligarchic" it is to hide behind the sudden "futility" of the project, which for half a century was considered simply vital for Siberia and the Far East, according to all experts.

The only thing that warms the soul is that the current leadership of the country is seriously aimed at reviving the BAM and the region as a whole. And it is not just words. RecentlyThe Elga deposit is successfully operating, where the first coal was mined in the summer of 2011. An access railway line is being built, connecting it with the highway. The first super-heavy freight trains went through BAM in May of this year, allowing to transport 7,100 tons instead of the previous weight norm of 4,800 tons, which should increase the profitability of transportation several times. This became possible after the commissioning of new powerful two-section locomotives of the 2ES5K Ermak series and diesel locomotives 2TE25A Vityaz. The trains successfully overcome the most difficult section of the route - the Kuznetsovsky Pass.

The railway tracks themselves at the pass were reconstructed and strengthened, and the New Kuznetsovsky Tunnel was put into operation.I will note for critics: “The trains have gone, but they will not go. The pass has been reconstructed, but will never be. "Ermaki" and "Vityazi" are 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!