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TEXT 2 THE OLDEST RAILWAY IN RUSSIA

The St.Petersburg–Moscow mainline is considered to be the oldest and the most outstanding

railway in Russia.

In the thirties of the 19th century much was spoken about the necessity of its construction and

various projects were proposed by Pravdin, Safonov, Muravjov, Abaza, but all of them were rejected.

In June 1839, the professors of the Moscow Engineering Institute P.P.Melnikov and N.O. Kraft

were sent to the USA for the purpose of studying experience gained by the Americans in constructing and operating the railways. Melnikov's report about the results of their trip laid down the basis of the future railway project.

According to this project «chugunka» was planned as a double-track line, 664 km long, with the

5 feet gauge (now the standard), steam powered. The speed of passenger and freight trains was

supposed to be 34.4 km/h and 16 km/h respectively.

The construction began in 1843 and lasted 8 years. From the very beginning the builders faced

many hardships because of severe climatic and difficult geological conditions. Hundreds of

kilometers of track were laid down through forests and marshes, many rivers were crossed. It shouldbe noted that the line is virtually straight and level. 185 bridges and 19 viaducts were built to make the line as straight as possible. There is a legend that the route of the railway was chosen by the tsar Nikolay I, who took the map and the ruler, drew a straight line between the two cities on the map andordered this line to be the route of the railway. But the fact is that the construction of the line was preceded by long and thorough surveying work, a great part of which was done by P.P.Melnikov himself. All the component parts of the track, bridges and viaducts were produced at Russian plants by using only domestic materials, including timber for sleepers and cast iron for rails.

One has to give credit [ нужно отдать должное] to the first railway builders, who laid the track in extremely difficult conditions. They worked from dawn till sunset, often in water up to their knees and their main tools were spades and axes. P.P. Melnikov proposed to mechanize the railway construction, but his idea was not backed up because it required a lot of expenses., Nevertheless, four excavators were bought in the USA on Melnikov's recommendation. It is interesting to note that at that time there were only seven excavators in the world. The other three ones were operated in the USA and Great Britain.

The railway was officially opened for public traffic on November 1, 1851. The first train departed from St.Petersburg at 11.15 and arrived in Moscow 21 hours 45 minutes later. There were 17 passengers in the first-class cars, 63 – in the second-class cars and 112 – in the third-class cars. The speed of the first trains was 40 km/h but two years later it was increased up to 60 km/h. It was the world's record in the speed of passenger trains. It should be added that the Alexander Engineering Works was established in St. Petersburg to provide this railway with locomotives and cars.

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