Interesting facts about the Russian railway. Intellectual game “We know everything about the railway. Exactly on schedule

Railways and aviation have been competing for a long time attracting passengers with inexpensive, fast and convenient transportation. The average person uses rail transport more than 9 times a year.

Here are some interesting facts about railways.

The longest mainline in the world - 9300 km, is the Trans-Siberian railway.

After the appearance of the first railway in Russia, travel was free for some time. Most likely, this was done so that residents could get used to this type of transport. The phrases "this is such a terrible thing" were heard from everywhere.

A hundred years ago, a law appeared in France that prohibited kissing at train stations. And all because because of this "criminal action" the trains left with a strong time delay. The law is still held in high esteem.

People who inspect the "iron horses" must have an ear for music in order to take timely measures if a breakdown occurs. They determine it by ear - the way the wheel knocks must be of a certain frequency. Railway workers differ from representatives of other professions in a special uniform, everyone saw these people at railway stations. Today, you can freely buy a similar uniform for everyone, as well as for any other specialty https://specovka.by/obuv-rabochaya-specialnaya

In the city of love, in Paris, there is the same "love train" to match it. His route is not so long, Paris - Venice and back. But, suddenly, at such a distance, people in the compartment will want to indulge in love pleasures, they will have all the conditions: a double shelf, a shower cabin and "room service".

There is a train that does not travel on rails, but on a magnetic levitation. It was created by the Japanese, and the speed that it can develop reaches 517 km / h.

The first trains in Russia of the third class were equipped with ordinary wooden benches. But, this is not so bad. The fact that these cars did not have a roof is a real disaster.

Therefore, people who decided to "ride with the breeze" hid under these lavas from rain and snow.

Railways also visited the Guinness Book of Records. Australian Railways broke all records without a single turn for 500 km.

Today the "iron world" does not stand still. Technologies are moving forward, new, "fast-moving" trains - electric trains appear, ready to deliver us in the shortest possible time to the place we need. The only negative is the price we have to pay for it.

By the way, the speed that modern high-speed trains can develop has already exceeded 580 km / h.

1. A railway is an ordinary thing for a modern person. Few people today have never traveled by train or long-distance train.

2. Traveling by rail is 45 times safer than by road. The risk of getting into an accident on a train is significantly lower than in a car.

3. Today (on average) every Russian travels by rail about 9 times a year. And the total number of guests has long exceeded 1.3 billion people a year.

4.And the first trains in Russia and Europe were accessible to about 9% of the population of those cities between which rail links were established.

5. The appearance of the steam locomotive at the beginning of the 19th century transformed the world, since from that moment people and goods could move around the world at unprecedented speeds.

6. The first passenger train in the world went on rails at a speed that barely reached 33 km / h. A little later, it was possible to accelerate to 38 and even 42 kilometers per hour.

7. The opening of the Moscow - St. Petersburg railroad was a real event. But ordinary people were in no hurry to use the innovation. A terrible rumbling thing caused genuine fear.

8. In order to promote rail transport to the masses, it was decided to make travel free. And this measure had an effect. Trains soon ceased to be afraid.

9. But the history of the action was short-lived. It was possible to ride back and forth for free only in the first three days after the opening of the corresponding branch of the railway.

MODERN SPEED TRAIN "SAPSAN"

It is a pity that free travel from Moscow to St. Petersburg is in the distant past.

10. In 1830, the first steam-powered American railway from Liverpool to Manchester opened. Decades later, the United States had crossed hundreds of thousands of railroad miles.

11. Today, the descendants of these early railways, including the CSX Railroad, continue to play a key role in American life, transporting millions of freight cars each year.

QINGHAI-TIBETAN SINGLE-WAY RAILWAY

12. Qinghai-Tibet Single Track Railway - the highest road on the planet every year 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 5000 km above sea level.

13. No sea or air company can offer such romance. Of course, such extreme conditions require special trains.

14. The cars are completely sealed, equipped with personal oxygen masks and an oxygen supply system if necessary, and at intermediate and observation stations, passenger cars naturally do not open, because there is nothing to breathe outside of them. The Chinese themselves feel extraordinary pride in their engineering structure and place it on a par with the Great Wall of China.

15. When Englishman Richard Trevithick started his first practical steam locomotive in 1804, its speed was less than 16 kilometers per hour. Today, trains travel 30 times faster on high-speed rail lines.

TRANS-SIBERIAN HIGHWAY

16. Among the domestic railways, the most remarkable was and remains the Trans-Siberian Railway. She has many statuses. For example, this railway is known as the longest in the world. Today it has more than 9,400 kilometers of tracks and represents a whole network of railways between Moscow and the Russian Far East. In addition, the road has branches to all neighboring border countries.

17. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began in full force back in 1891, under the personal control of Sergei Witte, who, then the Minister of Finance, clearly understood that Russia simply had to be a strategic partner between the West and the East.

18.In order for the construction of the road and related 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 full scale of the project, it is enough to say that only in 2002 the complete electrification of the Trans-Siberian Railway was completed!

19. After reconstructing some sections of the Trans-Siberian Railway 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.

20. The original name of the road is the Great Siberian Way. And he is great not because the construction of the road took almost a whole century, but because the Russian government then deliberately refused Western "help", not wanting to allow the strengthening of the influence of foreign capitalists in the Far East. They built only with OWN forces! And they could! Built!

21. No wonder they say that driving along the Trans-Siberian Railway means seeing half the world. Is it a joke? The famous Photographer Todd Selby, who has come 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 away from the map and try to understand where you are ... It is already the seventh day of the trip, and we are all still in Siberia! Siberia is very large. And Baikal is very big. But this is just a part of great Russia! "

OMSK RAILWAY STATION

22. Transsib is 9438 kilometers, more than 8 days on the way. On the route, the train stops at 97 major stations and passes many smaller ones.

23. And there is also half of the way on the Transsib. The station, located exactly in the middle of the railway between Moscow and Vladivostok, is called that. The distance from "Half" to both cities is the same.

24. The Transsib is also considered the coldest railway. Part of it passes through the climatic zone, where -62˚C is the usual temperature. Interestingly, the coldest point of the route does not coincide with the northernmost one.

25. When the first Japanese Shinkansen appeared in 1964 before the Olympic Games in Tokyo, its speed exceeded 209 km / h. Since then, the maximum speed of these trains has grown steadily. The current world record is 603 kilometers per hour.

RAILWAY IN THAILAND, IN MAEKLONG

26. No less amazing is the Thai railway, which passes through a real market! 60 km west of Bangkok in the town of Maeklong, a food market located right on the railroad tracks quickly folds its grocery stalls, rolls up awnings and scatters right in front of the trains several times a day.

27. But the most amazing thing is that even at this time the trade does not stop! From the open windows of the train, a coin flies into the merchants, and fish, sweets, fruits and other purchases fly back into the windows. The main thing here is to be able to catch!

28. Although the passengers have a knack for this business after wiping their eyes from the broken tomatoes and the phrase "I didn't catch it again!" After the trains have swept by, the boxes with the remaining vegetables, fish and other goods are returned to the rails and the trade becomes more civilized.

29. Japan is no longer alone in high-speed rail: France, China and Germany are also working on trains that can reach extreme speeds.

30.The United States is currently developing plans to build a high-speed rail line that will connect the California cities of San Francisco and Anaheim.

RAILWAYS IN NEW ZEALAND

31. The Napier-Gisborne Railroad is unique in that it crosses the main airstrip at Gisborne Airport in New Zealand. It 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.

32 Sometimes planes and trains are literally seconds apart! This outlandish "denouement" is almost the first offer to a tourist from New Zealand guides! A locomotive and an airplane racing towards each other is a common sight for Hollywood or Indian films, but not for everyday life!

33. The first freight railway in Russia was only 2 kilometers long. This miracle of science and technology of its time was driven by horse traction!

34. The longest freight trains in the history of the railway traveled to different parts of the world. One transported coal (neither more nor less - 42,000 tons per trip) to Uraliz Ekibastuz back in the Soviet era. The train consisted of 440 cars. Their total length exceeded 6.5 kilometers.

35. The record was broken in South Africa. Here a train of 660 cars entered the route. Their total length was 7.3 kilometers. But the experiment, unlike the Soviet one, had no practical meaning. The canvas could not withstand the load, and the railway had to be closed for a long time for repairs.

"TUNNEL OF LOVE" IN UKRAINE

36. "Tunnel of Love" is a picturesque three-kilometer section of the railway located near the village of Klevan in Ukraine. It leads to a fibreboard factory.

37. The train runs here three times a day, supplying wood to the Orzhevsky woodworking plant. It is the train that makes the growing branches of the trees go around the tracks and keeps the tunnel in this state.

38.The beautiful green corridor 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, having visited the "Tunnel of Love", make a cherished wish, then it will certainly come true.

BAIKAL-AMUR HIGHWAY

39. The whole country built the Baikal-Amur Mainline. The best youth from all over the Soviet Union came, worked, settled down. Families were created here, they performed real labor exploits, discoveries happened.

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

41. On the way of BAM, it was planned to build about ten territorial-industrial complexes-giants, but Gorbachev's restructuring made it possible to complete only one South Yakutsk coal complex.

42. Then privatization with great hopes handed over to private hands a number of resource deposits, but instead of loading the BAM's capacities and massive development of mineral deposits in the area of \u200b\u200bthe highway "at the exit", only oligarchs with yachts turned out.

43. By the beginning of the 2000s, almost all projects for the development of the Baikal-Amur Mainline zone were suspended under the “ideological” pretexts of inexpediency, and the decision of the Soviet leadership to build the BAM was diligently hung with the stigma of erroneousness and futility. Although this project for half a century was considered simply vital for Siberia and the Far East, according to all experts.

44. It is gratifying 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. Recently, the Elginskoye field has been successfully operating, where the first coal was mined in the summer of 2011. An access railway line is being built connecting it with the main line.

45. The first super-heavy freight trains went along BAM, allowing to transport 7100 tons instead of the previous weight norm of 4800 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 part of the route - the Kuznetsov Pass.

46.The railway tracks themselves on the pass were reconstructed and strengthened, the New Kuznetsovsky tunnel was put into operation. Note to critics: “Trains have started, they won't. The pass has been reconstructed, but it will not be sometime. "Ermaki" and "Vityazi" were put into operation, but are not at the design stage. " So a bright future awaits BAM, because a road built with love cannot but live forever!

RAILWAY OF THE COMPANY "BALTIMOR AND OHAYO"

47. In 1827, Baltimore & Ohio became the first American company to be chartered to carry passengers and cargo. The company was struggling to create a steam engine that would help overcome rough and uneven terrain and eliminate horse-drawn traction.

48. The inventor Peter Cooper came to the rescue, who proposed to design and build just such an engine. On August 28, 1830, Cooper's steam locomotive, named Tom Thumb (translated as "Thumb Boy"), on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the vicinity of Baltimore, went out to face off against a horse-drawn train. The locomotive immediately took the lead, and the leaders of Baltimore and Ohio, impressed by what they saw, decided to switch their railway to steam traction. Soon, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad became one of the most successful railways in the United States.

49. Do you want maximum security guarantees? Choose the branded wagons of the TKS carrier. Their location in the train and modern technical equipment ensure safety and comfort during the trip.

50. Modern high-speed trains are driven by rail at a speed of 320-430 km / h. Experimental innovative trains are capable of accelerating to 603 km / h. And this, as scientists and engineers say, is far from the limit.

photo from open sources

The longest railway is the Trans-Siberian Railway, which has a length of about 9,300 kilometers.

Interesting fact number 3

The middle station of the Transsib is called “Half”. From it to Moscow and to Vladivostok the same distance.

Interesting fact number 4

The first railway was opened between St. Petersburg and Moscow, and the first three days of transportation were carried out free of charge. Simply no one wanted to ride such an unknown thing as a train.

Interesting fact number 5

If you want to work for Russian Railways, enter the railway institute in Krasnoyarsk.

Interesting fact number 6

In France, it is forbidden to kiss at train stations, as it often caused train delays. The law has been in effect for 100 years, and no one has canceled it to this day.

Interesting fact number 7

Railroad It is known that trackmen who check the serviceability of train wheels have a keen ear for music. After all, they have to identify wheel defects by changing the tone of the knock.

Interesting fact number 8

On one of the trains that travels in western Peru, conductors provide oxygen cushions to their passengers. The fact is that the train travels on the highest railway in the world, which is located at an altitude of about three kilometers.

Interesting fact number 9

Once, in the USA, in the state of Ohio, a train collided with a steamer. Lake Ohio overflowed its shores at that moment, and the railway sank into a meter-long water column. The machinist, however, still decided to drive across the river, well, his path was blocked by a steamer.

Interesting fact number 10

In Bavaria, in 1910, an order was issued on behalf of the local authorities, which forbade the drinking of beer for drivers and stokers during stops.

Interesting fact number 11

In Argentina, you can take a ride on the famous “Patagonia - Express” train, which survived the robbery of the century. Tourists who decide to ride this train will not only be able to enjoy the scenery outside the window, but also involuntarily take part in a planned performance that imitates a real train robbery.

Interesting fact number 12

In Argentina, you can now take an excursion on the legendary Patagonia Express train, which was restored especially for tourists. In addition to impressing the surrounding landscapes, passengers can, without their consent, become participants in the carefully planned "Train Robbery" action.

Interesting fact number 13

For several years there was a railway route “Paris-Venice”, where a special “Train of Love” ran. A special service was organized in the compartment of such a train. The passengers had at their disposal a TV set, a shower cubicle, and a special sleeping bunk for two persons.

Interesting fact number 14

Once in Switzerland, a train tour was organized, where all the high society of Swiss society was located: officials, honorary citizens, politicians, etc. For this occasion, the entire train was made up of restaurant cars. However, the organizers of this celebration did not take into account the fact that there is no toilet in the restaurant cars in Switzerland. As a result, when the train reached its destination, passengers jumped out of the carriages, surprising all the citizens who had gathered to meet the guests of honor.

1. The highest mountain railway in the world is the Qinghai-Tibet railway, which has a rise of 5 kilometers. On this railway a train travels from individually designed wagons, the specificity of which is carried out in the supply of oxygen, and in addition, each passenger has an oxygen mask for individual use.

2. There is an interesting place in Thailand where railway sleepers with rails laid in the middle of the local market, a train passes every day. Before its passage, a loud warning siren signal is sounded, after which the sellers in a hurry remove their goods and sheds from the train passage, and after the train passes, they put back sheds and their goods back in the same fast rhythm, after which trade continues in a calm rhythm. But some vegetables and fruits are still lying at the time when the train is passing, since those near the passage do not interfere with the passage of the train and it does not touch them at all.

3. In Japan there is one interesting station named Shibuya, where a monument to the most faithful friend of the dog was erected. This faithful dog has been waiting for its owner for 10 years, who once boarded a train and left on it, never returned. Thus, a monument to the dog for his devoted loyalty appeared at Shibuya station.

4. There is the legendary Australian railroad, which is 500 kilometers long without any turn, and it is laid on a desert plain. This railway is listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

5. The first train that runs without rails was built by the Japanese company Toshiba. The high-speed magnetic levitation train has the ability to accelerate to a speed of 517 kilometers per hour.

6. But the maximum speed of the train that traveled by rail was recorded in the United States in the state of New Mexico, it reached 9851 kilometers per hour. This train had an experimental rocket engine.

7. At one time, a Vip train was sent across Switzerland, in which noblemen from Switzerland's high society gathered. On a solemn occasion, only carriages of restaurants were present on this train. The most annoying thing about these cars was that the organizers forgot about the toilets. Having approached the train to its final station, where quite a few people gathered to meet them, the greeters were stunned by what they saw, how the honorary passengers, after stopping, very quickly rushed from all the doors of the cars.

In Russia, they started talking about the possibility of the appearance of a railway back in the twenties of the XIX century, when the emperor received information that the railway saves the expenses of the treasury and even increases wealth, as is the case in England (at that time the rails were used for the transportation of coal).

The initial idea was to create a communication 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 the proverb 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, invited in 1834, was offered to build a road that would "link" the suburbs of St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo and Pavlovsk.

In order for the zealots of progress not to lose heart and not think that the necessary road will never be built in St. Petersburg at all, they added that the Moscow-Petersburg line will appear “not until after the end of the road ... and upon inquiry from the experience of the benefits of such roads for the state, the public and shareholders ”.

How money was collected for construction

Speaking about shareholders, it is worth noting that 700 people took part in the purchase of the corresponding securities. Fifteen thousand shares were issued to create capital. The required amount of three million rubles was collected by subscription for 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 refinery, Count Alexei Alekseevich Bobrinskoy - the son of Major General Aleksey Bobrinsky, born in an extramarital affair between Catherine II and Grigory Orlov. The grandson of the great empress acquired shares for 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.

On the station tracks, a prayer service was served, Gerstner, as a driver, got into the cabin of a steam locomotive and at half past midday the train, with 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 sake of the safety of passengers on the first trip, the amazing car did not show all its strength.

Steel horse - steam locomotive

Gerstner personally was the first to travel by rail. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

In the newspaper “Vedomosti” 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. The commoners were not allowed to go to the station itself, which had been recently erected.

At exactly 12:30 pm the tiny locomotive blew a shrill whistle, and eight carriages with the noble audience set off on the St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo route. "

The first days of the road work were trial, travel was free, and quality, as they say, was at the buyer's risk.

However, there were no dissatisfied: up to fifty people were packed into each of the carriages - people of common origin were given the opportunity to try out a new transport.

Despite the fact that the road had serious tasks, the 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 sound of an oncoming train.

The excitement was monstrous, and the crowds besieging the locomotive were endless.

What did the cars of that time look like?

The carriages on the train were socially divided. So, 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 vividly demonstrating the thickness of the gentleman's wallet, who could afford to buy tickets in it, were the so-called "Berlin" - here the audience could sit better relaxed in an easy chair, and people from the same social stratum sat opposite and on the side. There were eight such cars in total, followed by "stagecoaches" that could accommodate a large number of people and "lines" - open-type carts. Those that had a roof were called "chaos", those that did not have one were called "wagons". 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 the third and fourth. Curiously, despite the fact that the train was designed not only to cover long distances, but also to keep pace with progress, until 1838, on weekdays and holidays, only horse-drawn traction was used. The steam method has become a kind of symbol of festivities or Sunday rest.

Imperial way

Since 1838, the movement has become regular and then the timetable was finally decided. The first train left at nine in the morning, and the last at ten 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 Way". In Pushkin, the train stopped at the "Imperial Pavilion" - the station where the royal family was met.

Movement along the line Tsarskoe Selo - Pavlovsk was opened in May 1838. For the momentous day, a concert hall was built there, where Johann Strauss himself performed.

Steam locomotive "Elephant" and "Bogatyr"

Locomotives at that time were made at seven factories: in Belgium, England, Germany and the St. Petersburg Leuchtenberg plant. Each steam locomotive had its own name: "Agile", "Arrow", "Bogatyr", "Elephant", "Eagle" and "Lion". However, the romantic attitude towards the steam locomotive soon changed, and habit came to replace the jubilation at the sight of it, and instead of names, the trains got a dry number and a series of letters.

They often went to the Pavlovsky Musical Station just 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 but also what they spent on operation were paid off: the road brought significant income and made it possible to assume that the further construction of new stations would bring a truly fabulous income.

The first steam locomotive became a revelation for Petersburgers: they wrote about it in newspapers, drew posters, candy wrappers dazzled with its image, and in the repertoire of the Alexandrinsky Theater even a vaudeville "A Trip to Tsarskoe Selo" appeared, the main character of which was a steam locomotive.