Narrow-gauge railway Tula – Lichwin
| Narrow-gauge railway Tula – Lichwin | |
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 Former railway station Rwy (Рвы)
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 Narrow-gauge railway Tula – Lichwin, 1990
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| Route length: | 1945: 76 km 1970: 105 km |
| Gauge : | 750 mm ( narrow gauge ) |
The narrow-gauge railway Tula Lichwin ( Russian Тула-Лихвинская узкоколейная железная дорога , transkr. Tula Lichwinskaja uskokoleinaja schelesnaja doroga , transl. Tula Lihvinskaâ uzkokolejnaâ železnaâ doroga ) was an up to 105-kilometer narrow-gauge railway from Tula to Lichwin (now Chekalin ) in the Tula Oblast in Russia . It had a track width of 750 millimeters.
history
Construction of the Tula – Lichwin narrow-gauge railway began in 1899 and was completed in January 1905. Thin tree trunks were used as sleepers, which were placed directly on the forest moss without a substructure . Birch trunks were used as fuel for the steam locomotives, and a pump at the side of the steam locomotives was used to suck the water necessary for their operation from the rivers to be crossed.
Scheduled traffic on the railway line began on December 25, 1905. The main cargo came from the Dubensk iron foundry and the alcohol distillery in Voskresenskoje. Passenger traffic was carried out daily: the train left Tula at 4:30 p.m. and arrived in Lichvin at 11:10 p.m. Halfway there, at the main stopover in Dubna, the train stopped for forty minutes. On the way back, the train left at 2:25 a.m. and reached Tula at 9:45 a.m.
The route led through an area surrounded by forest areas without a developed road network, so that its importance as a connecting transport route cannot be overestimated. In 1931 the construction of the broad-gauge railway from Tula via Koselsk to Sukhinichi began . The narrow-gauge railway played an important role in their construction. Due to the parallel course of the two lines, the section of the narrow-gauge railway from Lichwin to Chanino was closed in 1941.
During the occupation of the Tula region, the Tula-Lichvinskaya railway remained almost the only source of supply for the city of Tula with firewood. And after the liberation of Tula, the railroad was actively used for the offensive of part of the Red Army: ammunition, equipment and soldiers were brought to the front, as well as wounded or handicapped people back to Tula.
In the 1950s to 1970s, the Tula – Lichwin Railway contributed to the boom in agriculture and industry: West of Tula it remained practically the only all-weather connection due to the poor road conditions. At that time, seven locomotives were used there to transport goods and passengers.
With the development of the roads and the increase in traffic, the line lost its importance and was partially closed: In 1968–1969 the line from Dubna to Chanino was closed, and in 1972 the line from Trufanowo to Dubna was closed. The last section from Tula to Trufanowo was in operation until the end of 1996. In the end, however, only people were transported. There were new stops at 5, 7, 8, 9, 15, 17, 20 and 22 km. The transport volume consisted mainly of summer visitors, hunters, mushroom pickers and residents of the surrounding villages.
Rail vehicles
Locomotives
- TU3-001, 002, 003 (until 1959)
- TU2-033 (until 2001), 124, 127 (both before 1972), 129 (until 1969), 236 (until 2001), 240 (until 1997-98), 241 (before 1971)
dare
- five modern passenger cars with the inscription "children", as well as three Pafawag -wagen with the inscription "hard / tough" (Жесткий); two boxcars, a snow plow and two open low side cars.
Description of the stations
About thirteen kilometers from Tula was the Rawa train station, which was two kilometers from the village and served the mine of the same name with passengers. In the station area there were three tracks, the station building, shed, toilets, the railroad workers' house, a water pump for refueling the locomotives with water, and a railcar. There was a passenger platform paved with concrete slabs and an apron raised to the level of the car steps.
Between the station of the Rva station and Trufanovo there have been stops at 15 km (in the forest), at 17 km (near the cabins), at 20 km (near a hunting lodge) and at 22 km (near the dachas ). Trufanowo train station is 25 kilometers from Tula, near the large village of Malachowo. Since 1970 the station was the end point of the narrow-gauge railway. A train arrived twice a day in winter and four times a day in summer. There were three tracks on the large station area: a through track and two tracks for overtaking or meeting maneuvers. The traffic volume consisted mainly of passengers and fertilizer from the neighboring agricultural collectives.
Kurakowo station is 31 kilometers from Tula, where there were three tracks, one through track and two passing tracks, which were eventually even extended to allow for long convoys and the formation of long freight trains. The fourth track left the station in the direction of a quarry.
Bredichino train station was about 38 kilometers from Tula, not far from the intersection with the Tula – Suvorov motorway. He had a one-story wooden building that served the passengers of the village of Vysgljadovka and the village of Voskresenskoye. There were three tracks at Bredichino station.
At Werigino station there were two tracks and a branch to the distillery. From here alcohol (barrels in freight cars) and fertilizer as well as passengers were transported. On the narrow-gauge line from the stations of Chanino, Dubna and Trufanowo, grain was brought in freight wagons and alcohol was transported to Tula in order to produce alcoholic beverages.
Dubna railway station was located 54 kilometers from Tula in the Dubna suburb in the village of Stansiony. The station mainly served the iron foundry, a wood processing plant, a gravel factory and RAIPO warehouses. Grain, fertilizer and consumer goods were loaded there. There was an oil depot nearby, which was accessed via a branch line branching off at the station, and there was also a track to the iron foundry. At Dubna railway station, mainly coke and pig iron from the Kosogorsk smelter were unloaded for the needs of the iron foundry in Dubna.
Guryevka train station was about 62 kilometers from Tula. He was one kilometer from the village of Guryevka. There were two tracks there. On the station premises there was an oil mill, a cooled oil storage facility and a sawmill for cutting tree trunks. All of these products were transported on the narrow-gauge railway.
The Jasenowaja train station was about 70 kilometers from Tula, near the villages of Marino and Jasenowaja. Mainly sawn timber was transported from this station. There were three tracks there, one of which led to the water pump and then ended at a bumper.
The Chanino train station was 85 kilometers from Tula on the outskirts of a large village. Before that, the narrow-gauge railway crossed the broad-gauge line of the Tula-Sukhinichi railway three times on bridges. The Chanino station served the cast iron foundries located there as well as passenger traffic and grain transport.
Lichwin train station was 113 kilometers away from Tula, on the right bank of the Oka River, which flows by about 1.5 kilometers away, and about two kilometers from the city of Lichwin (now Chekalin). There were three tracks in the station and besides the station building there was also the station master's house.
Dismantling the tracks
In 1996, traffic on the Tula-Lichvinskaya Railway was stopped. Immediately thereafter, the demolition work began and by 2002 the remains of the line had been completely dismantled and scrapped. In 2000 the Ministry of Railways issued an order to liquidate the Tula-Lichvinskaya narrow-gauge railway and to destroy the entire infrastructure. The remaining two locomotives TU2-236 and TU2-033 and the PV40 wagons were transported to the children's railways in Yekaterinburg and Novomoskowsk. The rest was scrapped. In 2005 the unique bridge over the Upa between the former Kurakowo and Dubna stations was scrapped. One of the spans accidentally fell into the river. The parts that protruded from the water were cut off, the rest remained in the river.
Accidents
On July 19, 1910, a hurricane overturned all cars during a thunderstorm near Hanino Station. Five passengers suffered minor injuries and medical assistance was provided by a doctor on the train. In this case, the journal Railway Business (Железнодорожное дело) wrote: This is undoubtedly the first case in Russia where the train was overturned by a gust , which of course shows not only the strength of this storm, but also the relative lightness of the narrow-gauge railroad cars Tula Lichwin.
On December 16, 2003, an excavator was transported on the trailer of a KamAZ truck on the Moscow-Crimea highway. He got stuck under a bridge on the Rwa-Trufanowo narrow-gauge railway and unhooked a girder of the bridge structure with the boom of the excavator, causing the bridge to collapse. On the same day, the remains of the damaged bridge were dismantled.
Remnants of the route
Along the former railway line there is only one hill with the remains of half-rotting sleepers and some structures have been preserved deep in the forest. The station building and the outbuildings have been preserved at Riwa station.
In the Tula-Lichvinskaya station area, a platform for passenger traffic has been preserved. The area of the depot is paved, all rails and remnants of rolling stock have been removed and there is now parking for trucks. Only the gates in the fence remained, through which the train entered and left the depot. The Pereslavl Narrow Gauge Railway Museum exhibits furniture and fittings from the Riwa station.
Individual evidence
- ↑ И. Ксенофонтов: По следам забытой тульской узкоколейки . МК в Туле. 1 апреля 2016.
- ↑ Официальный сайт Переславского железнодорожного музея
Web links
Coordinates: 56 ° 41 ′ 58.6 ″ N , 48 ° 33 ′ 11.9 ″ E