Semigorodnjaja Forest Railway

Semigorodnjaja Forest Railway
Railway building of the Semigorodnjaja Railway
Diesel locomotive
Part of the route Semigorodnjaja – Tomashka
Route length:	97 km
Gauge :	750 mm ( narrow gauge )
Legend 0 Semigorodnjaja 4th River Dvinitsa (Двиница) 6th Village Sixth Kilometer (Шестой километр) 17th Nameless village 20th Otseljonny (Отселённый) 29 Tomashka (Томашка) 33 Ushkomiza (Ушкомица) Branch to the Sjamschen River 35 Moscow - Arkhangelsk motorway ( Островок цивилизации ) 47 Nameless village 66 Sogorki village (Согорки) 85 Singoima village (Singaya) 97 Druzhba Station (Станция Дружба)

The Semigorodnjaja-Forest Railway ( Russian Семигородняя узкоколейная железная дорога) is a formerly 97 km long narrow gauge railway in the districts Kharovsk and Sjamscha the Russian Vologda Oblast with a gauge mm of 750th

history

In 1946, the first section of the narrow-gauge railway was opened, which was built on the route of a monorail that was built in the early 1930s and closed less than 20 years later. First steam locomotives were used, later various diesel locomotives, including the TU2, which were later used on the Sorokopol narrow-gauge railway.

With the development of forest areas, the narrow-gauge railway moved further and further east and reached a record length of 115 kilometers at the end of the 1970s. The length of the branch lines was at least 80 kilometers.

The narrow-gauge railway was once described as exemplary and progressive. However, the increasing length of the route led to a significant increase in timber transport costs. Traffic has dropped significantly since the late 1980s. The deterioration of the track condition and the resulting constant accidents caused the timber company great losses. In 1994, the felling of trees in the Druzhba village area was stopped, so the transport volume fell to less than 100 thousand cubic meters of wood.

Freight traffic on the Semigorodnjaja narrow-gauge railway sank to no less than one train per day by 2003, as timber transports were carried out on forest roads frozen in winter from January to April. Since the mid-1990s, consideration was given to decommissioning the narrow-gauge railway. Until the beginning of 2003, however, regular traffic was maintained on the main route, also because it was the only connection to the rest of the world for the residents of the forest villages. At times, smaller amounts were made available from the budget of the Vologda district for the repair of the line.

Until the early 1990s, the Semigorodnjaja – Druzhba passenger train ran twice a day, day and night. From May 1997 there was only one train per day on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays according to the following timetable: 11: 00–15: 30 from Semigorodnjaja to Druzhba, 3: 35–20: 00 from Druzhba to Semigorodnjaja. The average speed remained relatively high at 23 km / h.

Until 2001, the train commuted twice a week. From October 2002 only once on Monday. The travel time has been increased to six to seven hours. It usually consisted of an unheated passenger car and a freight car that carried bread and other products. For passengers, the train continued to embody the "immortal ideas of communism", because even after 1995 travel on the Semigorodnjaja Express was free.

During the heyday of the Semigorodnjaja narrow-gauge railway, workers' trains departed from all villages to take the loggers to the forest areas. In 1997, the workers' train traveled from Druzhba to the Sogorok clearing area, 4 kilometers from the main line. In the morning he drove into the forest and returned at 4–5 p.m. In 2002, the logging in Sogorok and the workers' train used for it had already been stopped. Work trains only drove to and from Tomashka settlement.

Science, politics and journalism

In 2000, a researcher from Moscow, Sergei Kostygow, investigated the history of the Semigorodnyaya Narrow Gauge Railway. In November 2001 she gained fame through the documentary Gleis (Колея) one of the central television stations, which reported on the current situation of the railway and the life of forest villages. In 2002, the governor of Vologda Oblast flew the narrow-gauge railway in a helicopter to meet the residents of the forest villages. He promised to provide funds to repair the route. In October 2002, the railway researcher Yevgeny Sterlin reported on the Internet with a story about his journey along the Semigorodnjaja – Druzhba line.

Web links

Commons : Semigorodnjaja Forest Railway  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} С. Болашенко (S. Bolashenko): Семигородняя узкоколейная железная дорога.
2. ↑ Сергей Костыгов (Sergei Kostygow): Семигорка. December 31, 2009.
3. ↑ С. Костыгов (S. Kostygow): route map of the Semigorodnjaja narrow-gauge railway. December 30, 2009.
4. ↑ Ivan Konjuchow: Колея (2001) .

Coordinates: 59 ° 48 ′ 25.1 ″  N , 40 ° 10 ′ 24.7 ″  E