The first known narrow gauge public railway opened in 1871. It ran between the Verkhovye and Livny stations (now the Oryol region), had a gauge of 1067 mm. But that was just the beginning...
The method of transporting goods in carts along longitudinal guides was invented in ancient times. In the 15th - 16th centuries in
Europe, some factories already used railroads, along which they moved manually or with the help of horse traction
trolleys with goods (for a relatively short distance). Such roads also appeared in Russia. Initially in them
wooden rails and wooden trolleys were used.
One of the largest roads of this type appeared in 1810 at the Zmeinogorsk mine (the current Altai Territory). Rails already
were metal, had a convex surface. The length of the line was 1876 meters, the gauge was 1067 mm ( 3 feet
6 inches).
However, the moment of the birth of the railway is considered to be the beginning of movement on the rail tracks of a mechanical crew. IN
This happened to Russia in 1834. The birthplace of domestic railways is the city of Nizhny Tagil. It was there that it was built
the first Russian steam locomotive, created by the father and son Cherepanovs, was tested. Our first railroad was short ( 854
meters), and "wide" (gauge 1645 mm). The steam locomotive was destined to work for a short time - soon it again began to be used
horse traction.
The officially recognized date of foundation of Russian railways is 1837. Then traffic was opened along the line
St. Petersburg - Tsarskoye Selo - Pavlovsk, 23 kilometers long. Her track was also wide - 1829 mm (6 feet).
In 1843-51, the construction of the first major highway, the St. Petersburg-Moscow Railway, took place. She had
it was decided to establish a track width of 5 feet (1524 mm, later - 1520 mm). It was this gauge that became standard for domestic
railways. Meanwhile, in foreign Europe and in North America another gauge standard was adopted - 1435 mm.
The consequences of this decision in the middle of the 19th century are estimated inconsistently. On the one side, the difference in track width helped us
In the initial period of the Great Patriotic War, the enemy could not immediately use the railways on the captured
territory. At the same time, it hinders international communication, leads to significant costs for the replacement of wagon
trolleys and transshipment of goods at border stations.
Variable gauge bogies have been around for a long time, but are still expensive and difficult to maintain.
Therefore, in Russia they have not yet received distribution. As for abroad - passenger trains, made up of
wagons capable of moving on roads with different gauges, regularly run between Spain and
France. In modern Japan, there are wagons capable of switching from 1435 mm gauge to a gauge definitely
falling under the definition of narrow - 1067 mm.
During the 19th century in Russia there were a large number of horse and rail narrow gauge roads. The largest of them
about 60 kilometers long, operated in 1840-1862. It connected the Dubovka pier on the Volga with the Kachalino pier.
on the Don River, in the present Volgograd region. These roads were built mainly for the delivery of goods to factories and
factories - where it was not possible to lay a "normal" railway track. The narrow gauge was chosen in order to reduce
construction costs.
The first known narrow gauge public railway opened in 1871. She ran between stations
Verkhovye and Livny (now the Oryol region), had a gauge of 1067 mm. The life of the first narrow gauge railway turned out to be
short-lived: in 1898 it was rebuilt into a normal gauge line.
But that was only the beginning. Almost immediately began mass construction of narrow-gauge lines in a variety of
regions of Russia. They began to develop very rapidly and Far East and in Central Asia. The largest networks of narrow gauge
railways with a gauge of 1067 mm appeared in underdeveloped regions, separated from the center of the country by large rivers. from the station
Uroch (it was located near the banks of the Volga, opposite Yaroslavl) in 1872 a line was opened to Vologda, in 1896-1898
years extended to Arkhangelsk. Its length was 795 kilometers. From the city of Pokrovsk (now Engels), located on
On the left bank of the Volga, opposite Saratov, a meter gauge line (1000 mm) was built to Uralsk. There are also branches To
Nikolaevsk (Pugachevsk), and to the station Aleksandrov Gai. The total length of the network was 648 kilometers.
The first known 750 mm gauge railways were opened in 1894. One line ran through the Russian capital and its
nearby suburbs (St. Petersburg - Borisova Griva, length 43 kilometers), another appeared in the Lensky area
gold mines, in the current Irkutsk region (Bodaibo - Nadezhdinskaya, now Aprilsk, 73 kilometers long). Soon
small-gauge railways began to appear in large numbers, serving industrial enterprises.
At the very beginning of the 20th century, there were already many narrow-gauge railways designed to transport timber and peat.
Subsequently, it is precisely such roads that will form the “backbone” of narrow gauge lines in our country.
In the USSR, the general pace of railway construction in comparison with the era Russian Empire decreased markedly. But the number
narrow gauge railways continued to grow rapidly.
The years of terrible Stalinist terror brought a new type of narrow-gauge railways - "camp" lines. They appeared on
enterprises located in the Gulag system connected factories and camps with mining sites. Scales
railway construction of those years are impressive. Contrary to popular belief that what's in the northeast
our country never had railways, known about the existence on the territory of the present Magadan region of at least
seven narrow gauge railways, some of which reached a length of 60 - 70 kilometers.
In 1945, the first section of a sufficiently powerful and technically advanced 1067 mm gauge railway was opened,
started in Magadan. By 1953, its length was 102 kilometers (Magadan - Palatka). The railroad should
was to become a significant highway crossing the vast Kolyma region. But after the death of I.V. Stalin began mass
the closure of the Kolyma camps, which meant the actual curtailment of the industrial development of the North-East of the USSR. As a result,
plans to extend the railroad were abandoned. A few years later, the constructed site was dismantled.
Small narrow-gauge railways also appeared in other regions of the Northeast - in Kamchatka, in the Chukotka Autonomous
district. All of them were later demolished.
Already in the 1930s, two main specializations of the narrow gauge were clearly manifested: timber transport and transportation
peat. The standard narrow gauge of 750 mm was finally approved.
In 1940, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were included in the USSR. These states had an extensive network
narrow gauge public railways. In terms of their technical condition, these roads turned out to be almost the best in
country. It was in Estonia that the record for the speed of movement on the 750 mm gauge railway was set. In 1936, the railcar
covered the distance from Tallinn to Pärnu (146 km) in 2 hours 6 minutes. average speed traffic was 69 km / h,
the maximum speed achieved is 106.2 km/h!
During the years of the Great Patriotic War the number of narrow-gauge railways was replenished by many dozens of "military field"
railways built both by the enemy and by our troops. But almost all of them lasted a very short time.
In August 1945, it was included in the USSR South Sakhalin, where there was a network of railway lines with a gauge of 1067 mm,
built in compliance with the technical standards and dimensions of the main railways of Japan. In subsequent years, the network
railways has received significant development (with the preservation of the existing gauge).
The first half of the 1950s proved to be the "golden age" of narrow-gauge timber-carrying railways. They developed from
amazing speed. Dozens of new narrow-gauge railways appeared during the year, and the length of the lines increased by
thousands of kilometers.
The development of virgin and fallow lands was accompanied by the mass construction of narrow-gauge railways in Kazakhstan. Later
many of them were converted to broad gauge lines, but some remained in operation until the early 1990s. As of
As of 2004, only one "virgin" narrow-gauge railway has survived - in Atbasar (Akmola region).
Narrow-gauge public lines owned by the Ministry of Railways (in 1918-1946 it was called NKPS) occupied the last place
among narrow gauge railways. But since the 1960s, their length has been steadily reduced. Mostly, railways
750 mm gauges were replaced by broad gauge lines built in parallel, along one embankment, or slightly to the side, but by that
same direction. The 1000 mm and 1067 mm gauge lines were most often "changed" ( a new rail track was laid on the same embankment
other gauge).
In the 1960s, it became clear that the better days for narrow-gauge timber-carrying railways were over. New narrow gauge
peat-carrying railways were built until the end of the 1970s (and isolated cases of the creation of new "peat carriers"
noted later).
Until the early 1990s, the development and mass production of new rolling stock continued. chief, and then
The only manufacturer of narrow gauge trailer rolling stock was the Demikhov Machine-Building Plant
(Demikhovo, Moscow region), and the manufacturer of diesel locomotives for 750 mm gauge - Kambarsky machine-building plant
(Kambarka, Udmurtia).
The 1990s were the most tragic years in the history of narrow gauge railways. economic downturn along with
transition to a new form of economic relations and political changes led to what started a landslide
reduction in the number and length of narrow gauge railways. Each passing year "diminished" thousand kilometers
narrow gauge railway lines.
In 1993, the production of cars for ground narrow-gauge railways with a gauge of 750 mm was completely stopped. Soon
the production of locomotives also stopped.
Narrow gauge railway of the Sofrinsky brick factory. The starting point is the village of Sofrino, located near the Sofrino station on the Mytishchi railway line - post 81 km (Moscow - Yaroslavl).
The narrow gauge railway was completely dismantled. The approximate date of liquidation is the beginning of the 1970s.
Narrow gauge railway of the Krasnoarmeiskaya cotton factory. The starting point is the city of Krasnoarmeysk, located near the Krasnoarmeysk station on the railway line Sofrino - Krasnoarmeysk - a training ground.
The narrow gauge railway was completely dismantled. Estimated liquidation date - 1994.
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Broad gauge rail track at the Krasnoarmeisky training ground. Location - Krasnoarmeisky (Sofrinsky) artillery range.
There is an "accelerator track" on the territory of the Krasnoarmeisky (Sofrinsky) artillery range. It tests jet engines mounted on specialized transport "trolleys". The accelerator track is a broad gauge rail track (most likely 1520 mm) with a length of 2650 meters. Until 2010, information was actively disseminated on the Web that the test track had a narrow gauge (1000 meters), so it was included in the list of narrow gauge railways.
The path is perfectly straight in plan and perfectly flat in profile (constructed taking into account the curvature of the Earth's surface). There is no path development. Especially heavy type rails are used (perhaps 75 kilograms per 1 meter). There are no traditional sleepers - the rails are laid on a reinforced concrete base, there is a groove between the rails, which is necessary to prevent the destruction of the superstructure of the track by heated exhaust gases during the passage of a jet engine. "Locomotives" can travel at great speeds (probably over 500 km/h).
As of 2006, the "accelerator track" has not been dismantled, although it has not been used for a long time. Its future is unclear.
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Narrow-gauge railway of the Ivanteevsky textile mill (?). A possible starting point is the city of Ivanteevka.
The proposed route for the narrow gauge railway topographic map.
According to unconfirmed reports, the narrow-gauge railway was located on the territory of the Ivanteevsky textile mill. Perhaps it connected the territory of the plant with the Ivanteevka-Gruzovaya station.
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Narrow-gauge railway Bolshevo - spinning mill in the village of Starye Gorki.
The starting point is the Bolshevo station, located on the railway line Mytishchi - Fryazevo. The approximate date of opening of the narrow gauge railway is the 1910s. A narrow-gauge railway connected the Bolshevo station with the F. Rabenek paper-spinning and weaving mills in the village of Starye Gorki (now Pervomaisky). The narrow gauge railway was completely dismantled. Estimated liquidation date - 1920s. Parallel to the line of the narrow gauge railway, a broad gauge railway line Bolshevo - Ivanteevka was built, as well as an access road to the factory.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________ Narrow-gauge railway of the Mytishchi peat enterprise. The starting point is the village of Peat Enterprise (the official name is Central). The narrow gauge railway was completely dismantled. Estimated liquidation date - 1966.
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Narrow gauge railway in the village of Podlipki.
Location - the village of Podlipki (since 1928 Kalininsky, since 1938 the city of Kaliningrad, since 1996 the city of Korolev), located near the Podlipki-Dachny station on the railway line Mytishchi - Fryazevo. A narrow-gauge railway connected the construction site of one of the factories (presumably the artillery plant No. 8 named after M.I. Kalinin) with a sand pit. The narrow gauge railway was completely dismantled in the 1930s. The topside of the track was partly used for the construction of a children's railway. http://www.yubileyny.ru/index.php?id=ogorod&sub=korolev/14): Even at the time when the workshops were being built, a narrow-gauge railway was laid from the sand pit to the construction site. A locomotive with a cargo platform ran along the rails.
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Children's railway near Podlipki-Dachny station.
Location - the village of Kalininsky (since 1938 the city of Kaliningrad, since 1996 the city of Korolev), located near the Podlipki-Dachnye station on the railway line Mytishchi - Fryazevo. The children's railway in Kaliningrad was opened approximately in 1935. The initiator of its creation was the head of the children's technical station in the village of Kalininsky M.M. Protopopov. The narrow-gauge railway was a circular line 250 meters long, it used one self-made electric motor (electric passenger car). According to unconfirmed reports, the narrow gauge railway operated for less than one year. Quote from the material "Podlipovskaya Mosaic", author - L. Bondarenko (http://www.yubileyny.ru/index.php?id=ogorod&sub=korolev/14): The thirties are marked in memory by their sign. Most of the Podlipovo teenagers gravitated toward the pioneer club and the children's technical station. An aircraft modeling club and even such an exotic sports section as archery worked here. But the main thing that united many was the construction of an electrified children's railway. The idea of its construction was submitted by the head of the technical station, Mikhail Mikhailovich Protopopov. The road was only 250 meters long and with one trailer, but they were very proud of it. Everything was extremely simply arranged, but it worked flawlessly, ”recalls Ivan Alekseevich Fedoseev. - Three-phase current motor, bronze bearings embedded in wooden posts, one switch, no rheostats. The old motor was given at the factory, gears were also chosen from the junk. The car itself was made from boards and bars sheathed with plywood, painted with oil paint. Where did you get the rails? They were also given at the factory. Even at the time when the workshops were being built, a narrow-gauge railway was laid from the sand pit to the construction site. A locomotive with a cargo platform ran along the rails. This narrow-gauge railway was decided to be used. Near the pioneer club, they made an embankment of sand and gravel, laid sleepers, and rails on them. The current was supplied through wires that did not go above the car, but from the side. They made the road for about a year. The main "foreman" was Vasya Mironov from our class. And I was the driver. There were always a lot of girls and boys eager to ride. Ivan Alekseevich remembers that a documentary was filmed about the children's technical station - it was in the autumn of 1935. Pravda, Izvestia, Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote about the children's railway.
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Narrow gauge railway at the construction site of the A107 (?).
A possible starting point is a concrete plant in the vicinity of the village of Talitsy. According to unconfirmed reports, during the construction of the A107 highway (known as the "Small Concrete Ring" or "Betonka") in the Pushkinsky district, a temporary narrow-gauge railway was used. Information received in 2007 (private correspondence): According to rumors (almost exclusively rumors) in the Pushkinsky district of the Moscow region there was a little-known narrow-gauge railway. It went from the intersection of the Yaroslavl highway (47 km from Moscow) and the so-called "Betonka" - the A107 highway. Starting a few hundred meters west of this place, the narrow-gauge railway went east almost parallel to the Betonka, and had a length of about 3 kilometers. It owes its existence to a concentration camp for the Germans, which existed in the same places. Captured Germans were building the nearby Betonki section. At the beginning of the narrow-gauge railway (in its western part) there was a small factory for the production of concrete, which was serviced by the same Germans, and the finished concrete was exported using the narrow-gauge railway and used for the construction of the road. There was a narrow gauge railway from about 1943, and it was dismantled no later than 1957 (but I believe much earlier). Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the archives, but on the maps of those times it is not indicated (on civilians, in any case), and this is understandable - the object is secret, the concentration camp itself was not indicated on the maps, but it occupied considerable space. The only material confirmation of the existence of a narrow-gauge railway is the presence of a clearing in the forest, and on it something is guessed in the ground that is extremely reminiscent of half-rotten railway sleepers. The area was partially developed in the 1960s summer cottages, and the watchmen say that when they first received them, there the traces of this narrow-gauge railway were very clearly visible, someone even used wooden sleepers for household needs.
Narrow-gauge railway on a topographic map (shown conditionally, not shown in full).
Possible route of a narrow gauge railway on a 1:100,000 topographic map published in 1984.
Speaking about narrow-gauge railways, it is worth immediately noting their high cost-effectiveness in terms of construction. There are several objective reasons for this. Due to the fact that the actual track width is much less than, it was required to use much less resources for its construction. If the task was to break through the tunnel through rock or an earthen rampart, then the amount of the selected rock in terms of volume was minimal. It is also worth considering the fact that the narrow-gauge railway was originally intended for wagons, as well as locomotives with smaller overall dimensions and weight. In this case, it was enough for the engineer to design light-type bridges, for which fewer material resources were used. Saving financial estimates is obvious for the budget. One more noteworthy fact should not be overlooked, which made it possible to strengthen the leadership of the narrow-gauge railway in places with a mountainous landscape. We are talking about the possibility of using steep curves on these types of railways (as opposed to standard railways).
In order not to lose objectivity about the characteristics of the narrow gauge railway, it is necessary to mention its obvious shortcomings:
- the impossibility of transporting goods with a large weight and dimensions. This applies to both the traction power of the locomotives used and the strength of the bridges along which the railway (railway) was laid;
- decrease in the stability of movement with cargo on the way. When traveling, much attention is paid to observing the speed limit, as well as overcoming difficult sections of the road. If you neglect this rule, you can only provoke an emergency and disable the working equipment;
- closure and alienation of the network. This problem was relevant for Europe and our country almost equally. It should be understood that narrow-gauge roads were designed and built by large industrial enterprises for their internal needs. The only purpose of it (the road) was to transport raw materials to places with good infrastructure for further redistribution of cargo. No one even thought to take care of the implementation of the project of an integrated network of narrow-gauge roads.
Here it is worth mentioning the transport type of narrow gauge railways. They were intended to create a bridge between existing and under construction railways. Over the years, they have lost their relevance and functionality. Some of them simply ceased to exist. A small number of haul roads have been modified by "recasting" them into standard, technical gauges. It was a rational decision that allowed us to eliminate the time-consuming stage of moving cargo from one type of road to another.
The historical purpose of narrow gauge railways
As already mentioned in the article, the main and original purpose of the narrow gauge track was to serve industrial enterprises. And here you can give a fairly extensive list of industries where such a transport system was in demand:
- places of development of peat deposits and forest plantations. For example, the Shatura narrow-gauge railway, commissioned in 1918. Until 2008, peat was transported through it to the local GRES. After the transfer of the GRES to another source of fuel, the need to operate the road completely disappeared. Since 2009, the dismantling of the narrow gauge railway began. This result was quite expected, since on April 10, 1994, an official order was issued to start stopping traffic on the narrow gauge railway. This document concerned absolutely the entire operating network. So shatura lost its historical uniqueness;
- coal mines and closed mines (Yamal railway);
- virgin lands at the time of their active development. Often, the use of RR was the only available option for the development and formation of the surrounding infrastructure in such a region. Over time, such roads have also lost their relevance and functionality due to the wide development of highways.
Narrow-gauge railways occupied a special place in industrial enterprises engaged in the production of equipment and complex, large-sized mechanisms. This, of course, is about a special (micro) modification of the road. She was inside the assembly shops and helped to quickly move individual parts to the equipment. Also, with its help, it was possible to export already finished products from the workshop premises, and even transport the working personnel around the facility (if it was a large, industrial complex). To date, narrow-gauge railways have been replaced by modern, mechanical means in the form of mobile forklifts.
A special page in the history of narrow gauge railways is the war years. With the active construction of defensive areas, they (roads) served as a transport network, which made it possible to quickly and reliably deliver manpower and military equipment to the battlefield. A noteworthy point is the fact that the iron rails were already laid on the finished road surface. It could be both asphalt concrete and earth embankment. This simplified and accelerated the current work on laying the narrow gauge railway. The length of such a transport network varied greatly and could even reach more than a hundred kilometers. In the fortification outpost itself, there was also a need for laying railway tracks. This was necessary for the rapid delivery of large shells to the guns.
Gauge of narrow gauge roads
According to accepted standards, even in the Soviet Union, the width of each track of such a road was 750 mm. This value applied to more than 90% of the entire network in the country. By the way, one of the first railways with such a gauge was the IRINOVSKAYA narrow-gauge railway. It owes its appearance to the industrialist of Corfu, who needed to transport peat from places with developments, starting in 1982. Later, in pre-revolutionary times, it was widely used for passenger transportation and was widely loved by the townspeople (due to its low speed, passengers were allowed to board even during the active movement of the car). During the siege of Leningrad, it was along it that the land section of the "road of life" was laid.
There were exceptions when the track width was 600, 900 and 1000 mm. On Sakhalin, it was completely equal to 1067 mm. By the way, a few separate words should be said about the Sakhalin road. It has a long history and was built when the island was under the jurisdiction of Japan. In addition to the canvas itself, the entire rolling stock of the narrow gauge railway was preserved. In the early 2000s, there were disputes about her future fate. It was decided to start work on re-profiling the track into a wide gauge with a natural re-equipment of the rolling stock.
It is worth mentioning here about the gauge that the VESIMO-UTKINSKAYA narrow-gauge railway had. It was 884 mm.
The fate of some narrow-gauge railways in Russia
Today, many of the narrow-gauge railways attract the close attention of not only rare technology lovers, but even representatives of world organizations. A vivid proof of this fact is the KUDEMSKAYA narrow-gauge railway, which was put into operation in 1949. Now its exploited length is 35 km (with an actual length of 108 km). It still carries passenger traffic. It will be a real pleasure to be able to ride this narrow-gauge route as it was included in the top 10 worldwide in 2010. To popularize the narrow-gauge railway in 2013, a new car was even purchased - model VP750.
The fate of the Beloretsk narrow-gauge railway was completely different. Its history, which began back in 1909, was completed at the beginning of the 21st century. The oldest narrow-gauge railway with unique rolling stock and architectural monuments at the stations became unnecessary. Under the guise of a lack of funding and the "unsatisfactory" condition of the railroad tracks, the leadership of the Beloretsk Metallurgical Plant decided to decommission the railway from their operation. No arguments about the significance and uniqueness of this object from the side of local residents and museum activists were heard. In memory of the narrow-gauge railway, there was a steam locomotive - a monument to GR-231, installed in Beloretsk.
It is noteworthy that the beginning of the 21st century in our country was the end of an entire era of narrow-gauge stations (not all of them, of course). Among such losses is the visimo-utkinskaya narrow-gauge railway, built at the end of the 19th century in Sverdlovsk region. Only since 1960, the width of its track became 750 mm after the work carried out. Initially, this parameter was equal to 884 mm. "Cuckoo" (as it was nicknamed by the local population) ceased to exist in 2008, when the stage of its dismantling was concluded. Although back in 2006, freight and transport transportation was carried out on the narrow gauge railway. An unenviable fate went to all the rolling stock, buildings, and even the pedestrian bridge across the river Mezhevaya Duck.
Time, of course, puts many events in their place, but do not forget that it is in our power to preserve the memory of past pages of history. But the main task preserve the remaining cultural monuments, some of which are still regularly serving people. Narrow-gauge railways are undeniably one of them. We hope that many of the readers will be interested in the topic raised and want to learn more about narrow gauge railways. Some of these roads can still be seen today!
Narrow gauge railway (narrow gauge) - a railway with a gauge less than standard; the rolling stock of such roads is incompatible in a number of ways with normal gauge roads (that is, the technical problems are not limited to the rearrangement of bogies). Usually narrow-gauge railways are called railways with a gauge of 600-1200 mm; roads with a smaller gauge are called micro-gauges, as well as decavils, which is not always correct. Decavile gauge is a track with a width of 500 mm. 
Characteristic
Narrow gauge railways are cheaper to build and operate than standard gauge railways. Smaller locomotives and wagons allow lighter bridges to be built; when laying tunnels for narrow-gauge railways, it is required to extract a smaller volume of soil. In addition, narrow-gauge railways allow steeper curves than conventional railways, which has made them popular in mountainous areas.
The disadvantages of narrow-gauge railways are: smaller size and weight of transported goods, lower stability and lower maximum allowable speed. However, the most important disadvantage of narrow-gauge railways is that, as a rule, they do not form a single network. Often such roads are built by enterprises for one specific purpose (for example, for the transport of peat).
In addition to industrial narrow-gauge railways, there were also supply lines that connected ordinary railways with those areas where it was unprofitable to build standard gauge railways. Such narrow-gauge railways were subsequently “re-made” to a standard gauge or disappeared, unable to withstand competition with motor transport, since all their advantages were offset by a big drawback: transshipment of goods from one railway to another was a long and laborious process.
Areas of application for narrow gauge railways
Industrial and national economic use
Narrow-gauge railways were built to serve peat extraction, logging sites, mines, mines, individual industrial enterprises or groups of several related enterprises, areas of virgin lands at the time of their development.
Micro-gauge railways were built inside workshops or across the territory of large enterprises to move large workpieces, large quantities of materials, machine tools, and export bulky goods from workshops. finished products, sometimes for transporting workers to remote workshops. Currently, forklifts and electric cars are used for these purposes.
Military use
During wars, in preparation for major military battles or when creating border fortifications, narrow-gauge military field roads were built to ensure the transfer of troops and military cargo. For laying such roads, existing roads with dirt or asphalt concrete pavement were often used. The length of the roads ranged from several to a hundred kilometers.
In addition, separate narrow-gauge railway lines were built inside the fortifications. Such roads were used to transport ammunition with large dimensions.
Children's Railways
Other
Separate railway lines were built as narrow gauge, this was done to save money. In the future, with an increase in freight traffic, such lines were changed to a normal gauge. An example of such an approach is the Pokrovskaya Sloboda - Ershov - Uralsk and Urbakh - Krasny Kut - Aleksandrov Gai lines of the Ryazan-Ural Railway. On the Odessa-Kishinev road there was a whole department of a narrow gauge - Gayvoronskoye.
Gauge of narrow gauge roads
Among micro gauges, the narrowest gauge (only 260 mm) is used in the UK by the Wells and Walsingham Light Railway. Most micro gauge railways are 381 mm or 15 inches wide, which is the unwritten standard. Widths of 500 mm, 457 mm, 400 mm are also common.
Rolling stock of narrow gauge roads
Locomotives, railcars and locomotives
Snow plows and other special equipment
- Construction and repair train manufactured by: KMZ
Passenger and freight cars
- Passenger cars for narrow gauge railways were supplied by PAFAWAG (Poland)
- Demikhov Carriage Works (cars PV-38, PV-40, PV-40T)
- Passenger cars VP750 produced by: KMZ
Among the republics former USSR there is not a single surviving narrow-gauge railway only in Azerbaijan(after the closure of the Baku ChRW) and Moldova. The most dense operating narrow-gauge railways is Belarus. Narrow-gauge railways are being actively built and developed there, new locomotives and wagons are being built for them.
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Russia
Narrow gauge railways are also common in many countries in Africa and South America, and there are a huge number of gauge options, ranging from 600 mm to the Cape gauge.
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An excerpt characterizing the narrow gauge railway
After Nikolai's departure, the Rostovs' house became sadder than ever. The Countess became ill from a mental disorder.Sonya was sad both from separation from Nikolai and even more from that hostile tone with which the countess could not but treat her. The count was more than ever preoccupied with the bad state of affairs, which required some kind of drastic measures. It was necessary to sell the Moscow house and the suburban one, and to sell the house it was necessary to go to Moscow. But the health of the countess forced her to postpone her departure from day to day.
Natasha, who easily and even cheerfully endured the first time of separation from her fiancé, now every day became more agitated and impatient. The thought that so, in vain, for no one is wasted best time, which she would use to love him, relentlessly tormented her. Most of his letters annoyed her. It was insulting to her to think that while she lives only by the thought of him, he lives a real life, sees new places, new people who are of interest to him. The more entertaining his letters were, the more annoyed she was. Her letters to him not only did not bring her consolation, but seemed to be a boring and false duty. She did not know how to write, because she could not comprehend the possibility of expressing in a letter truthfully even one thousandth of what she was accustomed to express in her voice, smile and look. She wrote him classically monotonous, dry letters, to which she herself did not ascribe any significance and in which, according to bruillons, the countess corrected her spelling errors.
The health of the countess did not improve; but it was no longer possible to postpone the trip to Moscow. It was necessary to make a dowry, it was necessary to sell the house, and, moreover, Prince Andrei was expected first to Moscow, where Prince Nikolai Andreevich lived that winter, and Natasha was sure that he had already arrived.
The countess remained in the village, and the count, taking Sonya and Natasha with him, went to Moscow at the end of January.
Pierre, after the courtship of Prince Andrei and Natasha, for no obvious reason, suddenly felt the impossibility of continuing his former life. No matter how firmly he was convinced of the truths revealed to him by his benefactor, no matter how joyful he was at that first time of being carried away by the inner work of self-improvement, which he indulged in with such fervor, after the engagement of Prince Andrei with Natasha and after the death of Joseph Alekseevich, about which he received news almost at the same time - all the charm of this former life suddenly disappeared for him. There was only one skeleton of life left: his house with a brilliant wife, who now enjoyed the graces of one important person, acquaintance with all of Petersburg and service with boring formalities. And this former life suddenly presented itself to Pierre with unexpected abomination. He stopped writing his diary, avoided the company of his brothers, began to go to the club again, began to drink heavily again, again became close to single companies and began to lead such a life that Countess Elena Vasilievna considered it necessary to make him a strict reprimand. Pierre, feeling that she was right, and in order not to compromise his wife, left for Moscow.
In Moscow, as soon as he drove into his huge house with withered and withering princesses, with huge domestics, as soon as he saw - driving through the city - this Iberian chapel with countless candle lights in front of golden robes, this Kremlin Square with snow that had not been driven, these cab drivers and the shacks of Sivtsev Vrazhka, saw the old men of Moscow, who do not want anything and are slowly living their lives anywhere, saw old women, Moscow ladies, Moscow balls and the Moscow English Club - he felt at home, in a quiet haven. He felt calm, warm, familiar and dirty in Moscow, as in an old dressing gown.
Moscow society, everything from old women to children, accepted Pierre as their long-awaited guest, whose place was always ready and not occupied. For the Moscow world, Pierre was the sweetest, kindest, smartest, cheerful, generous eccentric, absent-minded and sincere, Russian, of the old cut, master. His wallet was always empty, because it was open to everyone.
Benefit performances, bad pictures, statues, charitable societies, gypsies, schools, signature dinners, revels, masons, churches, books - no one and nothing was refused, and if not for his two friends, who borrowed a lot of money from him and took him under their guardianship, he would give everything away. There was no dinner in the club, no evening without him. As soon as he leaned back in his place on the sofa after two bottles of Margot, he was surrounded, and rumors, disputes, jokes began. Where they quarreled, he - with his kind smile and by the way said joke, reconciled. Masonic dining lodges were dull and sluggish if he wasn't there.
When, after a single supper, he, with a kind and sweet smile, surrendering to the requests of a cheerful company, got up to go with them, joyful, solemn cries were heard among the youth. At the balls he danced, if he did not get a gentleman. Young ladies and young ladies loved him because, without courting anyone, he was equally kind to everyone, especially after dinner. “Il est charmant, il n "a pas de sehe", [He is very nice, but has no gender,] they talked about him.
Pierre was that retired chamberlain, good-naturedly living out his life in Moscow, of which there were hundreds.
How horrified he would have been if seven years ago, when he had just arrived from abroad, someone would have told him that he did not need to look for and invent anything, that his track had long been broken, determined eternally, and that, no matter how he turn around, he will be what everyone in his position was. He couldn't believe it! Didn't he, with all his heart, wish now to produce a republic in Russia, now to be Napoleon himself, now a philosopher, now a tactician, the conqueror of Napoleon? Didn't he see the opportunity and passionately desire to regenerate the vicious human race and bring himself to the highest degree of perfection? Didn't he establish both schools and hospitals and set his peasants free?
And instead of all this, here he is, the rich husband of an unfaithful wife, a retired chamberlain who loves to eat, drink and easily scold the government, a member of the Moscow English Club and everyone's favorite member of Moscow society. For a long time he could not reconcile himself to the idea that he was that same retired Moscow chamberlain, whose type he so deeply despised seven years ago.
Sometimes he comforted himself with the thought that this was the only way, for the time being, he was leading this life; but then he was horrified by another thought, that for the time being, so many people had already entered this life and this club with all their teeth and hair, like him, and left without one tooth and hair.
In moments of pride, when he thought about his position, it seemed to him that he was completely different, special from those retired chamberlains whom he had despised before, that they were vulgar and stupid, satisfied and reassured by their position, “and even now I am still dissatisfied I still want to do something for humanity,” he said to himself in moments of pride. “And maybe all those comrades of mine, just like me, fought, looked for some new, their own path in life, and just like me, by the force of the situation, society, breed, that elemental force against which there is no powerful man, they were brought to the same place as I, ”he said to himself in moments of modesty, and after living in Moscow for some time, he no longer despised, but began to love, respect and pity, as well as himself, his comrades by fate .
Pierre did not find, as before, moments of despair, melancholy and disgust for life; but the same illness, which had previously expressed itself in sharp attacks, was driven inside and did not leave him for a moment. "For what? For what? What is going on in the world?” he asked himself in bewilderment several times a day, involuntarily beginning to ponder the meaning of the phenomena of life; but knowing by experience that there were no answers to these questions, he hurriedly tried to turn away from them, took up a book, or hurried to the club, or to Apollon Nikolaevich to chat about city gossip.
“Elena Vasilievna, who never loved anything except her body and one of the most stupid women in the world,” thought Pierre, “appears to people as the height of intelligence and refinement, and they bow before her. Napoleon Bonaparte was despised by everyone as long as he was great, and since he became a miserable comedian, Emperor Franz has been trying to offer him his daughter as an illegitimate wife. The Spaniards send prayers to God through the Catholic clergy in gratitude for having defeated the French on June 14th, and the French send prayers through the same Catholic clergy that they defeated the Spaniards on June 14th. My brother Masons swear by blood that they are ready to sacrifice everything for their neighbor, and do not pay one ruble each for the collection of the poor and intrigue Astraeus against the Seekers of Manna, and fuss about a real Scottish carpet and about an act, the meaning of which does not know even the one who wrote it, and which no one needs. We all profess the Christian law of forgiveness of offenses and love for our neighbor - the law as a result of which we erected forty forty churches in Moscow, and yesterday we whipped a man who had fled, and the minister of the same law of love and forgiveness, the priest, gave the soldier a cross to kiss before execution " . So thought Pierre, and this whole, common, universally recognized lie, no matter how he got used to it, as if something new, every time amazed him. I understand the lies and confusion, he thought, but how can I tell them everything I understand? I tried and always found that they, in the depths of their souls, understand the same thing as I do, but they just try not to see her. It has become so necessary! But me, where do I go?” thought Pierre. He tested the unfortunate ability of many, especially Russian people, the ability to see and believe in the possibility of good and truth, and to see the evil and lies of life too clearly in order to be able to take a serious part in it. Every field of labor in his eyes was connected with evil and deceit. Whatever he tried to be, whatever he undertook, evil and lies repelled him and blocked all the paths of his activity. And meanwhile it was necessary to live, it was necessary to be busy. It was too terrible to be under the yoke of these insoluble questions of life, and he gave himself up to his first hobbies, only to forget them. He went to all sorts of societies, drank a lot, bought paintings and built, and most importantly read.
He read and read everything that came to hand, and read so that when he arrived home, when the lackeys were still undressing him, he, having already taken a book, read - and from reading he went to sleep, and from sleep to chatter in the drawing rooms and the club, from chatter to revelry and women, from revelry back to chatter, reading and wine. Drinking wine for him became more and more of a physical and at the same time a moral need. Despite the fact that the doctors told him that with his corpulence, wine was dangerous for him, he drank a lot. He felt completely well only when, without noticing how, having knocked over several glasses of wine into his big mouth, he experienced pleasant warmth in his body, tenderness for all his neighbors and the readiness of his mind to superficially respond to every thought, without delving into its essence. Only after drinking a bottle and two wines did he vaguely realize that the intricate, terrible knot of life that had terrified him before was not as terrible as he thought. With a noise in his head, chatting, listening to conversations or reading after lunch and dinner, he constantly saw this knot, some side of it. But only under the influence of wine did he say to himself: “This is nothing. I will unravel this - here I have an explanation ready. But now there’s no time—I’ll think it over later!” But that never came after.
On an empty stomach, in the morning, all the previous questions seemed just as insoluble and terrible, and Pierre hurriedly grabbed a book and rejoiced when someone came to him.
Sometimes Pierre recalled a story he had heard about how, in a war, soldiers, being under fire in cover, when they had nothing to do, diligently find an occupation for themselves in order to more easily endure the danger. And to Pierre, all people seemed to be such soldiers fleeing life: some with ambition, some with cards, some with writing laws, some with women, some with toys, some with horses, some with politics, some with hunting, some with wine, some state affairs. “There is nothing insignificant or important, it doesn’t matter: if only I can save myself from it as best I can!” thought Pierre. - "If only not to see her, this terrible her."
At the beginning of winter, Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky and his daughter arrived in Moscow. In his past, in his intelligence and originality, in particular in the weakening at that time of enthusiasm for the reign of Emperor Alexander, and in that anti-French and patriotic trend that reigned at that time in Moscow, Prince Nikolai Andreevich immediately became the object of special reverence for Muscovites and the center of the Moscow opposition to the government.
The prince has grown very old this year. Sharp signs of old age appeared in him: unexpected falling asleep, forgetfulness of the nearest events and memory of long-standing ones, and the childish vanity with which he assumed the role of the head of the Moscow opposition. Despite the fact that when the old man, especially in the evenings, went out to tea in his fur coat and powdered wig, and, touched by someone, began his abrupt stories about the past, or even more abrupt and sharp judgments about the present, he aroused in all his guests the same sense of respect. For visitors, this whole old house with huge dressing tables, pre-revolutionary furniture, these lackeys in powder, and the last century himself, a tough and smart old man with his meek daughter and pretty Frenchwoman, who were in awe of him, represented a majestically pleasant sight. But the visitors did not think that in addition to these two or three hours, during which they saw the owners, there were another 22 hours a day, during which the secret inner life of the house went on.
Recently, in Moscow, this inner life has become very difficult for Princess Marya. She was deprived in Moscow of those of her best joys - conversations with God's people and solitude - which refreshed her in the Bald Mountains, and did not have any benefits and joys of metropolitan life. She did not go out into the world; everyone knew that her father would not let her go without him, and he himself could not travel due to ill health, and she was no longer invited to dinners and evenings. Princess Marya completely abandoned hope for marriage. She saw the coldness and bitterness with which Prince Nikolai Andreevich received and sent away young people who could be suitors, who sometimes came to their house. Princess Marya had no friends: on this visit to Moscow, she was disappointed in her two closest people. M lle Bourienne, with whom she could not be completely frank before, now became unpleasant to her and for some reason she began to move away from her. Julie, who was in Moscow and to whom Princess Mary wrote for five years in a row, turned out to be a complete stranger to her when Princess Mary again met with her personally. Julie at this time, on the occasion of the death of her brothers, having become one of the richest brides in Moscow, was in the midst of social pleasures. She was surrounded by young people who, as she thought, suddenly appreciated her dignity. Julie was in that period of an aging socialite who feels that her last chance of marriage has come, and now or never her fate must be decided. Princess Mary, with a sad smile, recalled on Thursdays that she now had no one to write to, since Julie, Julie, from whose presence she had no joy, was here and saw her every week. She, like an old emigrant who refused to marry the lady with whom he spent several years of his evenings, regretted that Julie was here and she had no one to write to. Princess Mary in Moscow had no one to talk to, no one to believe her grief, and much new grief has been added during this time. The deadline for the return of Prince Andrei and his marriage was approaching, and his order to prepare his father for that was not only not fulfilled, but, on the contrary, the matter seemed to be completely spoiled, and the reminder of Countess Rostova pissed off the old prince, who had already been out of sorts for most of the time. . A new grief that has recently been added for Princess Marya was the lessons that she gave to her six-year-old nephew. In her relations with Nikolushka, she recognized with horror in herself the quality of her father's irritability. How many times did she tell herself that she should not allow herself to get excited while teaching her nephew, almost every time she sat down with a pointer at the French alphabet, she so wanted to quickly, easily pour her knowledge out of herself into a child who was already afraid that here was her aunt she would be angry that, at the slightest inattention on the part of the boy, she shuddered, hurried, got excited, raised her voice, sometimes pulled his hand and put him in a corner. Putting him in a corner, she herself began to weep over her evil, bad nature, and Nikolushka, imitating her sobs, would come out of the corner without permission, come up to her and pull her wet hands away from her face, and console her. But more, more than anything else, the irritability of her father brought the princess grief, always directed against her daughter and recently reached the point of cruelty. If he had forced her to bow down all night, if he had beaten her, forced her to carry firewood and water, it would never have occurred to her that her situation was difficult; but this loving tormentor, the most cruel because he loved and for that he tormented himself and her, deliberately knew how not only to insult and humiliate her, but also to prove to her that she was always and in everything to blame. Recently, a new feature appeared in him, which tormented Princess Mary most of all - this was his closer rapprochement with m lle Bourienne. The thought that came to him, in the first minute after receiving the news of his son’s intention, was the joke that if Andrei marries, then he himself marries Bourienne, apparently liked him, and with stubbornness lately (as it seemed to Princess Mary) only in order to offend her, he showed a special kindness to m lle Bourienne and showed his displeasure to his daughter by showing love to Bourienne.
Once in Moscow, in the presence of Princess Marya (it seemed to her that her father had done this on purpose in her presence), the old prince kissed m lle Bourienne's hand and, drawing her to him, hugged her caressingly. Princess Mary flushed and ran out of the room. A few minutes later, m lle Bourienne entered Princess Mary, smiling and telling something cheerfully in her pleasant voice. Princess Mary hurriedly wiped away her tears, with resolute steps approached Bourienne and, apparently not knowing it herself, with angry haste and outbursts of her voice, began to shout at the Frenchwoman: “It is disgusting, low, inhuman to take advantage of weakness ...” She did not finish. "Get out of my room," she screamed and sobbed.
The next day the prince did not say a word to his daughter; but she noticed that at dinner he ordered the food to be served, beginning with m lle Bourienne. At the end of dinner, when the barman, according to his old habit, again served coffee, starting with the princess, the prince suddenly became furious, threw a crutch at Philip and immediately made an order to give him to the soldiers. “They don’t hear ... they said it twice! ... they don’t hear!”
“She is the first person in this house; she is mine best friend' shouted the prince. “And if you allow yourself,” he shouted in anger, addressing Princess Marya for the first time, “once again, as you dared yesterday ... to forget yourself in front of her, then I will show you who is the boss in the house. Out! so that I do not see you; ask her for forgiveness!
Princess Mary asked for forgiveness from Amalya Evgenievna and from her father for herself and for Philip the barman, who asked for spades.
At such moments, a feeling akin to the pride of the victim gathered in the soul of Princess Marya. And suddenly, at such moments, in her presence, this father, whom she condemned, either looked for glasses, feeling near them and not seeing, or forgot what was happening just now, or made a wrong step with weakened legs and looked around to see if anyone had seen him weakness, or, worst of all, at dinner, when there were no guests to excite him, he would suddenly doze off, letting go of his napkin, and leaning over the plate, his head shaking. “He is old and weak, and I dare to condemn him!” she thought with self-loathing at such moments.
In 1811, a French doctor, who quickly became fashionable, lived in Moscow, huge in stature, handsome, amiable, like a Frenchman and, as everyone in Moscow said, a doctor of extraordinary art - Metivier. He was received in the homes of high society not as a doctor, but as an equal.
Prince Nikolai Andreevich, who laughed at medicine, recently, on the advice of m lle Bourienne, allowed this doctor to visit him and got used to him. Metivier visited the prince twice a week.
For the first time, narrow gauge railways appeared in the middle of the 18th century in the mines of Scotland, where they were given the name of economical railways, then they began to be built in France, Germany, Sweden, and Norway. The first narrow gauge railway in Russia was built in 1871 between st. Livny and Verkhovye are 57 miles long with a track width of 3.5 feet (1067 mm). A special rolling stock worked on the line: two passenger and four freight locomotives. In 1898 the road was changed to normal gauge.
In the USSR, a narrow-gauge railway was preserved near the city of Ventspils - the old Kurzeme line, built at the beginning of the 20th century. On Sakhalin Island, there is a separate network of narrow gauge railways with its own rolling stock. Some of the narrow-gauge roads have been converted to a broad gauge, and some have been given over to the organization of children's railways.
Narrow gauge railway track
In 1919, the Committee of State Constructions installed two types of sleepers (bar and plate) for the main tracks of 1000 mm gauge and two types for station tracks. Later, in our country, a standard gauge of 750 mm was established for ground narrow-gauge railways (up to 90% of narrow-gauge railways in operation). For it, the use of sleepers of the same types, but somewhat shorter in length, was envisaged. The width along the top of the subgrade for the 750 mm gauge was determined by the data given in the table.The narrow-gauge rails corresponded in cross-sectional shape to normal gauge rails, but differed in weight and length.
Turnouts of narrow-gauge railways were characterized by the following parameters:
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