Tag Archives: Russia

Chapels on the tracks of Russia

Russia is a massive country, which combined with a religious population has resulted in an odd sight – Вагон-храм – railway carriages converted into mobile chapels. Photo via Журнал «Всемирная иллюстрация» Chapel of St. Olga (1896) Construction of the first […] Continue reading

Posted in Housekeeping | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Vladimir Putin’s private railway stations

For heads of state around the world private aircraft are a common model transport. But for Russian president Vladimir Putin, he also has a private armoured train, and a network of private railway stations. Photo by Mikhail Korotkov The train […]

Continue reading

Posted in Housekeeping | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Modelling the railways of Russia in N scale

One of my hobbies is model railways, with 1:160 N scale being my chosen scale. Unfortunately the number of people who model the railways of Russia is difficult, let alone any N scale model of Russian trains, but there are […]

Continue reading

Posted in Trains | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Technical platform «Troitse-Lykovo» and tunnel station «Д»

The Moscow Metro has 250 stations across the network, as well two bizarre ones not included in that total – technical platform «Troitse-Lykovo» and tunnel station «Д». Just a carriage long and with bare concrete walls, they are a strange […]

Continue reading

Posted in Trains | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Catching the train to Domodedovo Airport

I ended my epic rail trip across Europe in Moscow, so what better way to get to my flight home than to catch the ‘Aeroexpress’ train to Domodedovo Airport. I started my journey by catching the Moscow Metro to Paveletsky […]

Continue reading

Posted in Trains | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mobile traction substations for powering trains and trams

The power for an electric railway has to come from somewhere – and that place is a traction substation, a facility that convert hogh voltage electricity from the power grid to the voltage and frequency that trains or trams use. […]

Continue reading

Posted in Trains, Trams | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Crossing international borders by train

When I travelled across Europe by train, I crossed a few international borders. Some were simple, but others were more involved. The uneventful My first border crossing by train was on my journey from Germany and Austria, and it was […]

Continue reading

Posted in Trains | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Four platform stations of the Moscow Metro

I’ve previously written about the standard interchange station design found on Soviet designed metro systems, and the non-standard platform configurations on the Moscow Metro – this time we look at the four track stations that offer cross-platform interchange. Кита́й-го́род (Kitay-gorod) […]

Continue reading

Posted in Trains | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Battery-electric locomotives of the Moscow Metro

On the Moscow Metro can be found a curious piece of rolling stock – Контактно-аккумуляторный электровоз – battery-electric locomotives converted from retired metro carriages to haul maintenance trains through underground tunnels. Photo by Anakin, via Wikimedia Commons The seats have […]

Continue reading

Posted in Trains | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Moscow Metro trains on display

Plenty of cities have railway museums filled with old trains on display, but on the 80th anniversary of the Moscow Metro they did something different – they brought the museum pieces to the people. Photo by Artem Svetlov from Moscow, […]

Continue reading

Posted in Trains | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment