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Tag Archives: Ukraine
Builder’s plates on Russian-built trains
A builder’s plate indicates who built a particular piece of machinery, as well as the the model number, serial number, and date of manufacture. Here are some examples from the rolling stock of the railways of Russia and Ukraine. ЭД4МК […]
Posted in Trains
Tagged Kiev Metro, Nizhny Novgorod, rail operations, Russia, Russian Railways, Ukraine
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Шаропоїзд – a Ukrainian monorail that ran in a trough
Monorails are a mode of rail transport that is yet to break into the mainstream, despite decades of research and development on a wide variety of track standards. Most monorail trains are suspended from a track, or run on top […]
Interchange stations on Soviet metro systems
Interchange stations on Soviet designed metro systems are a little odd for anyone accustomed to urban rail networks elsewhere in the world – the platforms for each line are treated as their own station, with their own street entrance, and […]
Posted in Trains
Tagged Kiev, Kiev Metro, metros, Moscow, Moscow Metro, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg Metro, Ukraine
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Inspecting the overhead wires on the Ukrainian Railways
As I travelled across Ukraine by train I noticed a few complicated looking contraptions parked in sidings along the way. With a small platform at the end of a scissor lift, these railcars are used to inspect and repair the overhead wires that power electric trains.
Posted in Trains
Tagged maintenance, rail operations, railway electrification, Ukraine, Ukrainian Railways
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Riding the Kiev Funicular
Funicular railways seem to be quite common in European cities, and the Ukranian capital is no different. The Kiev Funicular is a 238 meter long railway opened in 1905 that links the top and bottom of a hill. Here is […]
Posted in Tourism, Trains
Tagged funicular, heritage railways, Kiev, railways, Ukraine
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Newsagents: then and now
Here’s a traditional newsstand on the Kiev Metro. And the modern equivalent in Moscow – a bank of newspaper vending machines. Given how the internet has decimated traditional print media, how long until even the vending machines disappear?
Posted in Everyday life
Tagged Kiev, Kiev Metro, metros, Moscow, Moscow Metro, newspapers, Russia, Ukraine
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Диггерство – the urban explorers of Russia
In the English speaking world the practice of exploring tunnels, drains and abandoned buildings is known as urban exploration. Russian speakers have their own term – Диггерство – which translates to ‘digger’.
Get your Crapdogs and VD in Kiev
There are plenty of foreign names that look funny to an outsider – I found a few in Kiev.
‘You break it, you buy it’ at Russian restaurants
Restaurant menus around the world are usually pretty simple, but in post-Soviet countries some restaurants include something extra – a section titled «бой посуды» (“battle dishes”).
Farewell to the Chernobyl sarcophagus
For thirty years Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant has lay beneath a massive steel and concrete sarcophagus, protecting the outside world from any further radioactive contamination following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. But 2016 has seen this iconic scene change forever, with the completion of the New Safe Confinement structure.