The history of narrow gauge railways. History of the narrow-gauge railways in Russia

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 railways, along which trolleys with loads were moved manually or with the help of horse traction (over a relatively short distance). Such roads also appeared in Russia. Initially, they used wooden guides and wooden trolleys.

One of the largest horse-drawn railways appeared in 1810 at the Zmeinogorsk mine (present-day Altai Territory). The rails were already metal and had a convex surface. The line was 1,876 meters in length and 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge.

The moment of birth of the railway is considered to be the beginning of movement on the rail tracks of a mechanical carriage. The birthplace of railways is Great Britain. At the beginning of the 19th century, the first steam locomotives were built and tested there. In 1825, the world's first public railroad opened, connecting the cities of Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington. The length of this railway was 40 kilometers, the track gauge was 1435 mm (later this gauge became an unrecognized global standard).

The author adheres to the following point of view: rail tracks on which locomotive traction has never been used for the movement of rolling stock (muscle power of animals and (or) humans, rope traction was used or is used), are not a railway. In the lists of narrow-gauge railways, such rail tracks are added “optional”.

In exceptional cases, rail tracks that use only cable car traction can be considered railways (for example, the “cable tram” in the city of San Francisco, many funiculars).

A rail track becomes a railroad from the moment locomotive traction appears, that is, from the moment the first locomotive (or railcar, multiple-unit train) passes along it.

Russia entered the "era of the railroad" in 1834. The birthplace of Russian railways is the city of Nizhny Tagil. A steam locomotive created by the Cherepanovs' father and son made the first trip to a mine located near Vysokaya Mountain. The first Russian railway was short (854 meters long) and had a wide track (1645 mm). The locomotive was destined to work for a short time - soon horse-drawn traction was again used instead.

The officially recognized date for the founding of Russian railways is 1837. Then traffic was opened on the line St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo - Pavlovsk, with a length of 23 kilometers. Its track was also wide - 1,829 mm (6 ft).

In 1843-51, the construction of the first major highway, the Petersburg-Moscow railway, took place. It was decided to set the track gauge to 5 feet (1524 mm, later 1520 mm). It is this track that has become standard for domestic railways. Meanwhile, in foreign Europe and North America, a different gauge standard was adopted - 1435 mm.

The consequences of this decision of the mid-19th century are controversial. On the one hand, the difference in track gauge helped us in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War - the enemy could not immediately use the railways in the occupied territory. At the same time, this constrains international traffic, leads to significant costs for the replacement of wagon bogies and transshipment of goods at border stations.

Variable-gauge bogies were invented a long time ago, but are still expensive and difficult to maintain. Therefore, they have not yet become widespread in Russia. As for the foreign countries, passenger trains, made up of carriages capable of moving on roads with different gauges, run between Spain and France on an ongoing basis. In modern Japan, there are wagons capable of changing from 1435 mm gauge tracks to a gauge that definitely falls under the definition of a narrow gauge - 1067 mm.

The emergence of narrow gauge railways

Narrow gauge railways appeared several decades later than broad gauge railways. The proliferation of narrow-gauge railways for a long time was hampered by several factors, one of the main ones - a narrow gauge was considered unreliable in operation, more prone to accidents than a wide gauge. It was widely believed that as the track gauge increased, the likelihood of a train crash decreased.

In 1836, the Ffestiniog horse-drawn railroad was opened in Northwest Wales (Great Britain). The length was 21 kilometers, the track width was 597 mm. The road was intended for the transportation of oil shale from the mining site to the seaport. In the empty direction, the trolleys were pulled by horses, in the freight direction, the trains moved without the use of traction due to the presence of a slope (while the horses were transported in special trolleys).

In 1863 steam locomotives began to be used on the road. Perhaps, the moment of transition of the Festinog horse-railroad to steam traction can be considered the date of the appearance of the world's first narrow-gauge railway.

Throughout the 19th century in Russia there were a large number of narrow-gauge rail tracks, on which horse or hand traction was used. To facilitate the walking of animals, a “foot” - a wooden flooring - was often placed between the rails. In many cases, horse-drawn narrow gauge railways were created with the aim of delivering goods to factories and factories - where it was not possible to lay a "normal" railroad. The narrow gauge was chosen in order to reduce construction costs.

The largest horse-drawn narrow gauge track was in operation in 1840-62. It connected the Dubovka pier on the Volga with the Kachalino pier on the Don River (in the present Volgograd region), its length was about 60 kilometers.

The first narrow-gauge railway in Russia, as is commonly believed, appeared in 1871. It ran between the stations Verkhovye and Livny (now the Oryol Region), and had a track gauge of 1067 mm. The existence of the first narrow-gauge railway was short-lived: in 1896 it was replaced by a normal gauge railway line.

But that was just the beginning. The massive construction of narrow-gauge railways began almost immediately in various regions of Russia. They began to develop rapidly throughout the country - both in the Far East and in Central Asia. The largest networks of narrow-gauge railways with a gauge of 1067 mm or 1000 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 it was extended to Arkhangelsk. Its length was 795 kilometers. From the city of Pokrovsk (now Engels), located on the left bank of the Volga, opposite Saratov, a meter gauge line (1000 mm) was built to Uralsk. There were also branches - to Nikolaevsk (Pugachevsk), and to the Aleksandrov Gai station. The total length of the network was 648 kilometers.

The first known narrow-gauge railways with a gauge of 750 mm appeared in the 1890s. In 1892, the first section of the Irinovskaya narrow-gauge railway was opened, running in the direction of St. Petersburg - Vsevolozhsk. According to unconfirmed reports, in 1893 a narrow-gauge railway was opened in the vicinity of Ryazan (which later became the initial section of the Ryazan-Vladimir narrow-gauge railway). Soon, small-scale narrow-gauge railways began to appear (in many cases, with a gauge of 750 mm), serving industrial enterprises.

Narrow gauge railways in the 20th century

At the very beginning of the 20th century, there were already many narrow-gauge railways designed for the export of timber and peat. Subsequently, these very roads will form the "backbone" of narrow gauge lines in our country.

In the USSR, the overall pace of railway construction has noticeably decreased in comparison with the era of the Russian Empire. But the number of narrow gauge railways continued to increase rapidly.

The years of the terrible Stalinist terror brought a new type of narrow-gauge railways - "camp" lines. They appeared at enterprises located in the GULAG system, connected factories and camps with mining sites. The scale of railway construction in those years is impressive. Contrary to the widespread belief that there have never been railways in the North-East of our country, it is known that there are at least seven narrow-gauge railways on the territory of the present Magadan Region, some of which reached a length of 60 - 70 kilometers.

In 1945, the first section of a fairly powerful and technically advanced 1067 mm gauge railway was opened, starting in Magadan. By 1953, its length was 102 kilometers (Magadan - Tent). The railway was to become a significant highway crossing the immense Kolyma Territory. But after the death of I.V. Stalin began the massive closure of the Kolyma camps, which meant the actual curtailment of the industrial development of the northeast 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 appeared in other regions of the Northeast - in Kamchatka, in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. All of them were later dismantled.

Already in the 1930s, two main specializations of narrow gauge were clearly manifested: timber transportation and peat transportation. The standard narrow track - 750 mm - was finally established.

In 1940, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were included in the USSR. These states had an extensive network of narrow-gauge public railways. In terms of their technical condition, these roads turned out to be almost the best in the country. It was in Estonia that a record for the speed of movement on a 750 mm gauge railroad was set. In 1936, a railcar covered the distance from Tallinn to Pärnu (146 km) in 2 hours 6 minutes. The average speed of movement was 69 km / h, the maximum speed reached - 102.6 km / h!

During the Great Patriotic War, the number of narrow-gauge railways was replenished with dozens of "military field" railways, built both by the enemy and by our troops. But almost all of them did not last long.

In August 1945, South Sakhalin was included in the USSR, where there was a network of 1067 mm gauge railway lines, built in compliance with the technical standards and dimensions of the main railways of Japan. In subsequent years, the railway network has received significant development (while maintaining the existing gauge).

The first half of the 1950s turned out to be the “golden age” of timber narrow-gauge railways. They developed at an amazing rate. During the year, dozens of new narrow-gauge railways appeared, and the length of the lines increased by thousands of kilometers.

The development of virgin and fallow lands was accompanied by the massive construction of narrow-gauge railways in Kazakhstan. Later, many of them were rebuilt into broad gauge lines, but some remained active until the early 1990s. As of 2004, only one "virgin" narrow-gauge railway has survived - in Atbasar (Akmola region).

Narrow-gauge lines of general use belonging to the Ministry of Railways (in 1918-1946 it was called NKPS) took not the last place among the narrow-gauge railways. But since the 1960s, their length has steadily decreased. Basically, 750 mm gauge railways were replaced by broad gauge lines, built in parallel, along one embankment, or slightly to the side, but in the same direction. The 1000 mm and 1067 mm track lines were most often "altered" (a new track was laid on the same embankment - a different track).

In the 1960s, it became apparent that the best days were over for timber-carrying narrow-gauge railways. New narrow-gauge peat railways were built until the end of the 1970s (and isolated cases of the creation of new "peat trucks" were noted later).

The development and mass production of new rolling stock continued until the early 1990s. The main and then the only manufacturer of trailed rolling stock of narrow gauge was the Demikhovsky Machine-Building Plant (Demikhovo, Moscow Region), and the manufacturer of diesel locomotives for 750 mm gauge was the Kambara Machine-Building Plant (Kambarka, Udmurtia).

The 1990s were the most tragic years in the history of narrow-gauge railways. The economic recession, together with the transition to a new form of economic relations and political changes, led to a precipitous decline in the number and length of narrow-gauge railways. Each past year has reduced thousands of kilometers of narrow gauge railway lines.

In 1993, the production of cars for land narrow-gauge railways of 750 mm gauge was completely discontinued. Soon the production of locomotives also stopped.

Since the late 1990s, the country has seen economic stabilization and a gradual transition from decline to development. However, the process of eliminating narrow gauge railways did not slow down.

The narrow gauge railway is the same as the railway, but with a smaller gauge than the standard gauge. The standard railroad gauge in Russia is 1435 mm. So it is not suitable for transport with normal railways due to technical features. The center-to-center distance of transport of such tracks varies from 1200 to 600 mm. The track still exists, but it is called in another way - a micro-track.

There are two types, single track and double track, the difference in bandwidth. In the first case, movement in both directions is carried out on the same rails, and in the second, for the direct and return paths, its own canvas.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Narrow Gauge Railways

If we talk about railways, then we should emphasize the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of their arrangement. The builders needed much less time and materials for its installation. If the rails were laid over uneven terrain, where there were mountains and hills, then digging tunnels and driving them into the rock took less time. The narrow-gauge railway assumed the use of lighter material than in the case of conventional railways, with smaller dimensions. As a result, the roadbed can withstand relatively light loads. The narrow track does not need an embankment; it can be laid even in swampy areas characterized by soft unstable soil.

Narrow gauge road in a hard-to-reach place

One cannot fail to mention such an advantage as the ability to use steep curves, which makes single-track railways with a smaller center distance more suitable for mountainous terrain.

However, in addition to their advantages, such roads also have a number of significant disadvantages, including:

• The impossibility of transporting a large volume of heavy cargo, even in the case of two-track transport. This is explained not only by the small size of the cars, but also by the limited tractive power of the locomotive and by the fact that the track on which the rails are installed simply cannot bear a large weight.
• Decrease in stability when moving with a load. So trains cannot develop a high speed, as well as quickly overcome difficult sections, where they slow down even more. If this is not done, then equipment breakdown, track damage and even an accident are almost inevitable.
• Small length, isolation and alienation of networks. The fact is that in most cases, narrow-gauge railways were equipped with industrial enterprises to perform certain tasks, most often for the transportation of small volumes of goods. In this case, no one thought about creating a large-scale network of such roads. There are exceptions: small sections of roads that are laid in hard-to-reach areas, used for passenger and freight traffic, but this does not change the overall picture.

The historical purpose of narrow gauge railways

As mentioned above, the main purpose of narrow-gauge roads was the transportation of goods to ensure industrial production. There are a number of industries where such a road was actively used until recently, or is still used today:

• Places of extraction of wood and peat. An example of such a road is Shaturskaya, which received permission to work in 1918, and finished work already in 2008, although the order to dismantle it was issued back in 1994. The movement of freight transport did not stop. It transported peat to a local power plant. The narrow-gauge railway was closed after the station was switched to a different type of fuel. In 2009, the dismantling of the rails began.
• Closed mines and coal mines. The Yamal road is such a narrow-gauge railway.
• Virgin land during development. The fact is that virgin lands at one time represented a deserted area. There was no need to talk about any infrastructure during the development of this territory. Low costs and high speed of construction of the railroad made it possible to establish communication between the settlements. However, over time, ordinary railways were built and automobile roads were laid, so that the narrow-gauge railways were dismantled as unnecessary.

Narrow gauge at the enterprise

They were of particular importance for the functioning of industrial enterprises that produced and repaired complex mechanisms with large dimensions.

However, it is worth mentioning here that in most cases the center distance was less than 600 millimeters, since the road was laid directly on the floor of the assembly shops. With the help of UZD, it was possible to quickly and easily move products both during the assembly process and when shipping the finished product to the warehouse. In addition, the narrow-gauge railway could be used for passenger transportation, namely, workers were transported to the enterprise along it. In modern conditions, mobile forklift trucks are used to assemble large-sized products.

Note! Speaking about narrow-gauge railways, one cannot but tell about their invaluable contribution to the fight against the fascist invaders during the Great Patriotic War. Such paths were easily and quickly erected (often a ready-made road surface became a substrate for them, even a dirt road was suitable) in places where defensive fortifications were being erected. Transport, tirelessly walking along them, delivered materials, equipment and people. Also, soldiers, food and weapons were delivered to the places of military battles along the narrow-gauge railway, and the wounded were promptly transported along them. The length of the railways during the war could reach 100 kilometers.

Narrow gauge track gauge

According to the standards developed during the Soviet era, the distance between the rails of such a road was 750 mm. This figure was applied to 90% of all roads. So the width of narrow-gauge railways in Russia is in most cases standard. This greatly simplified the maintenance of such a road and its rolling stock, as well as the manufacture of cars and diesel locomotives.

The first road with such an indicator of the distance between the rails is the Irinovskaya railway. It was built back in 1882 and owes its construction to a large industrialist of that time Corfu. He needed large volumes of peat to support his production. Later, even before the revolution, passenger traffic was carried out on it. The speed of traffic along Irinovskaya was low, so people could easily jump into the carriage on the move, which was very popular with the residents of the surrounding area. During the Leningrad blockade, it was part of the famous and extremely important "road of life."

Sakhalin Railway

In addition to the 750 mm standard, there were also exceptions. Most often these are 600, 900 and 1000 mm. The widest are the 1,067-wide paths that were laid on Sakhalin Island. In addition to their track, they are also notable for the fact that such a road was built at a time when half of the island was Japanese territory. In addition to the most unique track, the transport, which was assembled for this track, has been preserved. At the beginning of the new century, there were disputes about the future of the Sakhalin Railways, as a result of which it was decided to remake the tracks for standard parameters, as well as re-equip the rolling stock for new conditions.

The fate of some narrow-gauge railways in Russia

Today, many of the surviving narrow-gauge railways are in the center of attention not only for enthusiasts and lovers of rare technology, but also for organizations of world significance as a cultural heritage. An example of such attention is the Kudem Railroad, which operates to this day. This road was commissioned in 1949. The actual length of the rail is 108 kilometers, but only 38 of them are in operation. Passengers are being transported along it now. In 2013, a new VP750 carriage was even purchased for the transportation of people, which made the journey more comfortable.

A completely different situation with the Beloretsk Railroad, on which the first trains went in 1909. At the beginning of this century, its history was completed. The unique rolling stock and architectural monuments encountered along the way were of great cultural importance for the region, but the decision about the unsatisfactory condition of the track and the lack of funding sources put an end to everything. Today, only the GR-231 steam locomotive, which once plied along it, and old maps with its image remind of this road. This monument can be seen in Beloretsk.

Important! In addition to industrial and passenger narrow-gauge railways, there are also the so-called ChRW (children's railways), which have a gauge of 500 mm. They represent an isolated area with a small length from 1 to 11 kilometers. Such sections of the track are used for practical training of children and adolescents in railway specialties. The working conditions of the ChRW are close to the functioning of a real railway. Such sections do not belong to UZD, despite the general parameters.

The beginning of the third millennium put an end to many narrow-gauge railways in the Russian Federation. The list of those gone down in history also includes Visimo-Utkinskaya in the Sverdlovsk region, which was built at the end of the 19th century. During its existence, it has experienced a large number of reconstructions and repairs; during one of these, its track decreased from 884 to 750 mm. The road functioned until 2006, and in 2008 its dismantling was completed. At the same time, in addition to the tracks themselves, all the rolling stock, the architecture of the stations and even the railway bridge thrown across the river called Mezhevaya Utka disappeared.

Narrow gauge railways have lost their relevance, despite all their advantages. Now they are more likely monuments of cultural significance, which can still be useful today. The example of the Kudem Railroad proves this. Russia is not the only country where narrow-gauge railways have survived; the same railways can be found in Europe, China and the United States.

"The narrow-gauge railway in Meshchera forests is the slowest railway in the Soviet Union. The stations are piled high with resinous logs and smell of fresh felling and wild forest flowers."

The Meshcherskaya main line (Ryazan-Vladimirskaya narrow-gauge railway) was one of the largest railways in Russia. Glorified by Paustovsky, the forest narrow-gauge railway has become one of the symbols of the Meshchera region. Once a small train was the only connection between many villages and villages on the left bank of the Oka with Ryazan and the "mainland" in general. Almost the entire road was dismantled and plundered in the 90s, the rest is being dismantled now.

Narrow gauge railways were cheaper to build and operate than standard gauge railways. Lighter bridges can be built; when laying tunnels, it was required to extract a smaller volume of soil, steeper curves were allowed than on ordinary railways, which made them popular in mountainous regions. The disadvantages of narrow-gauge railways are: smaller dimensions and weight of the transported goods, lower stability and lower maximum permissible speed. However, the most important disadvantage of narrow gauge railways was that they usually did not form a single network. Often such roads were built by enterprises for one specific purpose (for example, to transport peat). Naturally, there was no question of any single network of narrow-gauge railways.

Meshchera Mainline is a narrow-gauge railway (750 mm gauge), which used to connect the cities of Ryazan and Vladimir. The road started from the Ryazan-Pristan station, which was located in the meadows beyond the river northeast of Ryazan. The length of the main track was 211 km. Passengers and cargo entered the station through the pontoon bridge across the Oka. A full-fledged bridge across the river was never built, which led to the absence of transit traffic along the line. The Meshcherskaya Main Line played a significant role in the development of forested areas on the left bank of the Oka.

"The narrow-gauge railway in Meshchera forests is the slowest railway in the Soviet Union. The stations are piled high with resinous logs and smell of fresh felling and wild forest flowers." - K.G. Paustovsky. Meshcherskaya side.

A huge "peat empire" existed in the east of the Moscow region for several decades. Peat was mined at dozens of sites, and was transported to Shatura at GRES-5 by narrow-gauge railways with a length of more than 300 kilometers. The most distant areas of peat extraction were located in the Ryazan region. In 1952, the Meshchersky peat enterprise was founded - the easternmost part of Shaturtorf, almost 70 km away from Shatura. A narrow-gauge line was laid from the Proksha station, in the Radovitsky Mkha region, through the Pilevo station of the Meshcherskaya highway to the base village of Bolon. This line became the connection between the Meshcherskaya Main Line and Shaturtorf. Pilevo station has changed forever.

The collapse of the economy during the perestroika era destroyed the Shaturtorf system. Some of the peat enterprises were closed, the rest began to drag out a miserable existence. 3/5 of the narrow gauge lines were destroyed. Even the old Meshcherskaya highway, which was in the Ministry of Railways, did not survive this time and was dismantled. But the Meshchersky peat enterprise, together with Ryazanovsky, Radovitsky and Baksheevsky, were able to survive this time.

The Meshchersky peat enterprise is the only peat-carrying narrow-gauge railway in the Ryazan region. Now the remaining locomotives are being used for parsing the road.

A special crane removes the rails.

Although the station superintendent said they would be posted elsewhere, it seems to me that they will be scrapped.

PV51 car (basic version - PV40 car) is a 4-axle passenger car with a monocoque body for 750 mm track gauge. It is important to note the use of a load-bearing body, which is practically unique in the design of UZD carriages. It is widespread on children's railways and other railways of 750 mm gauge in the countries of the former USSR, although, according to reviews, it has a slightly lower level of comfort than Polish-built PAFAWAG cars, in particular, the small number of air vents and the rigidity of the course caused complaints.

Initially, the car was built for the UZD of the USSR Ministry of Railways and for UZhD industrial enterprises, the reduced weight and small radius of passable curves (9.5 tons versus 16 tons for PAFAWAG and 40 m against 60 m, respectively) made it possible to operate cars on UZD with light track superstructure ...

Warehouse for unnecessary sleepers. Once again comparing the number of sleepers and rails, I confirmed my confidence in the delivery of the latter for scrap.

Remains of rolling stock.

Although at the station you can see a lot of rolling stock set aside from work, the depot of the peat enterprise has retained several operable diesel locomotives and ESU

In 2007, only one site remained in working order. It is the only road in Russia with a track gauge of 750 mm, which is under the jurisdiction of Russian Railways and is part of the general network of public railways. The Gorky railway is forced to maintain a 6-kilometer section in the Klepikovsky district from the Tumskaya station to the Gureevsky junction and further along the branch to the Golovanova dacha station (another 25 kilometers), since this is the only normal road connecting the Golovanovo village with the "mainland".
In April 2008, the movement was stopped due to disputes with the administration of the Ryazan region.

Today, almost the only employee of the road, the lineman Sergei Alekseevich Nikulin, has been living and working on the Gureevsky platform for 39 years. With his own hands, he made a motor-car and carries people on it to the village of Golovanova Dacha (25 km). Acquaintance with Sergey did not work out for me from the very beginning. I arrived without a call, he was drunk, he was offended that I kicked his dog (who wanted to bite me), flatly refused to ride on the trolley, as the engine regrets.

The new motor costs 5,000 rubles. If you still want to ride, it is better to call Sergey in advance, here is his mobile phone: 8-905-691-48-96.

As of March 2009, the Gorkovskaya Railway, after conducting an inspection of the tracks on May 11, 2008, recognized the track facilities as "threatening the safety of train traffic and the lives of passengers." A total of 79 violations, 27 of which "require the closure of traffic." Rebuilding requires replacing 18 wooden bridges and three pipes.
The costs for the minimum required work are estimated at 311.1 million rubles, and at 428.3 million rubles for a complete renovation. The cost of operating the road is 3.991 million rubles per year, while fees (based on 14 rubles per 10 km) are only 0.336 million rubles per year.

"Behind Gusem-Khrustalny, at the quiet station of Tuma, I got on a narrow-gauge train. It was a train from Stephenson's times. A steam locomotive that looked like a samovar whistled in a childish falsetto. At the curves he groaned and stopped. Passengers went out to smoke. Forest silence stood around the gasping "gelding." The smell of wild carnations, heated by the sun, filled the carriages.

Passengers with their belongings sat on the platforms - things did not fit into the carriage. Occasionally, on the way, sacks, baskets, carpenter's saws began to fly from the platform onto the canvas, and their owner, often a rather ancient old woman, jumped out behind the things. Inexperienced passengers were scared, and experienced passengers, twisting goat legs and spitting, explained that this was the most convenient way to get off the train closer to their village. "

K.G. Paustovsky, Meshcherskaya side

The first known public narrow gauge railway opened in 1871. It ran between the stations Verkhovye and Livny (now the Oryol Region), and had a track gauge of 1067 mm. But that was only the beginning ...

The method of transporting goods in carts along longitudinal guides was invented in ancient times. In the 15th - 16th centuries in

In Europe, some factories have already used railways, along which manually or with the help of horse traction they moved

trolleys with loads (for a relatively short distance). Such roads also appeared in Russia. Initially in them

used wooden guides and wooden trolleys.

One of the largest roads of this type appeared in 1810 at the Zmeinogorsk mine (present-day Altai Territory). The rails are already

were metal, had a convex surface. The length of the line was 1,876 meters, the track width was 1,067 mm ( 3 feet

6 inches).

However, the moment of birth of the railway is considered to be the beginning of movement on the rail tracks of the mechanical carriage. V

In Russia, this happened in 1834. The homeland of domestic railways is the city of Nizhny Tagil. It was there that was built and

the first Russian steam locomotive, created by the father and son Cherepanovs, was tested. Our first railroad was short ( 854

meter), and "wide" (track 1645 mm). The locomotive was destined to work for a short time - soon it began to be used again

horse traction.

The officially recognized date for the founding of Russian railways is 1837. Then traffic was opened along the line

St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo - Pavlovsk, 23 kilometers long. Its track was also wide - 1,829 mm (6 ft).

In 1843-51, the construction of the first major main line, the Petersburg-Moscow railway, took place. It was

it was decided to set the track gauge to 5 feet (1524 mm, later 1520 mm). It is this track that has become standard for domestic

railways. Meanwhile, in foreign Europe and North America, a different gauge standard was adopted - 1435 mm.

The consequences of this decision of the mid-19th century are controversial. One side, the difference in track gauge 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 is holding back international traffic, leads to significant costs for the replacement of wagon

carts and transshipment of goods at border stations.

Variable-gauge bogies were invented a long time ago, but are still expensive and difficult to maintain.

Therefore, they have not yet become widespread in Russia. As for the foreign countries - passenger trains, composed of

wagons capable of moving on roads with different track gauges, runs on a permanent basis between Spain and

France. In modern Japan, there are wagons capable of changing from 1435 mm track gauge to track gauge, unequivocally

falling under the definition of narrow - 1067 mm.

Throughout the 19th century, there were a large number of narrow-gauge horse-drawn railways in Russia. The largest of them,

about 60 kilometers long, it operated from 1840 to 1862. It connected the Dubovka pier on the Volga with the Kachalino pier

on the Don river, in the present Volgograd region. Such roads were built mainly for the delivery of goods to factories and

factories - where it was not possible to lay a "normal" railroad track. The narrow gauge was chosen for the purpose of shortening

construction costs.

The first known public narrow gauge railway opened in 1871. She ran between stations

The upper reaches and Livny (now the Oryol region), had a track 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 just the beginning. Almost immediately, the massive construction of narrow-gauge lines began in a variety of

regions of Russia. They began to develop very quickly in the Far East and Central Asia. The largest narrow-gauge networks

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 (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 were also branches - To

Nikolaevsk (Pugachevsk), and to the Alexandrov Gai station. 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

near suburbs (St. Petersburg - Borisova Griva, 43 kilometers long), another appeared in the Lenskie area

gold mines, in the present Irkutsk region (Bodaibo - Nadezhdinskaya, now Aprelsk, 73 kilometers long). Soon

small narrow-gauge railways began to appear in huge numbers, serving industrial enterprises.

At the very beginning of the 20th century, there were already many narrow-gauge railways designed for the export of timber and peat.

Subsequently, these very roads will form the "backbone" of narrow gauge lines in our country.

In the USSR, the overall pace of railway construction has noticeably decreased in comparison with the era of the Russian Empire. But the number

narrow gauge railways continued to expand rapidly.

The years of the 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. The scale

railway construction of those years is impressive. Contrary to popular belief that what's in the northeast

our country never had railways, it is 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 perfect railway with a track gauge of 1067 mm was opened,

starting in Magadan. By 1953, its length was 102 kilometers (Magadan - Tent). The railroad must

was to become a significant highway crossing the immense Kolyma region. But after the death of I.V. Stalin began a massive

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 appeared in other regions of the Northeast - in Kamchatka, in the Chukotka Autonomous

the district. All of them were later dismantled.

Already in the 1930s, two main specializations of the narrow gauge were clearly manifested: timber transportation and transportation

peat. The standard narrow track - 750 mm - was finally established.

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 a record for the speed of movement on a 750 mm gauge railroad was set. In 1936, the railcar

covered the distance from Tallinn to Pärnu (146 km) in 2 hours 6 minutes. The average speed of movement was 69 km / h,

the maximum speed reached is 106.2 km / h!

During the Great Patriotic War, the number of narrow-gauge railways was replenished with many dozen "military field"

railways built by both the enemy and our troops. But almost all of them did not last long.

In August 1945, South Sakhalin was included in the USSR, where there was a network of railway lines with a track 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 have received significant development (while maintaining the existing track).

The first half of the 1950s turned out to be the “golden age” of timber narrow-gauge railways. They have evolved since

amazing speed. Over the year, dozens of new narrow-gauge railways appeared, and the length of the lines increased by

thousands of kilometers.

The development of virgin and fallow lands was accompanied by the massive construction of narrow-gauge railways in Kazakhstan. Later

many of them were rebuilt to wide gauge lines, but some were in operation until the early 1990s. As of

for 2004, only one "virgin" narrow-gauge railway remained - in Atbasar (Akmola region).

Narrow-gauge lines of general use belonging to the Ministry of Railways (in 1918-1946 it was called NKPS) took not the last place

among the narrow-gauge railways. But since the 1960s, their length has steadily decreased. Mostly, railways

tracks of 750 mm were replaced by wide track lines, built in parallel, along one embankment, or slightly to the side, but by that

same direction. The track lines of 1000 mm and 1067 mm were most often "altered" ( a new track was laid on the same embankment

Another gauge).

In the 1960s, it became apparent that the best days were over for timber-carrying narrow-gauge railways. New narrow gauge

peat railways were built until the end of the 1970s (and isolated cases of new "peat trucks"

were noted later).

The development and mass production of new rolling stock continued until the early 1990s. The main one and then

The only manufacturer of narrow gauge trailed rolling stock was the Demikhovsky Machine-Building Plant.

(Demikhovo, Moscow region), and the manufacturer of diesel locomotives for 750 mm track gauge - Kambara machine-building plant

(Kambarka, Udmurtia).

The 1990s were the most tragic years in the history of narrow-gauge railways. The economic downturn along with

the transition to a new form of economic relations and political changes led to the fact what started the landslide

reduction in the number and length of narrow-gauge railways. Each past year has "diminished" thousand kilometers

narrow gauge railway lines.

In 1993, the production of cars for land narrow-gauge railways of 750 mm gauge was completely discontinued. Soon

production of locomotives also stopped.

On some sites you can download the diagrams of the Electrogorsk narrow-gauge railway. I downloaded them and tried to overlay them with a layer on a real geographic map in order to identify all the routes of the now defunct track, but I was puzzled, since the schemes turned out to be very arbitrary and did not fit on the map at all on any scale. It also turned out that they are very simplified and in some places erroneous. It was then that I began to look for old maps of the vicinity of Elektrogorsk and save all the designations of the UZD there, which made it possible to make a new scheme of the Electrogorsk UZD in real proportions based not on conjectures and verbal descriptions, but on the actual maps available. Of course, this scheme cannot be considered complete, and as I find other cards that indicate unaccounted for branches, I will update this scheme.

It should be noted that some difficulty in studying this area is due to the fact that it is located on the border of the regions, therefore, the maps have to be investigated cut off and of very different informativeness (since there are more old detailed maps for the Moscow region than for, say, for the Vladimir region.

It should also be understood that this is a reflection of the URZ routes over the entire period of its existence, and not a diagram of an actually existing railway at any particular point in time. In fact, the railway in this form never existed for the reason that as the peat sections were developed, some of the tracks were removed and the tracks were rebuilt to new sections. That is, the scheme of peat extraction routes has changed dozens of times. The main long-lived lines can be considered the following:

Early years (30-50s):
Elektrogorsk - swamps in the southeast of Dalnaya - Timkovo - Noginsk.
Elektrogorsk - the territory of Novo-Ozerny - the territory of Sopovo - Krasny Ugol.

Later years (50-70s):
Elektrogorsk - Novo-Ozernaya - Dalnyaya - Timkovo - Noginsk.
Elektrogorsk - Novo-Ozernaya - Sopovo - Krasny Ugol - Melezhi.
Elektrogorsk - Lyapino - Zheludevo.

Recent years (70-90s):
Elektrogorsk - Novo-Ozernaya (- Dalnyaya).
Elektrogorsk - Novo-Ozernaya (- Sopovo).
Elektrogorsk - Lyapino (- Zheludevo).

Ideally, it would be necessary to make not one diagram, but a series of diagrams showing changes in the terrain every 10-20 years, but for this, detailed maps are not enough, and those that exist did not always keep up with the real changes in the terrain.

So that the reader has an understanding of how the development (and at the end - degradation) of the Electrogorsk narrow-gauge railway took place, I made a short excursion into history based on the study of more than a dozen maps over the years.

The beginning of the 20th century.

Aerial photography for cartographic purposes has only been widely used since the First World War. Prior to this, cards were not so attentive to small details. Of the available maps of that time, the Strelbitsky map is the most interesting, since it is considered a military one.

1921, 1937 Map of Strelbitsky, 1: 420000.

There are three varieties of the sheet with the Moscow region on the Internet - 1872, 1921, and 1937 (for our study, only the last two versions are of interest). The 1921 edition in the Elektrogorsk bogs area does not differ much from the 1872 version, it does not even show the Electricity transmission. On the map of 1937, there is an inscription that the railways are coordinated with the official index of the People's Commissariat for Railways for 1937. However, even on it, we will not find narrow-gauge electric mountains, although the Electric Transmission is marked, and there is a railway track to it from the Gorky direction. Other civilian maps of the time are even less informative.

1922-25 Map of the General Staff of the Red Army, first edition 1929, 1: 100000.

On some sites, this map is incorrectly issued as 1940. The reason for this lies in the fact that some of these maps were actually printed in the forties, and they are distributed as a set of General Staff kilometers of 1941, but this particular sheet N-37-6 is signed as I indicated. In the upper right corner it says “1922-25. First edition of 1929 ", below the inscription" Map redrawn at 1: 50,000 survey of GGU 1922-25 ". I could not get the top sheet.

This is the earliest map I have, where the system of Elektrogorsk UZhD is drawn in detail (if you have earlier ones - link in the comment). The main paths already existed at that time:
Noginsk - Dalnyaya.
Dalaya - Power transmission (future Elektrogorsk).
Power transmission - towards the Red Corner. *
Dalnaya outskirts, lakes White, Gray.
West of Ivankovo ​​(Lake Black).
West of the Power Transmission, everything is dug up and generously overlaid with paths.
It is interesting that the path to Pavlovsky Posad is marked by a narrow track.

*Note. The place Red Corner itself is not visible on the map, since the corresponding sheet of the map has not yet been obtained. For the first time, the "fork" in Krasny Ugol is found on the map of the Red Army in 1941, however, I will suggest that the branch from Elektrogorsk to the north was originally built up to Krasny Ugol, since it would be unreasonable to assume that the railway ends at the junction of the map sheets, while while the length of the track section above this junction is only about five kilometers. Therefore, I still attribute this fork to the construction period discussed here. The route on the missing map sheet and the fork I restored on my diagram according to a later map in the sizes indicated on the map of the Red Army in 1941 (in subsequent years it will be lengthened, and then it will disappear altogether - there will be only one way to Melezhi). For the sake of objectivity, I am ready to make changes to the diagram if someone finds maps of this period, on which there is a path to the north, but this fork is not.

1925-1928 Map of the environs of Moscow, German edition of 1940, 1: 50,000.

Below on the sheet of the map it is written: The map was compiled by the "State Cartogeodesy" at the Research Institute of Geodesy and Cartography based on the materials of topographic surveys of the Production Department. G.G.K. produced in 1922-28. on a scale of 1: 25000 and 1: 50,000 and based on filming materials of 1925-28. M. Obl.ZU on a scale of 1: 10000. The scale of the map is 1: 50,000. Reprinted by the German General Staff in November 1940, judging by the inscription in the lower right corner. In the upper left corner, after the names of the sheets used on the map, the year 1932 is indicated (probably, the relevance of the map from the point of view of the Fritzes). On top of the Russian names are German ones. Added some new roads by 1940. Sheet 5 is missing from the collection (just where the Red Corner and Melezha are).

The railways on this map are fully consistent with the previous map, but the path to Pavlovsky Posad is marked with a wide gauge. The path from Zagornovo to Noginsk is shown with a narrow gauge.

1928 Map of the Moscow region GURKKA, 1: 500000.

It completely repeats the image on the previous map, but on a less interesting scale. The path to Pavlovsky Posad is shown by a wide track.

1941 Map of the General Staff of the Red Army 1: 500000.

Unfortunately, I did not find a normal kilometer sheet for the general staff map of this wartime area, under its guise they distribute just the first map of 1929 in this list. This five-kilometer map repeats the previous maps of the late 1920s in the main ways, but with the omission of numerous branches in the peat-mining areas. This can be explained not only by the laziness of cartographers or the five-kilometer scale of the map. Here is what Valentin Kovrigin writes:

“In 1932, the whole city was in smoke, the peat extraction sites were on fire. There were water bodies near the sites. At first, peat bog workers escaped the fire in these pools. Then they decided to evacuate the peat and family members of the site management to the Power Transmission. They sent me by train, put them in boxes - that's what my sister told me. The narrow-gauge railway was filled, a steam locomotive failed on a burning field, the train stopped, passengers began to jump into the burning peat - there were many victims ... ”.

About the failed steam locomotive - this is not fiction - in memory of this event in Sopovo there is a monument to those who died in large fires at peat mining in 1932 and 1972. Thus, the reason for the "impoverishment" of the track network is most likely precisely the fire of 1932, and not the dismantling. The line to the north ends on this map west of the village of Pesyane in the area of ​​the town that will later be called the Red me maps).

1941 German map Osteuropa, 1: 300000.

Part of the railway tracks is presented in a modified form: a ring appears between Vasyutino and Alekseyevo (hereinafter referred to as simply a “ring”). Regarding this ring, I periodically have doubts, since on more detailed maps of other periods there is a semblance of a ring, but the paths in the southwestern part are not closed, although they come close. If you move the map further away, it seems that the paths are closed in a ring. But maps of this scale often have the ability to smooth and simplify. The same closed ring is depicted on Russian three-kilometer and four-kilometer maps of 46-47 years. More detailed maps (alas, for other years) do not confirm the presence of a closed ring, although this does not mean that it did not exist. Be that as it may, from this ring there is a new branch to the southwest. Many branches have disappeared, in particular, east of the village of Dalnaya and west of Elekotopervedachi. But they built a path from Dalnaya to a place that would later be called Sopovo, thereby making a passage to the Elektrogorsk - Krasny Ugol branch.

Lyrical digression.

When examining "enemy" maps, it should be remembered that cartographers, looking at not always high-quality photographs taken by spy planes, could simply confuse some railway tracks with ordinary roads and embankments. They could not send Vanka to the swamps to clarify whether there was a railway line there or not. Therefore, the "priority of trust" to such cards is less than to the Soviet ones. At the same time, any map is interesting for history, especially if there are no updated Russian maps reflecting that period. As a lyrical digression, I propose to consider the German aerial photographs of the city of Orekhovo-Zuevo and find the narrow-gauge railways of the Orekhovo-Zuevsky torpedo enterprise. As you can see, if there is a train on the tracks, the railway track can be easily distinguished from the road, but if there is no train, problems begin ...

The second photograph is interesting in that it has preserved for history a unique photograph of the cable car, which was used to transfer peat from the narrow-gauge station Torfyanaya across the broad gauge tracks Moscow-Vladimir. The Fritzes kindly outlined and signed everything, although they did not think that in 75 years someone would study it ... In general, the Orekhovo-Zuevskaya narrow-gauge railway deserves a separate historical investigation, therefore, let's return to Elektrogorskaya for now.

1942-43 (?) American map of the USSR 1955, 1: 250,000.

I placed this 1955 map between the 1942 and 1946 maps for the reasons below. This is a very informative map. New branches are visible from the main paths in the Electric Transmission area and between the Svetloye and Beloe lakes, north of the Dalnaya village. The Dalnyaya-Sopovo route is depicted in a strange way. It starts in Dalny, but ends about 670 meters south of the real location (if, for example, compare with other maps), although it repeats the bends in the same way, therefore, in my diagram, it was recreated according to a more accurate two-kilometer year 59, where this the path is already depicted as a disassembled one (and corresponds to the location of modern satellite imagery - now there is a dacha road there). One can, of course, assume that the first path fell into the swamp, and a new one had to be built to the north, but this is unlikely. If other accurate maps are found, this question can be returned and corrected. The path from Krasnyi Ugol is extended to Melezh and has a small branch to the northwest shortly before the end of the main path.

But again, since the map is "enemy", there is some possibility that in some places, due to the low quality of photographs, cartographers could mistake ordinary roads or embankments for a railway track. The disclaimer at the bottom of the map clearly states this:

In short, the map was concocted by American soldiers in 1953 from Soviet kilometers of the Red Army General Staff of 1925-1941. The accuracy of the map has been verified using aerial photographs. The classification of roads should be treated with caution. The width and existence of some roads are questionable. Etc.

What makes me think that the Americans had their hand in drawing the roads on the aforementioned maps of the General Staff of 1925-1941 after the 41st year is that on these maps of the General Staff the northern route ends in Red Corner, and on the American map it goes to Smaller, as on Russian maps of 1946 and 1947. In one of the forums I came across unverified information that "Planimetry revised from 1942-43 aerial photography." If we assume that it was so, then we will have to accept the existence of the path to Melezhi already during the war years.

One thing defies comprehension: if in 42 the network was “simplified” (according to the German map), and in 46 it remained about the same (the ring was allegedly already closed), then how could such a global construction take place between these years offshoots that disappeared pretty quickly? And we do not see a closed ring on the American map. If the edits were made between the 46th and 55th year (which seems less likely to me), then on the map we see the period when the ring has already begun to be dismantled. Perhaps the Americans did not delve deeply into aerial photographs of which embankments had paths and which did not. Therefore, as they themselves wrote, “the classification of roads should be treated with caution” - this map should not be taken as a 100% accurate reflection of the real railway system of that time. You still have to read about the quality of American cards below.

1946 Map of the Vladimir region, 1: 400000.

The map confirms the appearance of a ring between Vasyutino and Alekseevo, indicated on the German map of 1941. In general, the map is four kilometers long, and cartographers could simplify it by ignoring small branches. But if we accept the map as accurate, then the following changes have occurred. The dismantling of the branches to the west of the Electric Power Transmission and in the area of ​​the Dalnaya village has been fully completed. The Elektrogorsk - Krasny Ugol line runs to Melezh, but there is no short exit to the northwest shown on the American map. Departure for the road to Pavlovsky Posad is made along the western outskirts of the Electric Power Transmission (previously it was slightly to the east).

1947 Map of the Moscow Region, 1: 300000.

The power transmission is renamed on the map to Elektrogorsk (actually April 25, 1946). The ring loses its southern part, but a northward branch appears from the northeastern part of the ring. Pay attention to this detail. Presumably in the mid-forties, a kind of "snake" appears on the route between the Red Corner and Melezha (in my diagram - yellow-green alternating dots). The straightened path is shown on this map and on the American map (yellow dots in my diagram), the snake is shown on the map of the Vladimir region on the 46th and all subsequent ones, and in place of the direct path, they began to depict an ordinary road. Whether it was so, I do not presume to assert, because no final conclusions can be drawn from 3-4 kilometer maps, and I have not yet seen kilometer maps of these years. Otherwise, everything on this map is like on the map of the Vladimir region of 1946.

1956 Without a card.

Just a helpful quote to understand what is happening at this point in time (from mosenergo-museum.ru):

Thanks to the repeated extraction of peat at the former quarries of the hydro-peat GRES-3 im. Klassona received hundreds of thousands of tons of cheap local fuel. The team of the peat enterprise creatively worked on the prospect of the further work of the enterprise. New areas for the extraction of milled peat were opened and developed. New peat massifs were found in the Pokrovsky district of the Vladimir region and a new peat site was organized - Lyapino. During these years, significant mechanization of milled peat extraction was carried out at the Peat enterprise with the creation and use of various machines: milling drums, eyebrow cutters, pneo-collectors, grubbing machines, peat harvesters from rolls to stacks. The number of employees at the Peat enterprise declined at a faster rate than at the power plant.

1959 Topographic map of the Moscow region, 1: 200000.

A fairly detailed map, but, alas, it ends with the borders of the Moscow region and does not display the entire area occupied by the tracks. We see the following changes on the map.

Dismantling of all branches in the area of ​​the Dalnyaya village and Lake Beloe. Final dismantling of all branches in the northwest of Elektrogorsk. Only one line remained in the direction of Alekseevo, but several new short branches were attached to it. The ring was canceled, there is no more passage to Dalnaya. The direct route from Dalnaya to Sopovo was also dismantled. Instead of these two dismantled paths that connected Elektrogorsk with Dalnaya, now a new path was built from Dalny to the east, towards Golovino. In general, two-thirds of this path has already been built and is visible on maps from 1928 to 1942 inclusive, but it was not drawn on the maps of 1946 and 1947 (maybe the scale was not supposed). In any case, this route has now been rebuilt or restored, and extended to the Elektrogorsk-Melezhi branch, to the station that would later be called Novo-Ozernaya. Thus, the Elektrogorsk - Novo-Ozerny - Dalnaya branch was born, which remained the only way from Elektrogorsk to Noginsk. Also, from the Elektrogorsk - Melezhi branch, new short branches were made to the northeast in the area of ​​the villages of Golovino, Krasny Ugol and Melezhi. Also, from the Vasyutino side, the laying of a branch to the East has begun, which should go in the direction of Lyapino, but I don’t know how far it was laid, since the map was cut to the circumferential concrete (according to the quote above, in 1956 the Lyapino section was already known). The map is also interesting in that it shows several dismantled areas, which were known to us only from the "dubious" American map.

Lyrical digression.

Now we will again mention the major fire of 1972. Surely, some damage was done to the railway network, but, between 1959 and the beginning of the 80s, an unpleasant information gap formed - there are no normal maps. As a lyrical digression, consider two American cards (they are the same):

1984 American, 1: 250,000. Compiled in 1984. Revised May 1997.

1989 American, 1: 250,000. Compiled September 1989. Revised May 1997.
U.S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency

I put them in front of the 1979 General Staff map, since they are much earlier in content, although I don’t presume to guess what period they correspond to. At GSH 79, the branch to Zheludevo (Zheludevo) was fully built, but here it is just being picked up. At the General Staff of 84, only Dalnyaya - Novoozernaya - Elektrogorsk remains from the northern branch, the same map shows great prosperity: the branches Noginsk - Dalnyaya and Novoozernaya - Krasny Ogorkok still exist 1959, according to the corresponding map. Right there, for some reason, the long-depleted swamps to the west of Elektrogorsk are re-acquiring the rails that were long dismantled no later than 59. And the “tails” cut off at Dalnaya in the thirties and forties, grow back again They guessed, however, that the Dalnyaya-Sopovo route turned into an ordinary road, and thanks for that. Look at the Elektrogorsk-Pavlovsky Posad route, it is marked as a narrow track, although even on the map of 1928 it was already marked with a wide track ( which it is now.) Looking at this map, the thought that it was drawn by stupid idiots absolutely mindlessly does not leave. general staff maps - there is nothing to check with, but 1997 is a time when a great country has already collapsed and it is clearly not a problem to get Russian maps, well, either send someone to Moscow, buy fresh civilian maps at the Soyuzprint kiosk, or snap satellite images in high permission, but no, they are not ashamed to disgrace themselves and publish such garbage. In short, this map cannot be attributed to any period - it is a mishmash of all years plus the fantasies and conjectures of the authors. This map does not show any new railway lines, except for a dubious short branch up in the middle of the Dalnyaya-Nov. Ozerny route. I did not add it to my circuit. And on the map of the 59th, and on the General Staff of the 80s, there is a peat-mining swamp there, without any roads at all. Now there is a dacha settlement, and this branch is one of the dacha roads. I leave this map just as a demonstration of how Americans make maps. And it's called "Revised May 1997", despite the fact that the railway was completely dismantled in the early nineties !!!

Late 1970s - early 80s General Staff, 1: 200000.

Relative to the date, 1990 is from the authors of the retromap site, where I found it. The note states that it was made up of maps from the 80s. But the sheet with Elektrogorsk is clearly striking. Obviously, this sheet is older, since it still shows the last remnants of non-main routes in the north-west of Elektrogorsk, which will no longer be on the maps of the mid-1980s. It is noteworthy that only on this map there is a second road from Elektrogorsk to Dalnaya. The southern part of it was already visible on the map of the 59th year. On the GSh maps, marked by the mid-80s, this path will also disappear. Also, the road still goes to Sopovo, but the top sheet is fresher, and there, instead of the railway, the usual one is shown. And this is the only map I have that shows an offshoot south of Bynino. I hope this map can be found in the original with the date stamped and with all the sheets, then I will correct this fragment.

1979 GSh, 1: 100000.

During this year, only a sheet was found showing the eastern fragment of the railway (Zheludevskaya "fork") completed.

1985 GSh, 1: 100000 (different sheets come across, mainly 1984-86).

All routes to the west of Elektrogorsk were destroyed. One way goes along the route Elektrogorsk - Novy Ozerny (non-residential) - Dalnaya. The route from Dalnaya to Noginsk has been dismantled. Another path branches off in the Vasyutino area and goes east, through Lyapino, then crosses the ring railway in the Kilekshino area and goes northeast, branching soon into two small paths in the Zheludevo area ("fork").

1990 Unknown origin, 1: 350000.

The map is historical nonsense. The map is taken from the site of S. Bolashenko. How he signed it “Narrow gauge railway on a topographic map of scale 1: 350,000, published in 1990. The state of the terrain in the “northern” part of the narrow-gauge railway (the area of ​​the Krasny Ugol and Dubki settlements) - in the 1970s ”. The southern part is reminiscent of the late 1980s. North - probably 70s, but no later than early 80s. The path from Kirzhach is incorrectly shown as a narrow gauge (in fact, until the 90s there was a wide gauge). It is noteworthy that on this map the plug in Zheludyevo was not shown, there was only one way left.

Further consideration of the maps does not make much sense, since the memories of eyewitnesses are still fresh, which, oddly enough, are more accurate than maps.

Nevertheless, to show that the cards are not always trustworthy, I propose for consideration two cards, issued about 10 years after the final dismantling.

2001 Topographic maps of FSUE "Gosgiscentr", 1: 100000 (according to other sources 2007-2010).

Shown is the Elektrogorsk-Nov. Ozerny section and the complete branch to Zheludyevo. The map, of course, is outdated, but it is shocking in detail, you can even see how the narrow-gauge tracks passed in Elektrogorsk itself.

2004 Map of unknown origin.

Shown is a fragment of the path from Elektrogorsk to Novy Ozerny, with a branch to the east, to the district railway.

Map of the Vladimir region, year unknown.

And one more cartographic incident. The year of the card is unknown. I downloaded this map of the Vladimir region for Ozik in a ready-made cut and glued form back in 2005. It is noteworthy that the Moscow region was completely cleaned of the remnants of the narrow-gauge railway, while the Vladimir region was not. This is how the paths begin at the border of the Moscow and Vladimir regions, in the dense wilderness, and go nowhere ...

As a bonus.

Here is a chronology of the dismantling of tracks, compiled from information from the site narrow.parovoz.com

• The Krasny Ugol - Ileikino line existed around 1940-50. Disassembled a long time ago [between 1959 and 1985 according to the maps - approx. tol], even fragments of sleepers have not reached the present time, sometimes you come across the remnants of rails sticking out of the ground.
• The line from Dalnaya to Noginsk was dismantled in 1969.
• On the Sopovo-Krasny Ugol-Melyozha section, the road was finally closed in 1982.
• The line through the peat field was dismantled in 1987 [??? the southern road Dalnyaya - Elektrogorsk, shown as an ordinary summer cottage road already on the map of 1985 - approx. tol].
• The line to the village. Zheludevo was dismantled in 1993, but in the 90th there was still movement at least to the school. Lyapino.
• The main line was taken apart in 1993 by the very last one.
• Bridge over the river. Sheredar was destroyed in the winter of 2004.

And here is the scheme for destroying tracks from Evgeny Ermakov (I cannot agree with the accuracy of the scheme).

Doubtful paths and other legends.

Kirzhach narrow-gauge railway.

The Kirzhach narrow-gauge railway and the section of the route from Kirzhach to Melezh are probably the topic overgrown with the greatest number of fictions and delusions due to the lack of a sufficient amount of information. Some I have outlined on a separate page.

Bridge to Filippovskoe.

Many already perceive it as a fact that the train traveled along a narrow track for some reason from Elektrogorsk to Filippovskoye, passing over the bridge over Sherna. I saw the remains of this bridge and the embankment at the beginning of the 2000s. But at the time of writing this article, I was looking for facts that there were trains running there, and I could not find a single one. It is one thing if peat trucks ride in places of peat extraction, it is another thing if they ride in ancient residential settlements, which, most likely, had nothing to do with peat. Filippovskoe is a very ancient village, and not some temporary settlement of peat miners like Novy Ozernoe. People there need a connection with the regional center (post office, police and other affairs), and this bridge is the main route from Filippovsky to Kirzhach. In addition, this bridge was part of the famous old Stromyn road ("Stromynki"), which existed already in the 12th century. It began in Moscow, passed from Stromyn to Kirzhach just through Filippovskoe (the village itself has been known from written sources since the 13th century), and further, to Yuryev-Polsky, Suzdal and Vladimir. Although this road lost its commercial importance with the appearance of the Vladimirsky tract (approximately in the 16th century), it still continues to have local importance up to the present day as the most direct route from Moscow to Kirzhach, Kolchugino and beyond.

On the diagram of Evgeny Ermakov, there is an even more daring assumption, as if the train traveled through Filippovskoye to Zakharovo. But on all the old maps that I have seen, these roads (along with the bridge) are clearly marked as road roads, not railways. Scroll up and see the maps of the General Staff of the 41st, the Vladimir Region of the 46th, the Moscow Region of the 59th. It is especially colorfully highlighted on the German map of the 41st. It was later, presumably in the 60s, during the construction of a large concrete block, a new bridge was built to the north, and cars began to drive there, and before that there was only one bridge in Filippovsky (just the one that is now destroyed), they drove along it by cars and walked. Here is a road map before the appearance of concrete (blue) and after (red).

Who even thought it was a railway bridge? Even if after the construction of a new bridge this bridge was given to the narrow-gauge railway, it is still doubtful, because the times were approaching when the line to Melezhi began to be dismantled. At best, at some point in time, trains could travel along this embankment to the river for water, but I have not seen evidence of that either (if someone is in those places, try to find at least one half-rotten sleeper on this embankment). But on the American map of the 55th, near the turn to the bridge, there is a short branch of the railway, and on the map of the General Staff of the 80s, an embankment (dam) is indicated in that place, going to the ditch. On the map of the 59th year, this place is indicated by the place of peat extraction. There was an embankment with a turnout and a dead end. This is where, most likely, the train went, and not to the bridge, beyond which there are no places marked by peat extraction. If someone has facts that the train went to Filippovskoe, post them in the comments, and I am happy to correct / supplement the text, even if you just find a 100-year-old grandfather who testifies that he saw with his own eyes how the train passed through this bridge.

Branches to the District and Pesyane.

According to Yevgeny Ermakov's scheme, they were disassembled in 67-79, but I did not find confirmation of their existence on the maps. This does not mean that these branches did not exist, but some facts are needed to add them to the diagram. It is possible to assume their existence by examining modern high-resolution satellite images. Who will find maps with these paths, or at least books / magazines / eyewitness memories, where they are mentioned - write in the comments.

Research result.

Now it's time to take stock of this research. I repeat once again, this scheme does not claim to be absolute accuracy, but still a little more detailed than those that exist at the time of this article's creation. Additions and corrections are welcome. As additional information becomes available, the scheme will be corrected, so for railway lovers, we will decide to copy the scheme to our blog, it would be better to just give a link to this page so as not to produce hundreds of different outdated versions of the same scheme on the Internet.

There are two options for the scheme. SAT is more suitable for general acquaintance with the size and location of the narrow gauge network. GS will be of interest to those lovers of narrow-gauge railways who want to travel to the outskirts of Elektrogorsk and find the places where the tracks once ran.

I warn you right away - the scheme is still "raw", there are still some inconsistencies in places. The "dampness" of this version of the scheme is due to the fact that the same roads from different maps do not always lie on top of each other, although this is almost invisible on such a scale. Reasons for discrepancies - insufficient detail of available maps; the liberties of cartographers and the tendency to rounding roads (especially starting from 2-3 kilometers, and for five kilometers this is the norm); physical distortion of the map itself, for example, if it was not scanned, but photographed with a distorted perspective; various snapping problems. In many cases, a detailed satellite image helps out - where the route was clearly visible, I took this option as preferred. But it was not always so. Many places of the paths were either built up, or given out for summer cottages, or dug during the re-extraction of peat in old areas, so it will no longer be possible to restore the original routes, looking at a modern image from space. Therefore, there are two types of points on the diagram: square ones are used for track sections, the exact location of which cannot be recognized from a satellite image, and round ones - for track sections that are still visible from the sky. Some places of the paths from the maps of the 20-30s do not fit neatly enough, although the maps themselves are quite accurate. Most likely, some sections of the path could run next to later ones, but I cannot find out without additional maps, since such places are often dug up, built up or simply overgrown for 80 years, and are not checked by a satellite.

I used the colors for my own convenience, so as not to forget or confuse anything. For the curious, I give a transcript:

Red - cards from the 20-30s.
Yellow - American card (either early forties, or a little later).
Green is the year 59 card.
Pink - 59-year card, paths already parsed.
Blue - late 70s and later (GSh and later).
Gray circles in a red frame - possible route of the "ring" (barely visible from the satellite).
Black triangles in a white frame represent a wide-gauge access road to special facilities.
Black circles in a white frame are a wide track.

To avoid point clutter, only the early year point is used. For example, if the same route was in the 30th year and in the 70th year, then it will be marked in red. If the route appeared only in the 70s, it will be blue. Years should not be thought of as line years, but as years of appearance on the maps I have. That is, the road could have been paved 20 years before the publication of the map, and a year before that, but obviously not later. The years of dismantling of individual track sections have not yet been marked on the diagram due to a lack of detailed information.

The remains of the Kirzhach narrow-gauge railway of the silk-processing plant have been preserved on the map of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Gosgiscenter" in full and the western fragment on the map of the 59th year. The entire route can be viewed from the satellite well, from which it was also sketched. Other urban Kirzha railways are shown as narrow-gauge railways, as they are shown as such on the maps of the General Staff of the 80s. Most likely, now part of it has been disassembled, part has been replaced with a wide track (I did not find out this question, I just looked at the satellite).

Additions, errors noticed - in the comments or on my soap in the "contact" section. Any map of scales of 500m, 1km, 2km not mentioned here will greatly assist in completing and correcting the scheme. Wouldn't hurt especially for collection and for study real sheet GSh 1 km of the war years (and not obsolete for the 20s, which is everywhere given out for the 40s). I searched for it diligently but could not find it. If someone has - write to the soap.

History of changes on the map:
170210: first version.
170211: some sections were subdivided on the basis of the information found, station designations were added, broad-gauge tracks were shown (I drew them by eye, without checking with a satellite, since they are not the subject of this study). Now there are two versions - satellite and general staff.