Abandoned railway in Paris May 18th, 2015
We have already considered something similar in New York. Do you remember what it is? Let's now go back to Paris...
Few Parisians know that their métro was close to completely disappearing from the ground - in the sense that it could become ground transport. In the mid-1800s, every major city in the Western world was trying to solve the problem of transporting its residents and those arriving from the suburbs along congested city streets. Paris was ahead of the curve because back in 1852 it opened an overland railway running along the city's outskirts - hence the name: Petite Ceinture, or “small belt”. At first, it transported only animals to slaughterhouses and cargo, but gradually it was adapted to transport passengers and showed its full potential during the Prussian siege of 1870–1871, when French soldiers broke through on steam locomotives to protect urban areas. This was the first experience of mechanized warfare.
Let's remember how it all happened and what this road is like now...
Clickable
This line formed a circle only within the fortified perimeter of the city and connected other railways. It was a stunning success, and for almost 100 years the line served as one of the main means of transportation in Paris. But at the beginning of the 20th century, the need for it invariably began to decline, and by 1934 the line was practically abandoned. Over the years, the Small Belt has remained almost untouched. It is overgrown with moss and ivy, and even few Parisians know about its existence. Almost 32 kilometers of railway, several tunnels and bridges are hidden in the thick of urban development.
The gardens laid out near the Bastille, Coulée Verte, just stretch along the old railway. The parks of Montsouris in the south and Buttes-Chaumont in the north are crossed by abandoned tracks, and the Flèche d'Or music festival in the Twentieth Arrondissement takes place at the former Petite Ceinture station
Photo 3. 
Kilometers of railway tracks, almost completely closed to train traffic back in the era of pan-European decline that occurred in 1934, functioned for a very short time - only since 1852. And once upon a time, the “belt” ran parallel to the boulevard ring and surrounded the entire city, consistently connecting all the city stations into one network. The construction was initiated by the then Prime Minister Adolphe Thiers - partly as fortifications, partly as a means of transportation for citizens. With the coming to power of Napoleon III and the establishment of the Second Republic, the construction of the circular railway began at a rapid pace, according to local standards.
And not at the expense of internal funds, but at the expense of other cities - Napoleon III did everything to squeeze money out of Rouen, Strasbourg, Orleans and Lyon, honestly arguing the need for subsidies by the fact that “the enemies will not reach Paris, but the presence of the railway will allow, if something happens, maintain communications between the regions and supply food to the occupied areas.” The memory of the war of 1814-1815 was still so vivid among the French that everyone resignedly agreed. True, financing, like many things in France, proceeded at such a leisurely pace that the ring was connected only in 1867, right in time for the World Exhibition. And it was then that Paris truly became in every sense the center of France, where trains arrived - then almost the only technologically advanced means of transportation in the world - from all over the country.
Photo 4. 
Now only a few kilometers of tracks are officially open to the public - from Gare d'Auteuil to Gare de la Muette. They are protected by the mayor's office and have long been turned into an oasis where more than 200 species of plants grow and live by eating grass and its smaller brothers, 70 species of living creatures, including squirrels, hedgehogs, foxes, raccoons and other, not quite urban, living creatures. Now this is more of a park area, landscaped for visits, than the action that can happen in the quietest and wealthiest districts - the sixteenth and seventeenth.
Photo 5. 
And now there is another, more exciting part, which can truly become a fascinating journey to a part of Paris that is little known even to local residents. And it will begin, say, right next to the extremely popular establishment by Philippe Starck called Mama Shelter, where Parisians loved to go to drink a couple of cocktails on the terrace. And, by the way, where we recommend looking too. On a small street called Florian (rue Florian) there is a large gray gate that is never closed. Two steps - and you are in a completely different world, filled with flowers and graffiti, walking through which you can look into the windows of artists’ studios without a twinge of conscience.
Photo 6. 
Another way to enter the parallel reality of Paris is to find yourself in the old, defunct Gare de Charonne station, now converted into a fashionable rock and roll establishment La Flèche d’Or.
Photo 7. 
What can await this road today?
New York architects showed the world an example of how old railway infrastructure can be transformed into a modern place for city residents to relax. We are talking about the High Line park, which has become famous and has spawned many imitations all over the planet. A similar project appeared in France. There, the La Petite Ceinture ring train line may be revived in the future.
Photo 8. 
As we have already said, the 30-kilometer circular railway line La Petite Ceinture was built in 1857 to connect several train stations in Paris. But in the 1930s it was closed - its functions began to be performed by the metro. Since then, this infrastructure facility has gradually collapsed without repair, until the architects Amilcar Ferreira and Marcelo Fernandes proposed running new trains on the modernized rails.
Photo 9. 
Of course, from a transport point of view this makes no sense. But the authors of the project propose to use the trains at La Petite Ceinture not for transporting passengers, but for street trading. Each such train will become a mobile shopping center, moving from one station in the center of Paris to another. In the kiosks built into the carriages, you can sell antiques, souvenirs, fast food, sweets and other goods popular among tourists.
Photo 10. 
Tourists will also be able to use this train to travel around Paris. After all, the La Petite Ceinture railway runs through the very center of this city, not far from the main attractions of the French capital.
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February 26th, 2012
This branch has been legendary since its creation. Ask "Why?" - I will answer. Probably, many have seen the first Soviet sound film “A Start to Life”, or at least heard about it. There are scenes where street children are building a railway, which is necessary in those areas like air to provide the population and enterprises with goods in the first place. This is the “Dzerzhinskaya” - “Panki” branch, on which the “Dzerzhinskaya - Yanichkino” section is now abandoned (since 1997). The city of Dzerzhinsky is now connected with Moscow and Lyubertsy only by bus.
On the section "Yanichkino" - "Boys" - "Panks" there is regular movement of goods. The stations "Yanichkino" and "Boys" are closed to passengers, there has been no passenger traffic here for 15 years... (The station "Panki" is operational, as part of the Kazan direction of the Moscow Railway) This line can be called a striking example of how railway workers, unable to withstand competition with buses and minibuses, were forced to stop the movement of electric trains on the section connecting two large cities near Moscow - Lyubertsy and Dzerzhinsky...
It all started with the fact that back in 1989 in the city of Dzerzhinsky they decided to get rid of the crossing and barriers on Sovetskaya Street...
Address:
Moscow region, Lyubertsy district, Dzerzhinsky city, Academician Zhukov street (formerly Sovetskaya street), beginning at house No. 34
How to get there:
by metro to the metro station "Kuzminki", then take bus number 370 to the stop "Ploshchad St. Nicholas", then walk towards the University and the Moscow Ring Road 200 meters to the intersection of the street with the railway tracks. Further along the paths towards Lyubertsy
Calculator:
28 rubles by metro from any station to Kuzminki, 60 rubles by bus No. 470 to the final station. Total: 88 rubles
Let's go. So, the starting point of our path will be the gates and fence of the Leader Garage and Construction Cooperative. It is in them that the railway tracks coming from Lyubertsy rest.
At this place until 1989 (from the moment of construction in 1933) the station platform was located
"Dzerzhinskaya" of the Kazan direction of the Moscow Railway. The branch itself ended a little further - right at old Dzerzhinsky
cemeteries. Now the passage to the end of the branch is closed... Recently, by the way, only people walked here
four-car shuttles traveling along the route "Panki" - "Dzerzhinskaya" did not
more than ten times a day. The lack of direct communication with Moscow in those years was considered
a significant disadvantage. But it was more than compensated by the opportunity for free and fast travel -
after all, this was the “pre-turnstile” era. And Lyubertsy was still a pretty wild city back then.
Controllers appeared there infrequently, and therefore ticket offices at "Punks", "Boys"
and "Yanichkino" were not particularly popular =)
In 1989, it was decided to eliminate the barriers on Sovetskaya Street (now Akademika Zhukova), and the platform...
moved to the other side of the street. So it stood for about nine years, after which it was dismantled
Let's go there, taking a quick look at the old crossing...The photo shows how the bus movesrailway track... Also coming from Lyubertsy - he is that same victorious competitor...
This is where the same Dzerzhinskaya station was located from 1989 to 1997... In the photo
You can see a railway structure - a locomotive depot. Now abandoned...
On the left side along the route of our movement, the remains of platform supports are visible.
On the walls of the locomotive depot, local anarchists show us their creativity
Let's take one last look at the civilized city of Dzerzhinsky and delve into the wild, abandoned city
and sometimes obscene =)
Pillars are visible everywhere - supports of the former contact network of the branch...
Right there, on the right, there is an abandoned railway building
Dzerzhinsky Reinforced Concrete Products Plant (DZZHBI)
And then suddenly! Among the bare trees - semaphore! This is truly antiquity and rarity)
Semaphore navigation was almost completely eliminated in the early 2000s. Right here
time stopped in 1997, leaving behind ruins and such rarities...
Although... Further on the photos you will see that the rarities did not end there =)
Again, supports and vaults made from tree branches. A fascinating sight. Sometimes it seems
that you are walking through a snow-white tunnel...
All this is sometimes complemented by strange-looking fences of local enterprises... The canvas itself
Can't see because of the snow. We will be back here in the summer. In the meantime, the way forward!
On the right we see the buildings of the above-mentioned DZZHBI
We come out to a more or less open area. Here we see garages (GSK-35) and are quite active
a path used by local residents that crosses the paths perpendicular to them...
View from the branch to the Donskoy microdistrict of the city of Dzerzhinsky. As we will see later - it is built up
not only such dull Khrushchev buildings
We are entering the “thickets” again =)
Garages, garages again... And on the left is the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Soyuz" - one of the leading enterprises of the military-industrial complex in the Russian Federation...
Some wonderful remains of fences. Once upon a time there were garden plots along this branch...
Another support. Of course, the contact network itself is gone...
And here, in fact, is the fence of the experimental mechanical branch of the FSUE Soyuz. There's so much behind him
various railway carriages...
An eye-catching old passenger car on the territory of OMZ FSUE "Soyuz"...
This is the same house that destroys the idea of the Donskoy area as a Khrushchev area.
There are several such houses there
We gradually reach an area of the branch that is, albeit rarely, already in use. Here sometimes
trains servicing the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Soyuz", and in particular its experimental mechanical plant, arrive
The gates of the experimental mechanical plant of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Soyuz" and the plant itself. On the left you can see sticking out of a snowdrift
dead end limiter. Everything here is provided for maneuvers =)
The original building of the GSK "Science-40"
Oops! Another indicator that this section of the branch is in use.
And it is rarely used.
A woman traveler clears the snow from the arrows..
Access roads of the locomotive depot...
Railway worker's house
And here is the locomotive depot itself. They say that inside this room there is
a shunting diesel locomotive that travels very rarely...
The building on the left, slightly sunk into the ground, is a former vegetable storehouse with a very strange
called "CHP-22". Apparently, it served the Alekseevo CHPP-22,
which is located nearby in the area of Energetikov Street and the Moscow Ring Road
This is where the rarities begin again. For starters - garage art GSK-96 and icicles on
garage walls. The inscriptions deliver and show the election mood of citizens =)
Well, they also say that doors should be locked with a key =)
Garage-shed, welded from a railway carriage:
Another barn made from a former railway carriage...
There was an interesting sign on it... car 8T46
It was she who suggested that the carriage belonged to
defense enterprise. For those interested, here is a photo of the sign on the carriage. You won't see her there anymore, because...
... because it's a trophy! =)))
Here we go to the outskirts of the city of Dzerzhinsky. Lenin Street crosses the line ahead...
It looks funny - Kerosene in a suspended five-liter bottle =) There is almost none left there!
On the left in the photo we see the construction of a sports club. It was stopped due to the crisis and because
that the organizer of the construction, the legendary Dynamite (aka Vladimir Turchinsky), died.
According to the General Plan, by 2020 this building is planned to be repurposed into a kindergarten...
In this photo on the right is the same long-term construction of a sports club-kindergarten...
Local garages once again prove the famous saying that we have
first this very word is written, and only then the walls are built =))
I apologize for the swearing in the photo, but damn, how epic it is!!! =)
Let's look back at the city of Dzerzhinsky - Lenin Street and the crossing...
Again the copse. But it quickly ends, and in the distance an inscription is already visible, saying that
that we are leaving the city of Dzerzhinsky...
This is the border of the city of Dzerzhinsky and the Lyubertsy region. The rails are clearly visible here.
A week before the shooting they were cleaned and had a good run on them...
View from the branch to the Lyubertsy plant "Silicate"
Beautiful views of a branch with overhead contact poles...
Further, the branch slowly loses its patina of abandonment. From the open gates of the Silicate plant
The TEM-2 shunter leaves, heading towards Lyubertsy to turn around
under the "Boys" overpass (Oktyabrsky Prospekt) and continue the maneuvers known to him alone
Lyubertsy plant "Silicate"...
Freight cars, behind them on the adjacent track ChME-3, and in turn behind it a painted
in green - the traditional color of stations in the Kazan direction of the Moscow Railway - Yanichkino station.
Or rather, its station. Also closed due to the cancellation of passenger traffic...
And this is a branch to CHPP-22. She's a little far from here. But this path is one of the most used.
Therefore, the photo shows that a crossing has been organized on the Dzerzhinskoye (Lyuberetskoye) highway. Left
there is a house of a railway worker who operates the barriers...
Suddenly we encounter another semaphore. Here it is better preserved. It feels like even
is still in use, despite the tree growing inside it =)
A couple of views of the ChME-3 shunting diesel locomotive on the approaches to Yanichkino station...
Station boundary. We are very close to “Yanichkino”... But, unfortunately, the entrance to it is
closed and guarded by people watching from the house for all curious people...
Freight wagons...
Still the same ChME-3. Behind is seven kilometers from the Dzerzhinskaya station...
This original house can be seen at the intersection of the branch with a pedestrian crossing.
Apparently, once upon a time there was a crossing here in addition to the pedestrian crossing...
And here is the final destination of our journey - the Yanichkino station. Unfortunately, it was not possible to film the station due to
reasons described above. However, further on the branch finally ceases to be abandoned - along it
Freight trains pass by regularly. And only passenger traffic has not existed since 1997...
There are options for running rail buses along this line, but they are also very unlikely.
Because it’s easier and cheaper to run a regular bus. And most importantly, it already exists... Anyone can
get from the city of Dzerzhinsky to Lyubertsy station on route 20
Thank you for your attention!
December 24th, 2012
"The great space of Russia is unthinkable without railways,
the main arteries of life of a large country."
G.V. Sviridov
Welcome to the main page of the Forgotten Railways website! It will be of interest to those who are interested in railroads as a mode of transport and as a significant part of history. Descriptions and photographs of railways, stations and individual trains will be posted here. Moreover, the railways are predominantly narrow-gauge, inactive and access roads, and not multi-track highways, on which residents of the capital are accustomed to travel.
The purpose of this project is to show the reader how interesting railways can be, to convey at least part of this unique world, the beauty of which many people do not see. That is, the author does not set himself the goal of showing as much as possible about railways, but only the most interesting and non-obvious things that are worthy of attention. Many railways are degrading and being destroyed (here, reflecting the degradation of railway lines) - and people may not know their history and do not see the unique beauty of these roads, be it the surrounding landscape, train stations, bridges, extraordinary location, unique equipment, etc. This is the idea of this site.
If you see rails going into the distance, you inevitably ask the question: where do they lead? If you know that almost all regular gauge railways form a single network, and completely autonomous networks can be counted on the fingers of one hand, then the interest increases even more: where do individual tracks intersect and connect into a colossal web? Narrow-gauge railways are another matter; their main feature is precisely that they do not form any single network, and each small network has its own characteristics.
In addition to railways, I am largely interested in history, local history, art history, Russian cities, Moscow, architecture, Orthodox churches and the Russian hinterland. I pay special attention to these subjects when I travel, but I don’t have enough time to write about them, so I maintain the site only in the form of a magazine about railways. If your blog contains entries on this topic and it is updated more often than once every six months, then most likely I will subscribe to it. Feel free to promote it to me! And I ask you to subscribe only if my site is really interesting to you.
()
You might also be interested in my videos on Youtube. I also have my own “In Contact” page: http://vk.com/kirillfedorov4, where short entries on various topics, individual thoughts, as well as links to new entries in Livejournal are posted. My email address: [email protected]
. I am also the caretaker of the Forgotten Railroads community: forgottenrails
.
For ease of reading, entries are placed 10 on each page. To move between pages, click "Previous 10" or "Next 10" at the bottom of the page. Part of the large recording is hidden under links in bold red font.
Now - directly about the railways: a few facts to raise interest in the topic.
()
January 4th, 2013
In Moscow, relatively close to the center, there is a very interesting place for railway lovers. It is located on Ugreshskaya Street, at the very end, which can be easily reached from the Proletarskaya metro station by trams No. 20, 40 and 43. This is a place where the tram tracks are directly connected to the railway, where there is no clear line between the tram and the railway borders. It is called this: tram-railway adapter, or gate ( English: Gate). Well, yes, this is exactly the gate between two “elements”. There are not many such places in Russia (more often there are dead ends for unloading tram cars from a platform car). 
In Moscow this is the only thing. Rarely anywhere else in Russia on tram tracks are there manual switches, gondola cars with automatic coupling SA-3, and, of course, the unique contact-battery electric locomotive EPM3b, built here. EPM3b is a crew part from a now rare diesel locomotive
Lovers of landscapes in the spirit of Tarkovsky’s “Stalker” will be pleased
Moscow is fraught with many mysteries. It turned out that even in a huge metropolis there are not just individual objects, but entire railway lines, the existence of which is known only to those who are interested. "MK" walked through two such abandoned objects in the city and found out their future fate.
Along the sleepers - above the water
All lovers of the aesthetics of the worlds of the Strugatsky brothers will appreciate this location in the Losiny Ostrov park. An abandoned railway line, flooded in places, lost in the thick of the forest and forked, seems long forgotten.
Finding it turned out to be not very difficult - it originates not far from the Belokamennaya MCC station. By the way, the station even preserves a historical building built at the beginning of the 20th century. There are almost no people here - it seems that you have already left far from Moscow and now got off at the old stop.
Directly behind the platform is a fenced area. A lone guard says that there are not very many people who want to see the road, and points the way.
If you are traveling by car, you can safely enter the Abramtsevo clearing into your navigator: there the rails intersect with the road. However, to watch the line from the very beginning, you will have to go to the above-mentioned station.
For the first 500 meters the railway line runs almost parallel to the MCC line. The tracks are blocked with sleepers, the new LED traffic light is red. Here the rails seem less abandoned - we even have an idea that the road is still sometimes used. However, we quickly became convinced of the opposite, as soon as we went a little into the forest after the “piece of iron”.
Near the clearing, the road winds in a lowland, so after the rains the rails were under water. You can't drive through it, but it looks more than picturesque.
You have to walk parallel to the rails for about 200 meters because the water reaches almost to your knees. Tree branches converge over the road like a dome - it turns out to be a railway straight into a fairy-tale forest. On the side of the road stands a destroyed house, abandoned, apparently, for quite some time. It is quite possible that this could have been a building for railway workers. If you go a little away from the road, you will find the foundations of several more buildings heavily overgrown with grass and moss. A pole was discovered near the crossing - most likely, a traffic light was once attached to it.
Finally, you can go down and walk along the sleepers. Here, on the road, the consequences of the hurricane are clearly visible - fallen trees everywhere. In some places it is impossible to climb over them - you have to go around them. The rails are brown with rust - it’s clear that no one has ridden on them for a long time.
It seems that the road has not been used since the sleepers were changed, but along the slopes of the road there are cut down trees, to put it mildly, not in the first freshness. Most likely, they have been lying here since the hurricane in the early 2000s. They are neatly cut, suggesting that this road was still in use at the beginning of the century.
Sleepers deserve a separate discussion. Among them there are both concrete and wooden ones. If you look closely, you can see on the concrete sleepers the years of their replacement - from 1983 to 1985. That is, the road has not seen repairs for more than 30 years. Going deeper into the thicket, you can find old sleepers in ditches for water drainage. Most of the concrete ones date from 1967. It seemed that this was all, but under them there were also wooden ones that had been replaced earlier. Thus, in the mid-80s there was at least a third road repair.
As it turned out a little later, the road was indicated on maps of Moscow in the early 30s, that is, these same wooden sleepers could have been laid even when laying the “piece of iron”. She disappeared from the maps much later.
Meanwhile, we climbed over another fallen tree along the slope and came out into a relatively open space. Somewhere in the tall grass the rails are completely lost, and you can only navigate by the sleepers. The open space is a whole clearing of fallen trees and wet, squishing earth underfoot. It is impossible to go deep without the risk of falling into a swamp.
The trees lie on the rails in a dense layer, so you can walk without fear.
In the meantime, our path again went into the wilderness. Here, surprisingly, the road was less damaged by the hurricane, but in some places puddles still spoil the walk. The total length of this branch is about 4 kilometers, and, judging by the map, it should split somewhere. We deliberately did not look where the road led - we decided that it would be more interesting.
Old maps of Losiny Island actually show dacha plots. However, no matter how we wandered around the vicinity of the road, we did not find anything except one foundation. Somewhere in the distance birds are singing. It seems that no trains ever ran here, and the rails were simply laid by mistake...
Finally, we came across a switchman's booth. You could try to move the needle, but it was already very rusty and wouldn’t budge. The booth practically collapsed. Having rummaged through old records, we find that the switchman has been gone for a really long time, and often, while the branch was functioning, the driver himself had to stop and move the switch. Judging by the observations of local residents, trains ran here back in 2003.
But the forking branch confused us. We were fully confident that it would lead to different objects, but it turned out that the branches converged at one destination. There is barbed wire, and behind it there are obviously some warehouses - you can’t go any further, and you can only look at them from afar.
The Moscow Railway reported to MK that the railway line from the Belokamennaya MCC station, located on the territory of the Losiny Ostrov National Park, was built to a military unit and is currently not in use. In the future, it is planned to dismantle this line - the railway workers have already sent a corresponding proposal to the design organization.
However, we became interested: what kind of military unit is this? Having rummaged through the sources, we see that Elk Island was used by artillerymen somewhere in the middle of the 19th century. At that time there was still no talk of a holiday village, much less a city, but there was a small farm here. It was she who was chosen by the Artillery Directorate.
But if the warehouses appeared in the 19th century, then the branch is clearly younger. According to some information, it appeared around the 1930s of the last century. Since the object was strategically important, the branch was heavily guarded. Apparently, over time, the guard booths, which, according to some sources, stood along the roadsides, finally collapsed.
The road acquired particular importance during the war. Several trains passed along it every day, and the crossing at the Abramtsevo clearing was especially carefully guarded. After the war, the reinforced security was removed, but those same destroyed buildings near the clearing, which we initially mistook for old dachas, turned out to be guard houses.
Judging by the maps of the 30s, somewhere near the warehouses there were two ponds, which, however, have now been filled up.
Until the line was laid, access was from the Yaroslavskoye Highway through Bumazhny Prosek. Back in the 70s there was a sign to the GUTMO base. This abbreviation means the Main Directorate of Trade of the Ministry of Defense.
Marginal routes of communication
By the way, such an object is not the only one in Moscow. A great place for a walk can be found not far from the Elektrozavod (or Moscow Electric Lamp Plant) - there the line runs parallel to the Moscow Railway. Its length is approximately 4 kilometers. The tracks were built back in the 20s of the last century and connect several industries at once. The road is half-dismantled, numerous switches have been dismantled, but it is quite possible to find surrounding locations here. In general, after the liquidation of the ZIL branch, this industrial railway became the longest unused in Moscow.
There are a total of 4 crossings on the branch, and it itself is strongly curved. It seems as if she is going around some invisible obstacle. And indeed, it turns out that the Khapilovka River used to flow here. Now it has been hidden in a sewer, but the curvature of the road itself remains. Moving, apparently, no longer works.
Most often, such roads were built by enterprises in order to facilitate logistics routes around the city and not create traffic jams. These roads were on their balance sheet, but now, due to the fact that production is being moved out of Moscow, there is no longer a need for such branches.
The press service of the Moscow Railway told us that there were indeed many such objects, but the official department has nothing to do with them. “There are branches on the territory of the city that do not belong to or are not maintained by JSC Russian Railways. These railway tracks are on the balance sheet of various enterprises. We have no information about how many there are, where they are located, etc. The fate of these branches is in the hands of the owners.”
The walk itself takes about two hours. It is best to walk in such places in comfortable shoes, because after the Moscow rains the slopes of the roads are washed away. The road itself also looks very picturesque, surrounded by lush greenery - there seems to be no feeling that there will be, as they said on the Internet, “syringes crunching like snow under your feet.” Sometimes it even seems that a locomotive whistle is about to be heard behind you...
In general, there is no impression of complete desolation, as in “Elk Island”. It seems that sometimes the road is even used. The Ministry of Railways confirmed to us, however, that they have nothing to do with this road and do not service it. “The railway line from the Lokomotiv MCC station, located in the capital’s Preobrazhenskoye district, does not belong to and is not maintained by Russian Railways OJSC. These are access roads that are on the balance sheet of a third-party organization,” the department reported.
This branch once had strategic knowledge. During the war, strategically important products and shells were produced at the factories to which the rails were laid. Now, most of the factory buildings are given over to offices, and at the once huge electric lamp plant you can rent a photo studio...
After vacant lots, very urban, heavily littered, at some point we find ourselves almost in the forest. The bright greenery contrasts strongly with the brown rails, which already seem to be a continuation of the trees - large thick roots.
Here and there you come across abandoned buildings - most likely, switchmen's booths or other outbuildings.
By the way, to walk along this line in comfort, you can even book an excursion.
“You shouldn’t go to places like this alone.”
Such locations attract both photography enthusiasts and other seekers of unusual places to walk.
However, in order to ensure that walks and photo sessions are not overshadowed by unpleasant meetings and other surprises, we decided to draw up a small set of rules for those who want to visit such places. Roman Vaseykin, a photographer and tourist with many years of experience, gave several recommendations.
“Any walk through such places should begin with collecting information. You need to clearly understand where you are going, what could threaten you there,” says Roman. In his opinion, in the case of the Electric Plant, the real danger is people. “As far as I remember, it was a fairly marginal neighborhood, and the residents there were appropriate. You shouldn't go to such places alone. Even if you are confident in your abilities.”
In the case of Elk Island, people are likely the least dangerous. But it is quite possible to get injured and not get help. And here one more person is precisely the guarantee that qualified people will come to your aid. In general, you always need to calculate the worst-case scenario and be prepared for it.
Among other things, you need to be attentive to hanging wires - after all, for example, at the Elektrozavod the entire branch was electrified. And broken wires are also a reality of such places.
If we talk about photo shoots, then it’s better to just take all the uncomfortable, but appropriate clothes with you, and go in what’s most comfortable.
Maxim Khaldeyev, a mountain tourism instructor, generally does not recommend visiting such places. But if a person decides to take such a walk for himself, then he agrees with his colleague: first you need to collect information. Then decide what you need to take with you. “Of course, no one says that you need to pack for a hike, but it’s worth thinking about what to wear and what’s good to take with you. Someone takes some kind of self-defense means, someone constantly carries a first aid kit with them - all this is not superfluous.
Last Sunday, as almost always on Sundays, I decided to go to one of the interesting sites in my native region. This time my choice fell on the Khodorov-Rozdol railway line, abandoned in 2005 and dismantled in 2011.
A clear and clear idea that I needed to go was formed on Saturday evening, when I found a fellow traveler, Andrey from Novoyavorovsk, who responded to a post about a future trip located on a popular forum dedicated to diggerism and urban tourism. So, waking up the next morning immediately I ate, got dressed and set out on foot to the nearest stopping point in the Khodorovsky direction, which is at most a 20-minute walk from my platform house, Konovalets." I ran there just as my diesel train was approaching it. And even then, if If I hadn’t arrived at the last stop on the trolleybus, the trip would have been a disaster. But I still made it to the train. At approximately 11.15 our DR1A-203 built in 1982 arrived at its final station - Khodorov. The station is a fairly large railway junction - from It has 4 directions, but previously there were 5.
The ER2-1005 electric train, built in 1973, was already standing on the platform, ready to depart for Stryi. The old lady looked frankly pitiful - the vandals had reduced her to a simply terrible state. I have never seen more painted electric trains on the Lviv railway.
After that, I went to the local supermarket, bought myself some food, and set off in the direction of the supposed branch to Rozdol. At first, one of the access roads was perceived as this branch, but later it turned out that everything was really worse - the line was actually completely dismantled from the very beginning.
The fact that there was once a railway here is only reminiscent of an embankment and sleepers overgrown with grass. It’s scary to think that once upon a time, this is only 5 years ago, and some 13 years ago, commuter trains still ran here. A little further from The offshoot branch generally began to resemble a bush; young trees and bushes had managed to grow between the sleepers.
There were no sleepers left even at the crossings.
One of the features that allows you to accurately determine the location of the railway is a cable line laid parallel to it. Also, a thing reminiscent of the railway and its infrastructure are small arched tunnels designed for streams to flow under the embankment.
From time to time along the railway you come across the remains of passenger platforms, to which a train will never approach.
The first such platform is a stopping point, Zhirovaya, located on the outskirts of the village of the same name in the Zhidachevsky district.
It is a rather pitiful sight - all overgrown with moss, surrounded by bushes, the building of the pavilion has not been preserved at all.
The next stop after it is Podnestriany, located near the road and cemetery in the village of the same name. Apparently, it is one of the favorite gathering places for local alcoholics. There are even remains of a pavilion there.
By the way, it is in the section from Podnestrian to Tuzhankovtsy that the remains of the railway are the least overgrown and most reminiscent of itself.
The next platform turned out to be the last one on our way and, by the way, the best preserved - Tuzhankovtsy, located immediately after the crossing "across the highway, parallel to the railway" and running from Khodorov to Novy Rozdol. At the crossing itself, even the remains of the crossing duty booth and the fence were preserved .
At the very stopping point there are the remains of the pavilion and, naturally, the platform itself.
After this, the final and most stage of the entire hike awaited me - a visit to the abandoned Rozdol station, located in the village of Podgortsy, located not far from Novy Rozdol.
The station building itself, quite typical for the USSR, has been preserved on it. Inside, as elsewhere, there are the remains of a ticket office, a goods office, the premises of the station master, the station duty officer, etc.
Among other things, on the floor of the station we were able to find several rather old documents from the time when the station was still operational.
It was decided not to continue the road to the last platform, the Industrial Site, and to the Demyanka station, and especially Pesochnaya - it was already quite late, the hike took about 5 hours. After inspecting the premises of the abandoned station, through the village of Berezdovtsy we went to the bus station located on the outskirts of the city of Novy Rozdol.
From there, I took a minibus running every 15 minutes for 28 hryvnia and got back to Lvov. The inspection and condition of the branch left a rather depressing impression - 5 years after dismantling, its condition changed beyond recognition. But in Soviet times there were 4 people going here, and in the time before the closure passenger traffic (12/8/2003) - 2 pairs of trains, all the time freight trains full of sulfur from the Novorozdol sulfur plant were running. And now this branch, built in 1958 to serve the plant and the population of Novy Rozdol, can only remind of its past, and even then only to those who are at least a little privy to its history...
