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The Pereslavl Narrow Gauge Railway Museum, Russia 2009 |
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The Museum's website now has an English version - http://www.kukushka.ru/english/ (24th November 2009). This is the second part of James Waite's visit to Russia in early August 2009. The other parts are: It’s often forgotten that narrow gauge railways were enormously important to the old USSR. The earliest lines predated the 1917 revolution and were built to a wide variety of gauges. In 1918, in the very early days of the Communist state, a decision was taken to provide the country with a proper electric system. Many of the power stations were fired by peat and enormous narrow gauge systems developed to transport the peat to the power stations. The rapid development of industry and forestry along with the construction of secondary public railways brought many other lines into existence. Many aspects of narrow gauge construction were standardised including the gauge itself at 750mm. The system reached its greatest extent in the late 1960’s when it’s believed that over 100,000km of line were in use. Since then the story has been one of rapid decline. The Pereslavl narrow gauge museum was set up in the loco shed and yard of an old peat line in 1991 with support from the regional government. By then much stock had been lost but the museum has assembled a good representative range of what was left. The museum is located at Talitsy, a small village about 20km west of Pereslavl, an old town in a popular holiday area a little more than 100km north east of Moscow on the main route north to Archangel. Initially it had the use of the forestry line into Pereslavl but more recently local chicanery resulted in most of the railway being closed and its route sold off for private development. Now the museum has the use only of a branch line some 3km long which connected Talitsy with the main peat system. At least this branch actually belongs to the museum and so its future should be secure. When I visited two of the museum’s steam locos, a PT-4-type 0-8-0 no. Kp4-469 (Chrzanow 4384/1955) and Gr 0-8-0 no. Gr-269 (LKM 15366/1950) were in working order. A third loco, 0-6-2T no F t4-028 (Tampella 559/1945) was being overhauled and should be back in working order by the end of 2009. They are not run regularly though are steamed at least once a year to check them over and keep them in good order. The locos may be steamed some time this autumn for this purpose. Perhaps the museum’s star exhibit is 157 class 0-8-0 no. 157-469. The 157 class was designed at Kolomna works in 1927, the first post-revolution narrow gauge loco though its design was a development of previous types. The locos are generally considered to be by far the most successful narrow gauge locos in the USSR. However their axle loading at 6.5 tons made them too heavy for many of the peat lines and only 247 were built, a tiny number by Soviet standards. No. 157-469 is gradually being restored to working order though it’s very much a long-term project. The museum also has a large range of diesel and petrol locos and railcars. Full details are in the list below. There’s also a comprehensive collection of passenger and freight rolling stock, some of it dating back to pre-revolutionary times. Of particular note to western enthusiasts are a carriage and covered van built for the Pommeranian narrrow gauge system in north-eastern Germany which was dismantled and taken bodily to the USSR as booty after WW2. Like much of this equipment these vehicles ended up at the huge Shatura peat railway system east of Moscow from where they were rescued for the museum in 1990. Since 2001 the museum director has been Sergei Dorozhkov, a very keen enthusiast with an immense knowledge about the Russian narrow gauge and who is passionately involved in conserving more of the country’s narrow gauge heritage as and when it is found and becomes available. Sergei is an extremely helpful and hospitable person who made sure that all our needs were catered for during our visit and who also took us on a tour of the remaining peat railways in the Moscow region, now in their death throes as peat extraction in the region has been banned for environmental reasons. Sergei also arranged a trip for us along the Talitsy branch in ESU-2a-511, the museum’s example of this ubiquitous type of machine designed both as a railcar and as a mobile generator unit to power cranes and other machinery out in the peat fields. He has also been most helpful in checking the accuracy of this article, making corrections and supplying additional info. The museum’s official opening hours are Wednesdays to Sundays at 10.00 to 20.00 throughout the year though Sergei told us that they never turn any visitor away and that they must be the only museum anywhere which it may be possible to visit 24 hours a day for 365 days a year! However it’s securely locked up when it’s unattended. It’s best to stick to the proper times and don’t count on finding anyone around if you call out of hours. It’s hard to see how anyone could get there except by private transport. If you’re heading there from the Moscow direction when you reach the outskirts of Pereslavl turn off the main road where the bypass starts and follow the old road towards the town centre. Just after the kremlin, the old fortification on the left hand side of the road, take a sharp turn to the left onto a secondary tarred road which follows the southern shore of a lake. After about 17km you come to a village, the first since leaving Pereslavl. In the village centre turn left at a large blue signpost for the museum and drive down the dirt track for about 2.5km to Talitsy with the museum at its far end.
"The museum’s website at http://kukushka.ru now has pages in
well-written and idiomatic English. There's a particularly helpful
page with directions for reaching the museum and photos of the turnings
at the key junctions en route - very useful if the Cyrillic script on the
signposts has the potential to baffle you!" This is an excellent museum in every way and it’s particularly impressive considering the difficulties which have beset its history in many ways. Well worth going to visit. Loco list F t4-028 0-6-2T Tampella 559/1945. One of 30 locos of this class built as WW2 reparations and the only survivor. Once worked in a tufa quarry in Armenia and was later stored at a pioneer railway in Leninakan (now Gyumri) in Armenia where it was fortunate to survive a major earthquake in 1988. Arrived at the museum in 1990 as its first loco and restored to working order soon afterwards. Currently being overhauled. The museum also has the frame and wheels of a 900mm gauge 0-6-0T probably built by Krauss, Munich in the 1880’s which was found in an abandoned quarry beside the River Oka and part of the frame and wheels of a 750mm gauge E class 0-6-0T built by Kolomna in 1921 for a factory at Yegoryevsk.
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