The St. Petersburg Outdoor Railway Museum. 2006

The Varshavsky Railway Station Museum, 2006
The St. Petersburg Outdoor Railway Museum

After many years in Moscow, Harvey Smith relocated to St. Petersburg in 2014. There is a list of linked reports at the bottom.

This museum no longer exists, most of the exhibits have been relocated to the new St. Petersburg Railway Museum which opened on 1st November 2017.

Harvey has told me of a comprehensive (156) set of pictures of the museum https://picasaweb.google.com/116491154650765121187/RailwayMuseumSPB (added 28th November 2012). Many thanks to Alina Sinelnikova for spending a day compiling this record for us to enjoy.

Harvey writes:

Intending visitors will find this page very helpful - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varshavsky_railway_station.

The principal place of interest in St.Petersburg is the Outdoor Train Museum - for the indoor museum see the link above or www.museum.ru/Museum/RAILWAY/museng.htm or http://www.saint-petersburg.com/museums/central-railway-museum.asp. It is behind the old Warsaw railway station (metro stations Baltiyskaya or Frunzenskaya). This is the Russian equivalent of the UK's National Railway Museum in York . It is all outdoors but it is not to be underestimated. What railway museum do you know boasts a naval gun mounted on a railway wagon and an intercontinental ballistic missile complete with all associated rolling stock? The latter I have no photographs of as it is a recent addition. I have seen it, but only over the fence. No guide books are available. But you can buy a book of postcards as a good substitute and English translations are provided on the back of each board explaining each exhibit. Since these pictures were taken, a 'missile train' has been added to the collection - see http://www.englishrussia.com/?p=780. See also this link - ~~http://www.nevsky-prospekt.com/warsaw.html~~ (added 11th August 2010, link broken by December 2021).

Here are some of my favourites:

Class P36 4-8-4 Soviet Passenger locomotive. 251 were built 1953-56.

The enclosed cab of the P36

Class SO17-1137 Soviet Freight locomotive. Built by the Khar'kov 'Comintern' Works in 1938. Initially it had a smokebox fan, a tender with condensing apparatus and was used until 1963.

Class S.68 Soviet Passenger locomotive. This is the only survivor. Built in Russia before the revolution, probably in 1917. Designed by B.S. Malakovskii. This locomotive only survived because it was used as a stationary boiler in a factory in Moscow until the 1970s.

b-2023 Russian locomotive. One of the oldest locomotives in Russia, being built in 1897 by Kolomna Works for the Vladikavkaz. It was used until the mid-1980s in Grozny.

Class O^V Russian locomotive 6640. 8000 of these were built up until the Russian Revolution This one was built at the Putilov works in St. Petersburg in 1902. During World War II it was used as part of an armoured train. Harvey Smith reports that locomotive was transferred to Moscow Sort Depot in 2016 and was subsequently stripped down, presumably to be returned to active service.

Class E^Sh 34444 Soviet locomotive built by Nydqvist & Holm in Sweden in 1924 (The museum has a similar E^A 2221 which despite what the notice says is an Alco product.)

Class FD20 Soviet locomotive. This is the most powerful series-built steam freight locomotive in Russia (3200hp). Named after Dzerzhinsky, who founded of the Cheka. The introduction of this class marked the transition from European to American practice of designing locomotives in the USSR. Built in 1936.

Fireless locomotive, built by Schwartzkopf in Germany (9305/1928), it worked at the Tuapse oil refinery.

Class E^R Soviet locomotive. This was built in 1943 using the boiler from the S^U passenger class.

Class E^M Soviet locomotive. This was built in 1934 the “M” stands for a modernised class E.

Railway gun TM-3-12. Three of these were built in 1938 using guns from a withdrawn battleship. They were used in World War II until captured by the Finns who then restored and used them in turn. They were maintained in operational condition until 1991 (!!).

Class Ye^L locomotive 2201. This was built by Baldwin in the USA in 1944 as part of the lend lease programme. They were often used in Siberia and the Far East.

Class TE locomotive 6769. This is a German class 52 Kriegslok built in Vienna in 1943 and regauged to Russian 5ft gauge. The “T” stands for trophy locomotive. 2000 of these locomotive were used in the USSR.

Class P36 Soviet locomotive. These were built between 1953 and 1956

Class Tk3 Finnish locomotive. These were used by the Russians until 1950s. They came to Russia as reparations. This one was built in Tampere in 1943 and like many Finnish locomotives it is a wood burner.

Class L Soviet locomotive. 4199 examples built 1945-55. This example was built in honour of the 12th Congress of Young Communist organisation in 1954.

Class LV-18. This was a development of the L class and this example was built in 1953. It worked until 1982 as a locomotive and then as a factory boiler.

Class S^V Soviet Passenger Locomotive. This example was built in 1950, used until 1976 and then used as a boiler in an asphalt works.