The history of the Moscow Regional Directorate for Passenger Services (MRDOP) in the history of the country.
On December 12, 1891, Emperor Alexander III signed a decree authorizing the foreign joint-stock company “International Society of Sleeping Cars and Express European Trains” to carry out operations in Russia. 
This Belgian company was founded in 1876 as the Mann Railway Sleeping Car Society. One of the features of the International Society was the appearance of dining cars on their trains. In Europe they began to walk only in 1880. Its management council was located in St. Petersburg. The Moscow office of the International Society of Sleeping Cars and Fast European Trains was located on Teatralnaya Square, opposite the Maly Theater on the ground floor of the Metropol Hotel. Over the years, the International Society has increased the number of routes - trains began to run not only to European capitals, but also to the East. The Belgian Society had 10 fast trains, which, in addition to Europe, successfully explored Manchuria, went to Vladivostok and the newly created port of Dalniy. The comfort of these fast trains can be seen using the example of the Siberian Express. This luxury train consisted of 7 carriages: three first class sleeping cars, a restaurant car with a rich kitchen, a “pool car” with a gymnastics section, a luggage car and a library car in all European languages with soft chairs, cozy lighting, thick carpets. Fresh press was regularly replenished at major stations. The train to the East took 16 days, and the branded, thin bed linen with monograms was changed three times. By 1917, the Company owned 312 units of direct communication sleeping cars, including: SV passenger cars 183, MF passenger cars 39, dining cars 19, mail cars 31, luggage cars 39. The equipment and design of sleeping cars became a symbol of high comfort . The coupe was trimmed in polished mahogany, with triple suspension bogies providing a particularly smooth ride. The outside of the body was lined with oak planks and covered with light varnish; the inscriptions were made in bronze applied letters.
After the revolution, a decree was issued by the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR “On declaring the property of the International Society of Sleeping Cars and Express Trains located on the territory of the RSFSR as the property of the Republic.” At the same time, the “Administration of Direct Communication Sleeping Cars” (SVPS) of the People’s Commissariat of Railways was created, with its location in Petrograd.
Started Civil War and the devastation that occurred in transport, as well as the international isolation of the RSFSR, created enormous difficulties for the work of the SVPS. Most international trains were understaffed. First of all, saloon cars were sold for military and government needs. Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council Leon Trotsky from 1918 to 1923 traveled to the fronts and the country in the former international train with a bathroom car, a dining car and salon cars. The department of direct communication sleeping cars was melting before our eyes - its cars, one by one, were placed on fast trains with the name “international”. In 1929, these cars were transferred to the Moscow hub with the formation of the Sleeping Car Bureau. In 1930, the Bureau of Sleeping Cars was transformed into an independent organization with the same name, subordinate to one of the Deputy People's Commissars of Railways.
In 1933, on April 16, by order of the NKPS No. 208/u, the Bureau of Sleeping Cars was transformed into the Directorate of Direct Communication Sleeping Cars. The directorate was given control of the courier train Nagoreloye - Vladivostok (via Manchuria). In 1934, the Sleeping Car Directorate was renamed the Direct Sleeping Car Directorate. In 1935, on the basis of the Directorate, the Direct Traffic Sleeping Car Sector was formed under the Central Operations Directorate of the NKPS. In 1936, on July 16, by order of the NKPS of the USSR No. 168/ts, the Trust of Direct Communication Sleeping Cars of the Central Passenger Administration of the NKPS of the USSR was organized. In 1949, on November 5, by order of the Ministry of Railways of the USSR No. 367/ts, the trust of direct traffic sleeping cars was transformed into the Directorate of direct traffic sleeping cars of the Main Passenger Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Railways. In 1957, by order of the USSR Ministry of Railways No. 77, the Directorate of Direct Service Sleeping Cars was reorganized into the Department of Direct Service Sleeping Cars of the Main Passenger Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Railways.
In 1957, on November 23, by order of the Ministry of Railways of the USSR No. 2848, the Department of direct traffic sleeping cars of the Main Passenger Directorate of the Ministry of Railways was reorganized into the Directorate of International and Tourist Transportation.
In 1962, on January 9, by order of the USSR Ministry of Railways, G-681 was transferred to the Moscow Railway as an independent unit with its own balance sheet Directorate of International and Tourist Transportation with carriage areas, contingent labor and ancillary enterprises.
The DMTP included the following divisions:
HF-1 wagon section of the Southern direction
VCh-2 wagon section of the Central Asian direction
VCh-3 wagon section of the Eastern direction
VCh-4 wagon section of the Central direction
HF-5 carriage section of the South-Western direction
VCh-6 wagon section of the Western direction
Factory-laundry No. 1 – Severyanin platform
Factory – laundry No. 2 – Podbelsky passage
Sewing workshop
TsMB – Central material base
In 1999, on November 17, according to the instructions of the Ministry of Railways Russian Federation No. L-2645u and the head of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Moscow Railway" of the Ministry of Railways of the Russian Federation dated December 31, 1999 No. 246/n, the State Unitary Enterprise "Directorate for Passenger Services of the Moscow Railway" of the Ministry of Railways of the Russian Federation is created, registered by the Moscow Registration Chamber on March 31 2000, registration No. 009.234.
In 2001, on March 31, by order of the Minister of Railways of the Russian Federation No. E-543u and by the order of the head of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Moscow Railway" Ministry of Railways of the Russian Federation dated March 21, 2001 No. NRIsh-34/506 State Unitary Enterprise "Directorate for Passenger Services of the Moscow Railway » The Ministry of Railways of Russia is being reorganized into the Directorate for Passenger Services - a branch of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Moscow Railway" of the Ministry of Railways of the Russian Federation, registered by the Moscow Registration Chamber on October 17, 2001, registration number № 002.063.120.
Era: II-III
Affiliation: SZD
Company manufacturer: R. Mishin, M. Maksimov
Production start year: 2008
Model description
The SVPS passenger car model was first presented by Roman Mishin (Nakhabino, Moscow region) at the Lokotrans-Yug exhibition in June 2008 (Rostov-on-Don). Case material - teak veneer. Parts of "Egorov" cars produced by the company "Peresvet" were used (bogies, frame, deflectors, transition soufflés, etc.). The model is in progress. It is planned to design the car in the style of the Red Arrow train of the 1930s and operate it with the Egorov cars from Peresvet in the corresponding color.
A similar model, using parts from the Peresvet company and wooden veneer for the manufacture of the body, was made in 2009 by modeler Maxim Maximov.
Other models of SVPS cars with a lantern roof:
- from "B.V.-Zh.D." (small series);
- from "Peresvet" (small series).
Prototype description
Cars of this type were built before the revolution by order of the International Sleeping Car Society, which operated similar cars throughout Europe. In such a carriage it was possible to travel without a change through the whole of Europe, including Turkey and Russia. It was from these cars that the Trans-Siberian Express was equipped.
After the revolution, the nationalized cars were transferred to a specially created railway station in the USSR. Department of the SVPS Office. It also included a small number of similar cars built in Soviet times. SVPS cars were the most comfortable passenger cars on Soviet roads in those years (not counting a few special types of cars). As a rule, as part of fast trains connecting big cities countries (for example, "Red Arrow" - Moscow-Leningrad), included one such carriage. It was used mainly by the Soviet elite. SVPS cars remained in operation until the end of the 50s.
Initially, these carriages were varnished over the wooden lining; in recent years they were simply painted brown.
What was life like for a passenger in those distant times, when the railway was not as convenient and comfortable as it is now?
Mourners near the carriages on the platform of the Baltic Station in St. Petersburg. 1913
Engineer's Prophecy Pavel Melnikova about the coming great national destiny of the “cast iron” and its universal demand has completely come true: in such a huge country as Russia, the railway will remain very popular for a long time great importance. But the railway is not only tracks and utilities, it is also a special, unique way of life, or, more simply, a way of life...
“The yellow and blue ones were silent...”
In 1910, in the poem “On the Railroad” Alexander Blok figuratively described the carriage row of the Russian “piece of iron”:
The carriages walked in the usual line,
They shook and creaked;
The yellow and blue ones were silent;
In the green ones they cried and sang...
Indeed, since 1879, carriages for all railways ahs of public use, subject to the department of the Ministry of Railways (MPS), regardless of whether they were private or state-owned, were painted strictly in accordance with their class: the first class - blue, the second - yellow, light brown or golden, the third - in green, the fourth in gray.
A short designation of the road to which the carriage belonged, consisting of several letters, was also applied to the body of the carriages; sometimes its type (series), number of seats and class (if passenger) and, of course, the brake system were indicated. The image of the coat of arms of the Russian Empire was mandatory, in most cases the presence of the symbols of the Ministry of Railways. The inscriptions were most often made in large, beautiful voluminous font, often in several colors. Thus, the passenger train of tsarist times looked unusually colorful and attractive, or, according to the writer’s definition Ivan Bunin, "interesting."
There were also so-called “mixed carriages,” that is, mixed-class carriages: one half of the carriage, for example, had first-class seats, and the other half had second-class seats. They were used because the first class, due to its very expensive tickets often remained unclaimed and it was necessary to increase the occupancy rate of the cars so as not to drive them practically in vain. “Mixed carriages” were painted on the outside in two different colors: for example, half blue and half yellow. Those carriages in which the third class compartment and luggage compartment were located together were painted in the same order, green and dark brown. The bottom (that is, the chassis or, in the old days, the lower carriage of the cars) was usually painted black, the top – red-brown. Colorful colors!
Later, already in Soviet times, signs with the car number (black number on white) appeared on the side of the entrance to the vestibule, and under the windows in the middle of the body - stencils indicating the route of the car or the entire train (Moscow - Leningrad, etc.) . Before the revolution, there were no carriage numbers or stencils indicating the route. The passenger simply went to his class, which was indicated on the ticket. A place in the carriage was provided by the conductor. In the third and fourth classes there was no fixed seating at all: you were allowed into the carriage with a ticket, and that’s it – just like now on the train.
Third class
Lev Tolstoy talked about the last trip in his life in a letter: “October 28, 1910. Kozelsk.<…>I had to travel from Gorbachev in 3rd grade, it was uncomfortable, but very mentally pleasant and instructive.”
For Lev Nikolaevich it is instructive, but for others it is inconvenient and unpleasant. Noise, seeds, crowded conditions, or even a quarrel with a fight. And all this in shag and pipe smoke: traveling in third class was unbearable for non-smoking passengers. As Bunin wrote, “the carriage is very stuffy from various tobacco smokes, in general very caustic, although they give a pleasant feeling of friendly human life...” Special compartments for non-smokers appeared in the 19th century in first and second class carriages; in others, smoking was allowed with the consent of others passengers. In the third class, sometimes they put earthenware ashtrays - very spacious, so that there would be no fire.
And, of course, the eternal Russian carriage conversation, travel routine and legend at the same time, endless, like the very sound of wheels, like the very flow of life and time... In the third class, all classes mixed, “the common people” rode there: peasants, factory workers, and the intelligentsia, and priests, and poor rural nobles. The third class is a clot of people's life, its true manifestation. It is not surprising that the action of almost half of the works of Russian classics is sometimes transferred to a third-class carriage: what scenes were played out there, how destinies were revealed!
Statistics from 1896 are indicative: 0.7 million passengers were carried in first class, 5.1 million in second class, and 42.4 million in third class.
“The lady was checking in her luggage...”
The level of comfort in pre-revolutionary trains varied markedly depending on the class of cars - much more than today. The cost of travel is the same. Tariffs at the beginning of the 20th century were set as follows: a trip in second class cost one and a half times more than in third; and in the first - one and a half times more expensive than in the second. In turn, the fourth class was also one and a half times cheaper than the third.
It is worth noting another curious difference that revealed social contrasts, although, admittedly, at first glance it was of a constructive nature: in the third class there were luggage racks, and in the first and second class there were nets, since the public there (remember the famous lady from the poem Samuil Marshak) I checked large items into luggage. For these purposes there were standard four-axle baggage cars, although there were also three-axle ones. The baggage car, which always went immediately behind the locomotive, was certainly included in every long-distance train.
There were special luggage receipts, which the exact Marshak did not fail to note:
“They gave the lady at the station four green receipts.”
At the end of the 19th century, they charged three kopecks per item for carrying luggage. Receipts could be obtained either from luggage compartment at the station, or, in the absence of one, directly from the carriage workers (“trunk workers”). Nowadays, a baggage car, which is increasingly called a mobile storage room, is a relative rarity on trains: people mostly carry their luggage with them - these days it seems that this is more reliable.
The baggage car was usually followed by a mail car. Moreover, the first standard three-axle postal carriages (1870–1880s) were perhaps the most picturesque of all that existed at that time: they had a very attractive shape and a booth with a characteristic triangular sign “Mail Carriage”. Such cars, painted dark green, were common on the roads of Russia and then the USSR until the early 1990s.
Types of messages
Before the revolution, there was direct (long-distance) and local passenger rail service. It was clearly regulated. Thus, § 28 of the Rules of 1875 stated: “So that passengers can be transferred from one railway to another without renewing passenger and baggage tickets for further travel to their destination, trains so agreed are called direct trains.”
Mail car new design on the Nikolaevskaya railway. 1901–1902
The development of direct passenger service led to the appearance of carriages with places to lie down, but most importantly, it marked a significant social phenomenon on a global scale. Russian history, namely the significantly increased migration of the population of all classes due to the abolition of serfdom and the emergence of capitalist relations in the country. It was really about the mass movement of people. Then the very style of Russian life changed; in fact, a new worldview was being formed. Time and space shrank sharply, which was truly unheard of at that time. Something similar will happen in Russia again only 100 years later - when long-range jet passenger aviation appears, which will also change public consciousness and the idea of immutable geographical and astronomical absolutes - space and time.
The widespread development of long-distance communication began in the 1880s. Then, on the one hand, the railway network was advancing to the east, and on the other, the need to transfer from a train belonging to one private road to another at junction points was practically eliminated, as was the case during the era of distribution of concessions and rule kings of the railroad business until the 1870s.
Restaurant for first and second class passengers of the Kharkov railway station. Around 1900
The concept of “suburban train” took root already under Soviet rule due to the growth big cities. And before the revolution commuter trains were called local or dacha. “In the summer there were only 4-5 pairs of them on each road, and in the winter even less. At that time there was no permanent passenger - a worker or employee who lived in the suburbs and rushed to the city to work every day,” noted a modern researcher Galina Afonina, who studied pre-revolutionary schedules.
Several of these local trains served wealthy citizens who went to their dachas in the Moscow region in the summer. Their schedule was called the “Moscow Junction Dacha Train Schedule,” and the words “suburban trains” appeared in the name of the schedule only in 1935.
Previous service
Attempts to improve the level of service for passengers have a long history: they were noted back in the 1860s. At first, first class carriages were “sofa” (shelves were not known at that time). And so, as a special service, a variety of them appeared - carriages, where, with the help of partitions, so-called “family” sections were arranged, in which each passenger had the entire sofa at his disposal (and not a place on the sofa, as in regular first class). A ticket to the “family” section was, of course, more expensive than to the first class, where the passenger, although he could stretch out on the sofa, but only when his neighbor did not claim this bed (the sofas were double).
Before the advent of sleeping berths, passengers of the first and second classes traveled sitting or reclining on sofas or armchairs, covering themselves with blankets or scarves and often putting clothes or clothes under their heads instead of a pillow. hand luggage. There was no such inconvenience in the “family” sections, but such cars did not have a through passage and were soon banned by the Ministry of Railways.
Meanwhile, first-class “chair-bed” cars, which appeared a little later (they were first built in 1871 by the Kovrov workshops), served in some places until the 1930s. This was already a serious convenience! At night, the chair was moved apart using a special device and turned into a horizontal “bed, quite suitable for sleeping.” True, in carriages with such seats there was no linen yet and there was no division into compartments.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, not only coupes existed, but also such a now forgotten service as turning two compartments into one. Imagine: in first class carriages it was possible to slide open the door located in the partition between adjacent compartments to make them interconnected. By the way, this car is a distant ancestor of the SV cars increased comfort the beginning of the 21st century, except perhaps without a refrigerator. The compartment had a huge soft sofa with a raised back (it could be transformed into a shelf for the second passenger), opposite there was an armchair, a mirror hanging, and in the middle there was a table with a tablecloth on which a lamp with a lampshade was placed. There was also a built-in ladder for climbing onto the top shelf. And such compartments also had a washbasin (later a shower) and a toilet, albeit for two compartments at once. Interior decoration The carriage was distinguished by its sophistication: these are real apartments - with bronze, inlay, polished mahogany and embroidered curtains. The compartment was lit by a gas jet, and it was possible to “separate the inside of the lamp from the inside of the carriage” (in other words, turn off the light). Since 1912, carriages of this class have been illuminated by electricity.
It is worth paying attention to the following little known fact(a touch to the story about the service): back in 1902, on the Central Asian Railway, according to the design of engineer G.P. Boychevsky was the first to test a device for cooling air - the ancestor of the modern air conditioner.
Siberian Express
Unprecedented measures to improve the level of service are associated with the development of international passenger traffic in Russia and the emergence of express trains of the International Sleeping Car Society - with direct sleeper cars (SVPS) and executive saloon cars. Member of the State Duma Vasily Shulgin, who left Russia after the revolution, in “Letters to Russian Emigrants,” in particular, noted: “Russia was far ahead of Western Europe in terms of train comfort.”
The Siberian Express Petersburg - Irkutsk became the ideal embodiment of railway comfort in the eyes of the entire Russian society. It was truly a miracle of its time. The express carriages bore proud inscriptions: “Direct Siberian communication”, “Siberian train No. 1”. This train had only first and second class carriages with water heating and electric lighting from the train's own power plant. Since 1912, each carriage received an individual power supply driven by a generator from the carriage axle. Finally, it was on trains of this class that dining cars first appeared in Russia in 1896 - the invention of the American George Pullman, the founder of the famous company that builds comfortable cars.
The Siberian Express also had a library, a piano, a living room with luxurious candelabra, curtains, tablecloths, a barometer and a clock; You could order a hot bath for an additional fee and even... work out in the gym (yes, yes, there was such a thing here!). Passengers (also for the first time in Russia) were served tea and bed linen was changed every three days. There were table lamps on the tables in the compartment, but the shelves were already illuminated by small “spotlights.” The interior tones are noble: dark green and blue. This is where today's SV comes from.
Church car built at the Putilov plant for the Siberian Railway
The roof of the Siberian Express carriage was covered with copper sheets, and there were lighting lanterns on top. The lower part of the car was metal, bulletproof, up to 10 mm thick (hence the name and nickname “armored car”). Cars of this type due to large quantity The metal in their design turned out to be not only much stronger than others, but also much heavier, with a greater load on the path, so they could not be used on all roads. They were mainly used on border and resort lines along which express trains of the International Sleeping Car Society ran - Vladikavkaz, Chinese-Eastern, St. Petersburg-Warsaw. It should be noted that the Siberian Express took on almost the entire “diplomatic flow” - passengers, currency, and mail - in communication between Europe and the Far East. It was an international train, famous throughout the world.
From 1896 to the 1950s, cars of this class were called not SV, but rather SVPS. This is a significant difference. Let us remember that the term “direct message” meant long distance along a specific route without transfers along the way, which was a kind of luxury. Direct message - these bewitching words indicated a long journey, and therefore a whole event in the passenger’s life. A sleeping car is chic, luxury, a dream, a chosen world. The kingdom of expensive cigars, refined manners, short but hot novels, delicacy, inaccessibility...
About tea and boiling water
The author of these lines tried for a long time to find out when tea appeared on trains. Unfortunately, the exact date could not be established. True, there was a mention of one curious pre-revolutionary document - “On the prohibition of selling tea to conductors of passenger cars” (unfortunately, today we only know its number and name). One thing is clear: if the guides were forbidden to sell tea, then they had tea. It’s just not clear why. After all, titans with boiling water on trains, with the exception of the most fashionable ones, were absent until the advent of modern all-metal cars (AMV), that is, until 1946. There was no special stove or boiler to brew tea on the spot. The famous cup holders with the symbols of the Ministry of Railways and various twisted patterns made of silver wire or bronze (Kostroma jewelers from the village of Krasnoe-on-Volga participated in their production) were only in the compartments of the International Society express trains and dining cars.
The public at the station in the waiting room. Announcement at the door: “It is prohibited to enter the platform before the bell rings. No one is allowed on the train without a train ticket.” 1910s
Previously, most passengers had to wait until the stop to run for boiling water. By the way, the opportunity to get boiling water at the stations is one of the most important manifestations of humanity at the “cast iron”. In his lifetime, the author found only the only surviving booth with the inscription “Boiling Water” - at the secluded Bologoye-2 station with a beautiful old red brick station building. And once upon a time there were such booths at every large station. They were called “boiling water stills”.
All in pairs, with the clanging of their buffers, with the lingering hiss of the Westinghouse brakes, the next passenger or mail train stopped at the platform. While the locomotive was being changed or filled with water, passengers rushed for boiling water. There was a line forming into the cubicle. We approached two tall tanks with taps. On one it was written “Cold water”, on the other – “Hot water” (there were no tanks with drinking water in the carriages yet either). The hot water tap had a wooden handle, like in a bathhouse, so as not to burn your hand.
Steam burst out energetically and life-affirmingly from the tap, and bubbling water flowed with pressure. Everyone came here with their own kettle or pot, or even two, if an elderly neighbor-passenger or some pretty girl asked for boiling water (a great reason to get acquainted!). In winter, passengers hurried to return to the carriage as quickly as possible so that the boiling water would not get cold: God forbid, the frosts were not like these days.
Most likely, the document mentioned above meant tea leaves, not a finished drink. Apparently, the conductors had to provide the tea leaves to the passengers, and they were forbidden to sell it outside. And so the people brought everything with them - tea and food. Remember in “The Twelve Chairs” by Ilf and Petrov? “When the train cuts the switch, numerous teapots rattle on the shelves and chickens wrapped in newspaper bags jump up and down”...
Tariffs and “cardboards”
To what extent was comfortable train travel available before the revolution? Let's try to answer this question by turning to documents from those years. Let us present the “per-face tariffs” for 1914 for the most popular distances, according to statistics.
Obviously, at that time few people could afford to travel in first and second class carriages. It is not for nothing that the trains, as a rule, had from one to three blue and yellow cars, while the green ones were from four to six. This can also be seen as a manifestation of humanity: the common people under such circumstances were not deprived of transportation.
Free ticket for railway travel for the fireman of the Moscow depot N. Kasatkin. 1910
A ticket was considered valid if it had a composter’s mark (hence the expression “punch”). The composter punched the departure date and train number on the ticket. Therefore, hand-sold tickets were checked for transparency. The ticket itself indicated the departure and destination stations (in typographical form), the train number and the class of the carriage. Since the mid-1920s, the seat (if required) and the car number were also indicated - manually, with a station stamp or pen, and later with a ballpoint pen.
Few people remember that until the 1950s, access to the platform (but not to the station building) was paid: you had to buy a “platform” ticket at the ticket office. It cost a penny (at the beginning of the 20th century - within 10 kopecks, and in the 1950s - 1 ruble in the money of that time), but without it, those seeing off and greeting could not get to the train. This was a legacy of Kleinmichel's times with their strictness towards all private individuals located at the station.
The classic ticket “cardboard” is a special symbol of the railway world. They were of the most different colors, shades, patterns - mostly red-brown or brownish (tickets for long-distance trains) and green, with a special background texture (for commuter trains), and sometimes with certain zigzags, imprints, stripes and strokes, understandable only cashiers The conductors' bag for tickets had pockets strictly the size of a "cardboard" - everything on the railway was always regulated.
"Passenger" train
“To go on a journey by rail” used to sound like this – “to go on a cast iron road” or “to go by car” or simply “by car”. Leo Tolstoy in the story “The Girl and the Mushrooms” (about how a girl was run over by a steam locomotive but survived) calls the train a “machine” in the folk manner. Later they began to say - “by train”, “by train” or (half jokingly) “by steam locomotive”, “by steam locomotive”. Although steam locomotives have not been on the lines for a long time, this expression has remained forever, as has the designation of a steam locomotive on all kinds of logos with railway symbols, in particular even on road signs at crossings. This machine is immortal in its expressive power.
Passenger trains were initially called "passenger" trains. In Bunin’s scary accusatory tale about Emelya the Fool, we read: “The stove immediately... came out with him and flew like an arrow, and he collapsed on it, just like on a passenger train on a steam locomotive.” There was even such an offensive children's tease:
“Fat, fat, passenger train!” Perhaps because of this phonetic association with the word “fat”, the term “passenger” was sounded with a lighter and more flying version - “passenger”. It must be said that railway workers still call passenger service workers “passengers” among themselves.
Even taking a quick look at the history of railway passenger services in Russia, it is not difficult to imagine how attractive and exciting the journey along the “cast iron” used to be, especially for people who were romantically inclined.
The history of railway communications is not only a fascinating engineering and technical epic, but also a lyrical story about countless events and impressions, meetings and partings, dates and partings, about the mystical infinity of the harsh horizon pierced by rails, about spaces rapidly moving to the sound of wheels, about the roar the directional wind and the voice of the whistle...
It is difficult to name anything else similar in observable history that would so quickly coincide with the everyday life of people, with such force would influence the existence of the people, on the idea of time and space, and at the same time would so easily become familiar and vital, immediately becoming a tradition, covered in legends and songs. Therefore, the romance and originality of the railway track, even under the influence of technological progress and the growing comfort of movement along with it, will never go away - as long as the sound of wheels, station fares and the distance running outside the window remain...
Alexey Vulfov
Vulfov A.B. Everyday life Russian railways. M., 2007
MOLOCCHNIKOV R.V., INDRA I.L., BOCHENKOV V.V., BYCHKOVA E.V. Kolomna plant. Cars. Ryazan, 2016
The station was shining in the blue darkness of the frosty night... From under the finished train, illuminated from above by matte electric balls, hot hissing gray steam, smelling of rubber, poured out. The international carriage stood out with its yellowish wood paneling. Inside it, in a narrow corridor under a red carpet, in the motley shine of walls upholstered in embossed leather and thick, grainy door glass, there was already a foreign country. A Pole conductor in a uniform brown jacket opened the door into a small compartment, very hot, with a tight, ready-made bed, softly lit by a table lamp under a silk red lampshade” (I. Bunin “Henry”).
Unprecedented measures to improve comfort are associated with the development of international passenger traffic in Russia and the appearance here of express trains of the International Sleeping Car Society - SVPS and long-length service saloon cars (22–25 meters) on four or six axles. State Duma member V.V. Shulgin, who left Russia after the revolution, wrote in his “Letters to the Russian Emigration”: “Russia was far ahead of Western Europe in terms of train comfort.”
The embodiment of railway comfort in the eyes of the entire Russian society was the Siberian Express St. Petersburg - Irkutsk (later, under Soviet rule, until the annexation of Western Belarus - the Negoreloe - Vladivostok train). It was truly a miracle of its time. The express carriages had proud inscriptions: “Direct Siberian communication”, “Siberian train No. 1” (there were several sets of such trains, and each was numbered differently). This train had only class I and II cars with water heating, with electric lighting from the train's own power plant, and since 1912, each car had individual power supply driven by a generator from the car axle. Since 1896, for the first time in Russia, dining cars appeared on trains of this class - the invention of the American George Pullman, the creator of long-distance comfortable passenger service.
The Siberian Express also had a library, a piano, a living room with luxurious candelabra, curtains, tablecloths, a barometer and clock, billiards; You could order a hot bath for an additional fee and even... work out in the gym (yes, yes, there was one here!). In the carriages (also for the first time in Russia), tea was served in the compartment and bed linen was changed every three days. There were table lamps on the tables in the compartment, but the shelves themselves were already illuminated by small “spotlights” (Vladimir Nabokov calls them “tulip-shaped”). The roof of the Siberian Express carriage was covered with copper sheets, and there were lighting lanterns on top. Bottom part international carriages, belonging to the so-called Polonceau type, was metal, bulletproof, up to 10 millimeters thick (hence the nickname “armored carriage”), the windows were large and wide. The tones of the interior decoration are noble - dark green and blue. Due to the large amount of metal in their design, the cars were not only much stronger than other cars, especially with wooden frames, but also much heavier and longer, with a large load on the track, so they could not be used on all roads. Basically, such cars were used on border and resort lines along which express trains of the International Society of Sleeping Cars ran - Vladikavkaz, China-East, St. Petersburg-Warsaw. It must be said that the Siberian Express took on almost the entire diplomatic flow of passengers, currency and mail in the Europe - Far East. It was an international train, famous throughout the world.
This is where today's SV - "sleeping car" - comes from. It would seem that almost every Russian passenger car can be called a sleeper car. However, in the period from 1896 to the 1950s, such cars were not called SV, but rather SVPS - “direct sleeper car.” This is a significant difference. The term “direct communication” meant long-distance communication along one specific route without transfers along the way, which was a kind of luxury. After all, there was almost no direct communication at a distance of over 2 thousand miles: even when traveling from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok by trains of the International Society, it was necessary to change in Irkutsk to the same “Siberian train”. There were almost no long-distance direct train routes - the trains had only direct carriages. That is, if today they indicate, for example: “Fast train number 2 Moscow - Volgograd,” then before it sounded different: “Direct non-stop communication Moscow - Tsaritsyn on courier train number 2.” There were no stencils on the cars indicating the train route.
“Direct message” - these bewitching words meant a long railway route, which means, one way or another, a whole event in the fate of the passenger. “Sleeping Car” - chic, luxury, dream, chosen world. The kingdom of expensive cigars, refined manners, short but hot novels, delicacy, inaccessibility...
It must be said that before the revolution, a very high, almost modern level of proprietary passenger service was achieved on Russian railways. Of course, only rich private roads that had a large passenger flow (that is, demand for transportation) were capable of its development. One of the best is Vladikavkaz. We drove along it, as they said then, “to the mines” - that is, to mineral water and in general to the Caucasus. The “Illustrated Practical Guide” to this road in 1915 (author - a certain Grigory Moskvich) with an image on the title page of the Pacific courier locomotive - the pride of those years - read:
"Between many major centers And in the regions of Russia and the Caucasus, in the summer, for the convenience of the traveling and medical public, direct trains are arranged, usually equipped with the best railway facilities. In addition to the absence of transfers that have long troubled sick and nervous people, these trains have a number of significant amenities: there is usually a dining car, electric or gas lighting has been introduced on most lines; Each carriage has special servants to serve passengers - the so-called conductors (a profession that had just appeared at that time - A V.); These trains, being fast in their movement, do not stop for a long time at intermediate stations; all seats in the cars are numbered, and there are almost no cases of strangers, so to speak “extra” people, getting into these trains... In class I and I cars, a set of bed linen is provided (1 rub.), and in class III on some lines (from Petrograd, etc.) for a small fee (40 kopecks) a mattress with sheets is provided for the night, the cleanliness of which is guaranteed by a seal on the bag containing them, which is opened in front of the passenger. During breakfast and lunch hours, waiters and boys from the dining car walk around the III class carriages, serving tea, coffee, breakfast and lunch to those who wish at a fairly inexpensive price.”
And such trips took place in the midst of the First World War! What enormous power the country must have had in order to allow itself to develop comfortable railway and tourist communications in such difficult times! True, from the end of November 1914, a war tax was introduced on fares in classes I, II and III - 25% of the ticket price (reserved seats were not taxed), but this is the only mention of the war in Mr. Moskvich’s entire guide.
Valentin Kataev wrote in his memoir “My Diamond Crown”:
“We will travel in this carriage,” I said and pointed with my finger at a carriage of the International Sleeping Car Society, preserved from pre-revolutionary times, with copper British lions on brown wooden paneling, waxed like parquet. The bird catcher, of course, knew about the existence of such cars - “slipping cars”, read about them in books, but he never imagined that he would ever be able to ride in such a car. He looked through the window of the carriage, saw a two-seater compartment trimmed with red polished wood on copper screws, walls covered with green velvet, a copper lampshade for a table electric light bulb, a heavy ashtray, a thick crystal decanter, a mirror, and still looked at me with disbelief. I showed him the colored bilingual International Sleeping Car Society reserved seat receipts, after which, after sadly kissing my wife and asking her to keep an eye on the birds and my son, I clumsily squeezed past the conductor in a brown uniform jacket into the carriage, where he was immediately overwhelmed by the pine smell special forest water, which was regularly sprayed onto the shining corridor of the sleeping car with a row of brightly polished copper locks and handles on the varnished, mahogany doors of the compartment. Feeling extremely embarrassed in the midst of this comfort in his home-made sweatshirt, fearing in the depths of his soul that all this might turn out to be a hoax and that we would be thrown off the train in disgrace at the nearest station, somewhere on Razdelnaya or Birzula, the bird catcher climbed onto the top bunk with the already open bed, white with immaculate slippery cool sheets, he huddled there and snorted for the first hundred kilometers, like a badger in its hole, elastically tossed by international springs.”
SVPS was the highest, but, as it turned out, not the last stage of railway comfort. At the beginning of the 21st century, Grand Express trains introduced cars with even greater comfort, as they now say - increased, with international hotel class equipment: with a large double bed, an armchair, a refrigerator, a TV and a telephone in the compartment and with a private bathroom room. With a ticket for such a carriage, a passenger can take a companion (or fellow traveler) with him free of charge at his discretion.
I look at the photo of the SVPS (previously, it was covered on the outside with a slat made of valuable types of wood; this slat, in fact, received the nickname “lining”; the car was varnished, the color was soft brown, according to V. Nabokov - “brown”) and I think: what does it remind me of something so ancient? Why, it is very similar to the very first first class carriages of the Aleksandrovsky plant in the 1840s, with which it all began on cast iron! The same impressiveness, great length, the same high and frequent windows, the same monumental design. Except that vestibules appeared instead of open areas (entrance), and, of course, carts of a much more advanced design.
What, it would seem, can be found special in carriage trolleys? But there are no trifles on the railway - everything is significant in its history. In creating comfort for passengers, the carriage bogies play a very important role, on which the smoothness of the ride depends. For example, one of the stages in the development of carriage bogies is associated with an entire period in the history of our state, and its most important pages. We are talking about a three-axle bogie that was equipped with “armored” cars.
Saloon cars "about six axles of the Vladikavkaz type" 25 meters long, transporting the tsar, members of the government, the generalissimo, marshals, ministers, major diplomats, senior railway officials, had a partially armored body (weighed 20 tons more than the modern TsMV), due to What was missing from the usual four axles in the bogies was that six axles had to be used in order to place the heavy mass of the car on them. Instead of one of the vestibules, there was an observation lounge-living room in the front part of the car, furnished with luxurious furniture. Carpets, a bathroom, a kitchen, a dining room, two compartments for attendants and servants - and this very hall with luxurious clocks, chairs and tables, where meetings were held, inspections of lines or military positions, where the fate of the country was decided, the turns of its history were twisted to the sound of wheels. ... In case of danger, the windows could be closed tightly, and with bulletproof curtains. “The carriage with curtains passed,” says one poem, this meant: some important state events were to take place... The doors in the salon carriage were also bulletproof, very heavy. There were secret holes on the floor for leaving the carriage in case of danger. The salon car had all types of communication possible for its time, its own generator and electric lighting. It was a real symbol of sovereign power, worthy of a huge and powerful country.
In the 1950s, saloon cars of this type were given to major transport managers - road heads and NODs (chiefs of railway departments). They served until the 1980s and today adorn railway museums.
So, along with the evolution of the carriage, the evolution of carriage bogies also took place. In general, the development of the bogie followed the principle of increasing the smoothness of the ride in cars of all classes. Each new type of trolley became a new stage in the improvement of passenger transportation. From shaking single-spring charabancs to the powerful three-axle bogies of the “Vladikavkaz” with triple suspension, which ensured an almost imperceptible ride. The first cart (1846) was a two-axle cart designed by the American engineer Winens, who was at the forefront of laying all the foundations of the Russian railway transport- from an ashtray in a carriage to locomotive building. It is extremely important that at the beginning of the construction of Russian railways, on the initiative of P. P. Melnikov, the orientation was taken precisely on American, and not on European, canons. The American scope turned out to be much closer to Russia's needs.
The first car with Winens bogies, as already mentioned, ironically historical fate turned out to be a much more promising passenger car design for Russia than subsequent European “carriages”. The bogie of this carriage was designed, although it was extremely simple, but it contained all the classical fundamentals of the design of a two-axle carriage bogie even then. Then an improved design of this bogie of the Rekhnevsky system appeared (1865), and these bogies were installed on many cars of the St. Petersburg-Moscow railway - but they did not become widespread, since under the influence of Western European “friends” a mass transition to short two- and three-axle cars began.
The next stage is the double and triple suspension trolleys of the American Pullman system and a similar trolley from the Russian-Baltic plant in Riga (1880s), which was not inferior to the Pullman in perfection. They had different devices and configurations of balancers, springs and leaf springs. The International Sleeping Car Society used only trolleys with triple spring suspension, which had the softest ride, on their cars. In general, the best type of Russian trolley was the classic Fette type trolley, which appeared in 1912 and served for passenger carriages up until the 1950s. It was replaced already in the 1930s by a trolley with so-called jawless axle boxes (what they are takes a long time to explain), which became the basis for the design of carriage trolleys used to this day. It must be said that in 1939 the first CMV was designed on such a bogie, but the war prevented the widespread introduction of this car into life - the mass introduction of CMV began only in the late 1940s.
