Tsarskoye Selo Railway
Encyclopedia
The Tsarskoye Selo Railway was the first public railway line in the Russian Empire
. It ran for 27 km (16.8 mi) from Saint Petersburg
to Pavlovsk through the nearby (4 km) Tsarskoye Selo
. Construction began in May 1836, and the first test trips were carried out the same year between Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk, using horse-drawn trains. The line was officially opened on 30 October 1837, when an 8-carriage train was hauled by a steam locomotive
between Saint Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo. Until the construction of the Moscow – Saint Petersburg Railway in 1851, it was the only passenger train line in Russia. In 1899 it was merged into the Moscow
-Windau
-Rybinsk
Railways and now forms part of the Oktyabrskaya Railway
.
. In particular, the Nizhny Tagil
line built in 1833–1834 was equipped with a steam locomotive and could transport a few miners, together with the load of ore. The steam locomotive was constructed by the Russian engineers, father and son Cherepanovs. However, their design had not found application outside of their factory, and most hardware for the Tsarskoye Selo Railways, including rails, carriages, locomotives and railroad switch
es, was purchased abroad.
The first European railways had demonstrated their great economic potential, and in August 1834, the Russian Mining Ministry invited a prominent Austrian-Czech engineer Franz Anton von Gerstner for exploring the possibility of building railways in Russia. After several month of travel through the country, in January 1835, he submitted a written report to Nicholas I
and then met him in person, suggesting to build railways between Moscow and St. Petersburg and then between Moscow, Kazan
and Nizhny Novgorod
. The proposal of Gerstner was evaluated by a commission headed by Mikhail Speransky
. The commission found the project feasible and recommended to start with a short railway between St. Petersburg, Tsarskoye Selo and the nearby Pavlovsk. This resolution was supported by the imperial decrees of 21 March and 15 April 1836.
in 1856.
The line was straight, with a slight downhill slope toward St. Petersburg and had 42 bridges. The bridges were mostly wooden and 2–4 m long, with one stone bridge 27 m long. Apart from the wide rail spacing (1829 mm or 6 ft), the structure was regular, with 3.2 m long wooden ties
separated by 0.9 m, resting on a layer of stones and gravel. Rails had a length of 3.7, 4.6 or 4.9 m and a weight of 123, 145.4 or 154 kg. While the line near Tsarskoye Selo was completed already in 1836, the steam locomotives had not arrived yet, and the works near St. Petersburg were delayed by land purchasing problems. Therefore, in order to test the road, first two two-carriage trains were pulled by horses on the Sundays of 27 September and 4 and 11 October 1836. The journey of about 4 kilometers between Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk was taking 15 minutes. Test trips with steam locomotives started in November 1836 on a 7.5 km long section between Pavlovsk and the village of Bolshoe Kuzmino. Gerstner conducted those tests himself, with more than a hundred trips in the first week, and was mostly preoccupied with not hitting the wondering crowds of people who arrived to watch the curiosity. Passengers of one of those trips were Nicholas I and his family. These tests demonstrated that the line could be operated through the Russian winter, proving the skeptics wrong.
First trips were irregular, and a train schedule was introduced from 15 May 1838, with five trips per day between 9am and 10pm (7am to 11pm in summer). Trains were leaving the terminal stations simultaneously in order to bypass each other at a specially designed crossing in the middle of the line. After a head-on collision of two trains on 11 August 1840 the traffic was conducted one way only. Some passengers were allowed to travel with their small horse-pulled carriages, which were transported on the open platforms of the train. Smoking in the trains was prohibited for reasons of safety of the nearby passengers. Violators were removed from the train and their names reported to their employers. The same rules applied to drunkards. Smoking trains were introduced in 1857. A second, parallel line was laid in summer 1876 that improved the safety and increased the capacity of the railways. A train repair workshop was built around that time in St. Petersburg.
The railways were profitable with the ratio of profit to expenses of about 1.7. Their operation was maintained by 236 employees whose salary took about 22% of the company profit. They line mostly transported people, with only about 5% of cargo trains. It was absorbed by the much bigger Moscow
-Windau
-Rybinsk
Railways in 1899–1900 and converted to the standard 1524 mm (5 ft) gauge.
were purchased in England and Belgium. They weighed about 16 tonnes and reached a top on-line speed of about 60 km/h. The carriages had wooden frames and two pairs of cast iron wheels with steel rims. Their bottom parts were built in England and the top in Belgium or Russia. The top (passenger part) was nailed to the wooden bottom frame. The carriages had no heating, and their top parts had four different designs. Their capacity varied between 30 and 42 passengers.
The opening of the Tsarskoye Selo Railways in 1837 was an extremely popular event reflected in the news, handicrafts and theater performances in Russia. A copper medal (60 mm diameter) was minted to commemorate the opening of the railways. Its avers featured Peter I, Minerva
and Nicholas I, as well as the text "The first railroad from St. Petersburg to Pavlovsk was opened on 30 October 1837. Nicholas I, the follower of Peter I, introduced railways to Russia." The reverse pictured a steam locomotive and read "The founders of the first railways Count Alexander Bobrinsky, Benedict Kramer and I. K. Plitt. The builder of the railways was Franz Gerstner, born Czech and cognate to Russians. Several hundred medals were minted to be distributed at the opening of the railways, but for uncertain reasons, Nicholas I did not approve that.
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. It ran for 27 km (16.8 mi) from Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
to Pavlovsk through the nearby (4 km) Tsarskoye Selo
Pushkin (town)
Pushkin is a municipal town in Pushkinsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located south from the center of St. Petersburg proper, and its train station, Detskoye Selo, is directly connected by railway to the Vitebsky Rail Terminal of the city...
. Construction began in May 1836, and the first test trips were carried out the same year between Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk, using horse-drawn trains. The line was officially opened on 30 October 1837, when an 8-carriage train was hauled by a steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
between Saint Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo. Until the construction of the Moscow – Saint Petersburg Railway in 1851, it was the only passenger train line in Russia. In 1899 it was merged into the Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
-Windau
Ventspils
Ventspils is a city in northwestern Latvia in the Courland historical region of Latvia, the sixth largest city in the country. As of 2006, Ventspils had a population of 43,806. Ventspils is situated on the Venta River and the Baltic Sea, and has an ice-free port...
-Rybinsk
Rybinsk
Rybinsk is the second largest city of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, which lies at the confluence of the Volga and Sheksna Rivers. Population: It is served by Rybinsk Staroselye airport.-Early history:...
Railways and now forms part of the Oktyabrskaya Railway
Oktyabrskaya Railway
The broad gauge Oktyabrskaya Railway or October Railway , which forms part of RZD, is the oldest railway in Russia, located in the north-west of the country. It stretches from Moscow's Leningrad Terminal in the south to Murmansk beyond the Arctic Circle in the north. The total length of the lines...
.
History
The first railways in Russia were short and narrow-track wooden and then steel lines, which were used in the 18th century to transport carriages with ore at numerous mines of the UralsUral Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
. In particular, the Nizhny Tagil
Nizhny Tagil
Nizhny Tagil is a city in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, situated east of the virtual border between Europe and Asia. Population: -History:...
line built in 1833–1834 was equipped with a steam locomotive and could transport a few miners, together with the load of ore. The steam locomotive was constructed by the Russian engineers, father and son Cherepanovs. However, their design had not found application outside of their factory, and most hardware for the Tsarskoye Selo Railways, including rails, carriages, locomotives and railroad switch
Railroad switch
A railroad switch, turnout or [set of] points is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another at a railway junction....
es, was purchased abroad.
The first European railways had demonstrated their great economic potential, and in August 1834, the Russian Mining Ministry invited a prominent Austrian-Czech engineer Franz Anton von Gerstner for exploring the possibility of building railways in Russia. After several month of travel through the country, in January 1835, he submitted a written report to Nicholas I
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
and then met him in person, suggesting to build railways between Moscow and St. Petersburg and then between Moscow, Kazan
Kazan
Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...
and Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
. The proposal of Gerstner was evaluated by a commission headed by Mikhail Speransky
Mikhail Speransky
Count Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky was probably the greatest of Russian reformers during the reign of Alexander I of Russia. He was a close advisor to Tsar Alexander I of Russia and later to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, he is sometimes called the father of Russian liberalism.-Early life and...
. The commission found the project feasible and recommended to start with a short railway between St. Petersburg, Tsarskoye Selo and the nearby Pavlovsk. This resolution was supported by the imperial decrees of 21 March and 15 April 1836.
Construction
The construction and operation of the Tsarskoye Selo Railways was managed by a newly established joint-stock company headed by Count Alexander Bobrinsky (president), von Gerstner and businessmen Benedict Kramer and Ivan Konrad Plitt. The company had about 700 shareholders, both in Russia and in Europe. The works started in early May 1836 and were supervised by 17 engineers, some of whom were previously involved in railway construction in England. About 1800 workers were involved first and were then reinforced by 1400 soldiers. Aiming to promote the railways, the train terminal of Pavlovsk was built as an entertaining center. It then regularly hosted evening festivities with invited celebrities, such as concerts of Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
in 1856.
The line was straight, with a slight downhill slope toward St. Petersburg and had 42 bridges. The bridges were mostly wooden and 2–4 m long, with one stone bridge 27 m long. Apart from the wide rail spacing (1829 mm or 6 ft), the structure was regular, with 3.2 m long wooden ties
Railroad tie
A railroad tie/railway tie , or railway sleeper is a rectangular item used to support the rails in railroad tracks...
separated by 0.9 m, resting on a layer of stones and gravel. Rails had a length of 3.7, 4.6 or 4.9 m and a weight of 123, 145.4 or 154 kg. While the line near Tsarskoye Selo was completed already in 1836, the steam locomotives had not arrived yet, and the works near St. Petersburg were delayed by land purchasing problems. Therefore, in order to test the road, first two two-carriage trains were pulled by horses on the Sundays of 27 September and 4 and 11 October 1836. The journey of about 4 kilometers between Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk was taking 15 minutes. Test trips with steam locomotives started in November 1836 on a 7.5 km long section between Pavlovsk and the village of Bolshoe Kuzmino. Gerstner conducted those tests himself, with more than a hundred trips in the first week, and was mostly preoccupied with not hitting the wondering crowds of people who arrived to watch the curiosity. Passengers of one of those trips were Nicholas I and his family. These tests demonstrated that the line could be operated through the Russian winter, proving the skeptics wrong.
Operation
The first regular train left St. Petersburg on 30 October 1837 and in 35 minutes arrived to Tsarskoye Selo. This train of 8 carriages was pulled by a steam locomotive and its arrival was observed by numerous noble guests, including Nicholas I. Regular exploitation started in January 1838. Between January and April 1838, most trains were pulled by horses, and steam locomotives were used only on Sundays and public holidays. From April, horse power was eliminated, and almost 14,000 passengers had been served between 4 and 30 April. The trains ran without stops between St. Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo, and from May 1838 were reaching Pavlovsk. All communication was first done by voice and whistle. An optical telegraph was installed in 1838. It consisted of piles separated by 1–2 km and a guard on duty in a shed nearby. Signals were set by raising 1, 2 or 3 black disks (daytime) or red lamps (night) on the pile and took about 30 minutes to transmit along the line. Electrical telegraph was installed in 1845, but dismantled in 1848 due to frequent failures; a more reliable system was set up in 1856.First trips were irregular, and a train schedule was introduced from 15 May 1838, with five trips per day between 9am and 10pm (7am to 11pm in summer). Trains were leaving the terminal stations simultaneously in order to bypass each other at a specially designed crossing in the middle of the line. After a head-on collision of two trains on 11 August 1840 the traffic was conducted one way only. Some passengers were allowed to travel with their small horse-pulled carriages, which were transported on the open platforms of the train. Smoking in the trains was prohibited for reasons of safety of the nearby passengers. Violators were removed from the train and their names reported to their employers. The same rules applied to drunkards. Smoking trains were introduced in 1857. A second, parallel line was laid in summer 1876 that improved the safety and increased the capacity of the railways. A train repair workshop was built around that time in St. Petersburg.
The railways were profitable with the ratio of profit to expenses of about 1.7. Their operation was maintained by 236 employees whose salary took about 22% of the company profit. They line mostly transported people, with only about 5% of cargo trains. It was absorbed by the much bigger Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
-Windau
Ventspils
Ventspils is a city in northwestern Latvia in the Courland historical region of Latvia, the sixth largest city in the country. As of 2006, Ventspils had a population of 43,806. Ventspils is situated on the Venta River and the Baltic Sea, and has an ice-free port...
-Rybinsk
Rybinsk
Rybinsk is the second largest city of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, which lies at the confluence of the Volga and Sheksna Rivers. Population: It is served by Rybinsk Staroselye airport.-Early history:...
Railways in 1899–1900 and converted to the standard 1524 mm (5 ft) gauge.
Carriages
By 1837 the railroads had 6 locomotives, 44 passenger carriages and 19 cargo carriages. In the 1830s–1840s, each train pulled 8 carriages at an average speed of about 30 km/h; the speed increased to some 42 km/h in the 1870s. The locomotives of 75–120 HPHorsepower
Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
were purchased in England and Belgium. They weighed about 16 tonnes and reached a top on-line speed of about 60 km/h. The carriages had wooden frames and two pairs of cast iron wheels with steel rims. Their bottom parts were built in England and the top in Belgium or Russia. The top (passenger part) was nailed to the wooden bottom frame. The carriages had no heating, and their top parts had four different designs. Their capacity varied between 30 and 42 passengers.
Legacy
The Tsarskoye Selo Railways had a short length, very limited capacity, and nearly no industrial value – it was mainly transporting the nobles for sightseeing in Tsarskoye Selo and festivities organized in Pavlovsk. Yet, it was regarded as an important step for development of the rail network in Russia. In particular, practice demonstrated the drawbacks of the 6-foot rail spacing, and the following rail networks used the more standard 5-foot tracks. In the 1840–50s, the Tsarskoye Selo Railways was actively used for training of railroad personnel and various locomotive and railroad tests.The opening of the Tsarskoye Selo Railways in 1837 was an extremely popular event reflected in the news, handicrafts and theater performances in Russia. A copper medal (60 mm diameter) was minted to commemorate the opening of the railways. Its avers featured Peter I, Minerva
Minerva
Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...
and Nicholas I, as well as the text "The first railroad from St. Petersburg to Pavlovsk was opened on 30 October 1837. Nicholas I, the follower of Peter I, introduced railways to Russia." The reverse pictured a steam locomotive and read "The founders of the first railways Count Alexander Bobrinsky, Benedict Kramer and I. K. Plitt. The builder of the railways was Franz Gerstner, born Czech and cognate to Russians. Several hundred medals were minted to be distributed at the opening of the railways, but for uncertain reasons, Nicholas I did not approve that.