Trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway

[Northwestern]

Here is an interesting account of a passenger who rode the Russian Trans-Siberian Railway, from Moscow to the Russian east coast, a 2 thousand mile trip.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trans-siberian-railway-russia-what-its-like-photos-2019-7
The train went through 4 time zones. Russian no longer observes Daylight Savings Time. UTC times range from 2:00 to 12.00. There are, actually, 11 time zones across Russia.

It seems that the Trans-Siberian shares some similarities with Amtrak. Cramped quarters on board with mediocre meals served. Narrow passenger corridors. But, differences. The problem with turning on the water in a sink. The passenger had to push up a lever underneath the sink to get water. Also, the train used Hopper Toilets. A direct deposit on the tracks. At least Amtrak is an improvement in that category.

 

[Rasputin]

An interesting article and thanks for posting the link. It looks like she took the train from about the middle of the route west to Moscow.

Note that the bathrooms were cleaned regularly.

 

[Willbridge]

An interesting article and thanks for posting the link. It looks like she took the train from about the middle of the route west to Moscow.

Note that the bathrooms were cleaned regularly.

Some interesting differences from my 2010 trip from Moscow to Tomsk (3 nights, 2 business days) and then back to Moscow (2 nights, 3 business days). Since there are several trains between Novosibirsk and Moscow there could be some differences in quality. She mentioned first Class - the one reason not to do that is that sharing a room with one stranger can be awkward. And there is a cheaper type of open section sleeper that can get pretty noisy.

Some differences:
Tomsk is over 250 km east of Novosibirsk, on a branch line. On the Tomich I enjoyed the dining car meals, although some items were not available. I had to show my visa to the car attendant, in addition to my ticket. It looks like the USB ports were retrofitted; in 2010 there were extension cords strung all over the place. And as we crossed the Urals in daylight westbound, I made sure that I was awake. Probably the biggest differences are that I've traveled overnight on trains before. She was experiencing some things that are common to long rides in North American coaches or buses. And I had studied Russian years ago.

And, konyechno, she wasn't looking for all of the Great Northern and Milwaukee Road and General Electric influences!

Here are links to my still picture videos. The one of Tomsk includes transit lines and Stations No. 1 (pre-Revolution) and No. 2 (1950's), as well as the river terminal.

 

[west point]

Willbridge; Liked your pictures. Was trying to determine on the picture of the gondolas if the journal boxes were friction bearing instead of roller bearings? In the line did you notice any friction bearings?

 

[Willbridge]

Willbridge; Liked your pictures. Was trying to determine on the picture of the gondolas if the journal boxes were friction bearing instead of roller bearings? In the line did you notice any friction bearings?

I wasn't looking for that, although I do recall some modern GATX tank cars so equipped. We can try enlarging these pix, although as my ex-wife said, "isn't it wonderful how the FBI can take a blurry small photo and blow it up to be a blurry big photo?" Or we can ask that Russian railfan in the first photo.