Steam locomotive on the Circum-Baikal Railway golden buckle of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Gold buckle of Russian steel belt

Gold buckle of Russian steel belt September 27th, 2013

This magnificent title appeared more than a hundred years ago. This is how they named a small section of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which is now commonly called “Circum-Baikal”. Or, a little longer: “Circum-Baikal Railway” (CBZD). Oddly enough, the term “CBR” itself never appeared in the documents. This road did not receive a separate name as an official division of the Ministry of Railways. It stood out only for its uniqueness, engineering complexity and beauty.

The rocks in these parts are pressed close to the shore. Mighty mountain streams flow through deep valleys and flow into Baikal. To understand the complexity of building a railway sandwiched between winding cliffs and the abyss of the deepest lake in the world, it is enough to cite just one fact. At the beginning of the century, for every kilometer of the Circum-Baikal Railway built, a carload of explosives had to be spent. A car for a kilometer! The builders literally cut through the impassable banks. Tunnels, excavations, bridges, embankments... Not a single flat and straight section of the path. And all around is the indescribable beauty of Baikal...

The recent history of the Circum-Baikal Railway has turned out to be quite sad. With the flooding of the Irkutsk reservoir and the construction of a modern backup, the most beautiful site Russian steel belt- turned into a dead-end 90-kilometer branch. There are only a few tiny villages on the Circum-Baikal Railway. Preserving the railway for their sake is absurd. The Circum-Baikal Railway was saved only by its unique tourism potential. The paths were strengthened, the most dangerous areas were put in order.

And now, every year tens of thousands of curious people from all over the world come here. Some people ride on the rails, while others walk along them. Locals say that because of the latter, the maximum speed of trains here has been limited. So as not to crush the crowds of tourists hiding from the heat in dark tunnels...

The path starts from the Slyudyanka station. The station is unusual, built entirely from local marble.

The only way to get from here to the populated areas scattered along the Circum-Baikal Railway is the so-called “motanya”. Motanya - because it darts back and forth, from Slyudyanka to the Port Baikal dead end. Now, its role is played by a modern rail bus. The ticket price is symbolic. And for organized and wealthy tourists there is also a retro excursion train with a real steam locomotive.

I, of course, preferred motanya. True, there were more tourists there than local residents.

The average speed is 20 km/h, and there was hardly enough patience for a couple of hours... Then on foot. It may be even slower, but at least more interesting. I looked closely at the neutrino telescope. I walked through tunnels of all shapes and sizes. The condition is excellent, despite half a century of semi-abandonment. Imperial engineers knew how to build, that's a fact.

The views around are wonderful, of course. Covers you from head to toe, soap shots can’t convey it...

The Baikal depths are impressive. A couple of meters of shallows, and wow! - everything falls into the bottomless blue...

A sea of ​​all kinds of animals, including quite large and cute ones:

All the animals and birds were captured, as they say, without leaving the railway tracks. They're kind of scary there!
But it’s a little difficult to get close to the fish. Due to the phenomenally clear water, she prudently moves away from anyone who sneaks up on her with a fishing rod. I don’t even know if it’s possible to catch something there without nets...

And here is the settlement. A pier, a platform, several residential houses and a tiny camp site under the auspices of Russian Railways, where you can spend a decent night for a few hundred rubles.

And finally, the extreme point of the route is Port Baikal.
Quite a large settlement with a lot of interesting things.
Here the ferry runs across the Angara to Listvyanka, and a flying boat circles in the sky:

And here you can do various thematic propaganda photo sessions on one site.

For example, in the style of a liberal blogger, “Rashka is dying!”:

Or, in the style of a pro-Putin blogger, “Russia is thriving!”:

I present to your attention the final post from my August trip to Baikal. We will spend the whole day on the Circum-Baikal Railway - a unique monument of engineering art. In this report we will find out why guides don’t like the Chinese, find out which migrant workers built this road in Russia, see seals in their natural habitat and, of course, enjoy the magnificent views of Lake Baikal.

1. The horizon merges and it’s hard to understand where the sky is and where Baikal is

2. We set off on this trip from where I was a few days ago. We were simply incredibly lucky and saw a seal swimming a hundred or two meters from the shore. I tried to increase the size of the photo as much as possible so as not to completely destroy the quality. But my lens is certainly weak for such long-range shooters :)


3. While we were sailing on the ferry to the port of Baikal, which is located on the other side of the Angara, islands floated past the porthole...


4. ... and closer to the port itself we were met by time-worn ships


5. We only had to travel 100 kilometers on this train, but taking into account all the stops and the return journey, this trip takes more than 13 hours


6. A group of Chinese were traveling with us in the carriage. We immediately understood the special attitude towards guests from Asia when we heard information from the guide of the entire train over the speakers: “On an excursion along the Circum-Baikal Railway, you cannot dig up plants or pick flowers. Especially for guests from Southeast Asia: EATING plants at the root is STRICTLY prohibited.”


7. We barely had time to set off from the port of Baikal and immediately noticed a house with an interesting roof


8. I wonder what these abstract images mean?


9. At the first stop, Ulanovo, we were told about the nature of Baikal and shown an old abandoned boiler house


10. There is no further road


11. You can’t imagine how difficult it was to take a shot where there are no people on the tracks to the train :)

12. At the next stop we were sent on foot through the tunnel. I found a bag of chips that everyone was stepping over - I had to take on the role of a fighter for the cleanliness of Lake Baikal. Amazing disgusting of course


13. The views are amazing. In my opinion, the stone buildings fit very well into the natural composition. In total, about 470 bridges of various sizes and 6 viaducts were made on the Circum-Baikal Railway.


14. Here’s a shot to help you understand what kind of small company we were traveling with:)


15. There is another option to see the beauty of the Circum-Baikal Railway - arriving from Irkutsk on such a ship. But I’m very glad that we traveled by train - at least we didn’t have chanson screaming throughout the whole area :)


16. The water in Baikal is like glass


17. Probably the most beautiful place on the Circum-Baikal Railway from an architectural point of view is the Italian retaining wall. It was named so because the project was developed by the Italian Ferrari. And in general, many Italians were involved in the construction of the Circum-Baikal Railway, as well as Poles and Albanians. In total, about 15,000 people built the Circum-Baikal Railway, most of whom were convicts, in contrast to freely hired foreigners.


18. Beautiful masonry - but you could just make a smooth wall like in other places. I wonder if these arches have some kind of reinforcing function or just for aesthetics?


19. Do you remember how many people were with us on the train? Now imagine how much work it took to make this and the previous two frames :)


20. Driving past a small village, a miracle of technology was discovered. Who knows what this is and why?


21. This is the train stop


22. On the other side of the train Baikal


23. Notice how “frequently” the trains travel here :)


24. This was probably the longest stop of the entire trip.


25. A Chinese hipster was found eating grapes and watching with a smile. And what was happening in the background was swimming in the water and shouting in a drunken voice: “Guys, why aren’t you swimming, aaaargh? Let’s all get into the water. Where is my Natalya? Natalya come here. Aaaargh.”


26. For tourists they made open-air cafes and trade with what Baikal and China sent. In three-liter bottles, Kuril tea is a delicious drink.


27. And the samovar is heated with pine cones and the smell is simply magical


28. The longest (778.4 meters) and straight tunnel is located exactly in this place. Nearby is the shortest one - 29.8 meters. Punching such tunnels was carried out with explosives. No more than 40-50 cm were penetrated per day.


29. The Circum-Baikal Railway is considered the most beautiful among the railways in the world. And looking at Baikal on the one hand, and the amazing nature on the other, it’s hard to disagree with this


30. Vintage American steam locomotive as a museum exhibit


31. Photo taken at the next stop. When I took this photo, I realized how much I missed my daughter and wife and was glad that I had to see them the next day.

32. Kirikei complex. A very difficult section of the road - constant landslides, a river - so they made 2 tunnels at once. The river flows through a chute in the center of the frame between two tunnels.


33. There is soot from steam locomotives and some kind of snot on the ceiling :)


34. In total, 41 tunnels were built, of which 40 remained. For every kilometer of the road, approximately a carload of explosives was used. The total length of all Circum-Baikal Railway tunnels is about 9.5 km.


35. Calm


36. And behind you is a symbiosis of nature and stone architecture

37. In total, about 270 retaining walls of varying complexity were built

38. Previously, the Circum-Baikal Railway was called the “Golden Buckle of the Steel Belt of Russia”, the buckle - because it connected the Trans-Siberian Railway, broken by Baikal, and the golden one - because in terms of the cost of work it surpassed all existing roads in Russia.


39. Calm part two:)


40. It is difficult for the naked eye to understand where the horizon line ends and the sky begins. Only a thin strip of mountains in the distance hints that there is a transition from earth to sky


41. Abandoned engineering structure


42. International friendship - a Chinese boy fell asleep in the arms of a Russian guide :)


43. On the Circum-Baikal Railway there are also buildings for elite recreation. Tennis courts were also spotted. They say that he himself came here more than once :)


44. The final point of the route is Slyudyanka station. From here our train departed to Irkutsk


45. By the end, we were completely bold and asked the hipster to take a photo together. He handed over the omul, because... Otherwise, he refused to be photographed and scared us with Kim Im Sung if something happened. Also in the frame was a girl carrying a pink horse by the mane. This is such a surreal thing :)


46. ​​We already saw the sunset on the way to Irkutsk


47. Thanks to this photo, you learned that we spent the whole day in carriage number 3. I almost forgot to tell you about the conductors’ dislike for the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom. When we went out in Irkutsk, under the seats where these amazing and smiling citizens with expensive cameras were sitting, the level of garbage went off scale. Sadness.


48. The Irkutsk sun winked at us all the way back :)

The trip would not have been so interesting if it had not been for the company I was traveling with. For which special thanks to everyone again :)

I think that now you should definitely visit Baikal in winter, admire the ice patterns and ride on ice boats across the expanses of the deepest lake in the world.

"Circum-Baikal Express". In winter it runs only on Saturdays and Sundays: on Saturday it departs from, and on Sunday from the Port Baikal station. You can get to Port Baikal by bus (to the village), from there you need to cross the source of the Angara by ferry. In autumn and spring, the “express” additionally runs along the Circum-Baikal Railway on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and in the summer Fridays are also added to the schedule. A one-day trip with three meals a day for one passenger costs 2,430 rubles. This price includes travel by rail, bus and ferry, as well as an excursion.

"Baikal cruise". Designed for two days off: you will depart from Irkutsk on Friday evening. On Saturday, stop at Polovinnaya and Port Baikal, and then turn back and spend the night at Ulanovo station. On Sunday there are several more stops: at the Kirkirei stream and at the Malaya and Bolshaya Krutaya Guba capes. And - return to Irkutsk. Tickets depending on the category of carriage: from 3,750 to 6,000 rubles (adults), from 1,800 to 3,000 rubles (children from 5 to 10 years old). Meals are not included in the price; the train has a dining car.

Angasolka. There is a train from Irkutsk to the Temnaya Pad station (where you should get off). A round trip ticket will cost only 104 rubles. The path along which you can go to Lake Baikal starts right from the station - you just need to cross the railway tracks.

On December 5, 2003, an event occurred that can be considered the completion of the grandiose construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM): the Severo-Muysky tunnel in the Angarakan saddle of the Severo-Muysky ridge was put into operation.

Before moving on to the story about this giant (Severo-Muysky is the longest tunnel in Russia - 15343 m), it is worth recalling the history of BAM. Research for a second railway link to the Pacific Ocean, from Taishet to Sovetskaya Harbor, began back in 1932. Even then it was clear that the Trans-Siberian Railway would sooner or later choke in the flow of cargo. Until the memorable June 1941, very little was built, then the rails from the new sections were removed for the needs of the front. After the Victory, the road was extended only to Ust-Kut on the Lena River, as well as from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Sovgavan - there were more important construction projects in the war-torn country.

The idea of ​​BAM was returned to again in the 1970s. In 1974, legendary construction began: Komsomol youth detachments and construction teams from all the republics of the USSR went to Lake Baikal, Transbaikalia and the Far East. Thus, the entire country, for almost a decade, laid a railway line through remote places where there had previously been no means of communication. Finally, on September 29, 1984, on the banks of the Sulban River in the north of the Chita region, in the place where the small Balbukhta crossing is now located, the BAM rails closed.

Most of Transbaikalia is a mountainous country; Baikal itself is also surrounded on all sides by mountains. If the Trans-Siberian Railway goes around almost all mountain ranges from the south and goes through relatively flat terrain, then the BAM had to be laid through the entire Stanovoye Highlands. One of its highest mountain ranges is the North Muisky ridge, whose elevations reach 2561 m.

This is one of the most beautiful places in Transbaikalia. The sharp granite-schist peaks are covered with snow almost all year round. There are a lot of glacial landforms; only cedar shale bushes cling to the steep slopes. There are almost no forests on the mountains - they grow only in the valleys. Fast, crystal-clear rivers carry their waters to the Upper Angara and Vitim.

The North Muisky ridge turned out to be an almost insurmountable obstacle for the railway. In the process of searching for the route of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, several options for its intersection were considered. All of them required the construction of many kilometers of tunnels: there is no low pass, such as, for example, between the Kodar and Kalar ranges. After much research, a pass in the upper reaches of the Angarakan River was chosen.

The North Muya giant was built in the most difficult engineering and geological conditions. Rocks, permafrost in the portal areas (at the beginning and end of the tunnel), areas of unstable rocks with increased fracturing, numerous zones of active faults with a width of 5 to 900 m, water inflows up to several hundred cubic meters per hour with hydrostatic pressure up to 34 atm, including including high temperatures, the presence of quicksand in granites, the overstressed state of the rocks. The seismicity of this area is 9-10 points. But there is simply no more suitable place to cross the North-Muya Ridge by rail.

On May 28, 1977, tunneling squad No. 18 began excavation from the western portal. Six months later, work began on the eastern side. Later, vertical shafts were laid in three places above the route of the future tunnel, which greatly facilitated subsequent work.

The already slow construction was constantly slowed down by accidents. After the connection of the BAM and the opening of through train traffic (through the high-mountain bypass of the North-Muysky tunnel), the country's attention to this construction weakened, and much less funds began to be allocated. And then another “brake” appeared - the beginning of perestroika and the economic decline.

Additional difficulties were created by insufficient knowledge of the tunnel zone - far fewer exploration wells were drilled than should have been done. During the work process, the project was refined many times, new methods of tunnel excavation and lining were created.

They say about the North Muisky tunnel that every kilometer of it is paid for with four lives. Several accidents killed 57 people. In 1979, at the very beginning of construction, Vladimir Kozhemyakin’s team of miners in the western section encountered high-pressure Angarakan quicksand. The pressure exploded the granite lintel that separated the face from the fault zone, and about one hundred thousand cubic meters of water with stone fragments and sand rushed into the face and rushed along the constructed area, sweeping away everything in its path. It took almost two years to eliminate the consequences of this disaster; for some time, the miners were even afraid to go down into the face. Another major accident occurred in 1999, when only 160 m remained until the last lintel. A rock collapse negated the work of several months, and the tunnel section actually had to be rebuilt.

Fortunately, the Severo-Muysky tunnel avoided the fate of Kodarsky, which was built in a hurry to the planned explosion of the last bridge - the break - of the BAM, a 15-meter gap was allowed between the face and the lining, as a result of which a collapse stopped construction for six months in 1984, forcing the construction completely a pass detour not provided for in the plan.

In the 1990s, work was carried out extremely slowly, and only on March 30, 2001, the tunnel was broken down by the teams of V. Gatsenko and V. Kazeev. At the same time, record accuracy was achieved - the difference between the axes of the workings was 69 mm horizontally and 36 mm vertically, although more than 15 kilometers were traveled to this point in the depths of the mountain. On December 21, 2001, the first train passed through the tunnel.

Already in our century, the old story almost repeated itself: the tunnel was broken down, all the media reported about the solemn event, high authorities visited Severomuisk. But there was still a lot of work; it was necessary to install a complex complex for monitoring the condition of the tunnel, equip an exploration transport and drainage adit, remove equipment from the mine shafts and convert them into ventilation ones. Despite the principled position of the Ministry of Railways, funds were allocated rather meagerly - preparations for the opening took another two years, and only on December 5, 2003, after the completion of all work, the tunnel was accepted into permanent operation.

The total length of the tunnel's mine workings is about 45 km. Three vertical mine shafts are now used for ventilation, and along the entire main tunnel there is a working of a smaller diameter - an exploration-transport-drainage adit. It removes water seeping into the tunnel; communication cables and the rails of the mining railway, used to move technical personnel along the adit, are laid here. Seismic and radiation monitoring systems, complex communication and lighting networks are in operation. The microclimate in the tunnel is helped to maintain special gates created at the Space Center. Khrunicheva. They open before each train and close again behind it.

In the 1990s, opinions were expressed that, due to the danger of collapses, passenger trains would never run through the tunnel. These are just rumors: the builders give a century-long guarantee for the lining of the tunnel in conditions of a calculated 9-magnitude earthquake. The quality of construction and engineering calculations turned out to be above all concerns. The tunnel is recognized as safe to operate.

The North Muisky Tunnel reduced the route through the Angarakan Pass from 57 to 23 km, and the travel time from 120 to 25 minutes. Now the movement of full-fledged freight trains is possible along the entire BAM - even the ascent to the Mururinsky Pass, the highest point of the main line, has much smaller slopes than the old bypass. The main flow of trains goes through the tunnel, and the bypass is left as a spare route.

The fate of the two villages, built as bases for the tunnel builders, turned out differently. The village of Tonnelny, located near the western portal, was evicted and wiped off the face of the earth. Its residents moved to Taksimo, neighboring Severomuisk, or went “to the Mainland” - to the southern regions of Buryatia.

Severomuisk, located at the eastern portal, became one of the many Bama villages. People whose work is related to maintaining the railway live here. The completion work plan for 2002-2003 included the improvement of Severomuisk, the construction of several permanent buildings and all the necessary infrastructure. Now not only railway workers live here, but also tunnel operating personnel.

It is worth saying a few words about the modern bypass of the Severo-Muisky tunnel, which, in my opinion, is the most beautiful section of the entire BAM. In order not to exceed the maximum permissible slope when ascending the Angarakan Pass, the railway line winds in knots along the mountain slopes, serpentinely rising to the pass saddle. Where there is only 16 km on the surface, the train covers almost 55 km, ascending and descending half a kilometer.

On the detour you can see several unique engineering objects. The most famous, undoubtedly, is the “Devil's Bridge” - a high overpass on two-tier supports over the Itykit riverbed, curved and located in an incline. They say that when heavy trains passed, this bridge even swayed a little.

There are loop tunnels on both sides of the pass (the terrain did not allow the serpentine to bend on the slope), and this turn is made inside the mountain - the train enters the portal, and after a while appears from another portal above or below the first, making a 180-degree turn. This is especially noticeable in the western tunnel (No. 1) - its portals are located almost on top of each other. When freight trains passed through the bypass, the empty trains could be quite long. In this case, the locomotive emerged from the tunnel quite soon after the last carriage was hidden in it.

The history of the bypass is as complex as everything connected with the construction of the BAM. Initially, the North Muisky Tunnel was planned to open in 1986-1987. To ensure that construction does not delay the construction of the entire highway, to allow construction cargo to pass through as quickly as possible

In the short term, from August 1982 to March 1983, a temporary bypass was built - the Angarakan - Kazankan line with a length of 24.6 km. His project was drawn up according to greatly simplified standards (slope of up to 40 meters per kilometer of distance), as a result of which the average length of a freight train was only a few cars - no diesel locomotive could lift more weight along such a steep slope. But this bypass made it possible to pass the track-layer to the east and deliver rails and other materials necessary for the construction of the highway.

After the first years of construction and serious accidents, it became clear that the North Muisky Tunnel could not be built quickly. The breakdown of the BAM took place, but the old North-Muysky bypass was the bottleneck of the mainline: freight trains had to be uncoupled in front of it into pieces, and the movement of passenger trains along such slopes was completely prohibited - from Angarakan station to Kazankan station people were transported on shift buses across the pass .

In November 1985, construction of a modern bypass began (length 54.3 km, slope up to 18 m/km), completed by 1989. At the same time, the old bypass was dismantled, and now only an embankment and concrete bridges indicate its route. Nowadays, despite the successful completion of the quarter-century construction of the Severo-Muisky Tunnel, the high-mountain bypass is still in operation - it can still be useful as a second route when freight traffic increases.

Unfortunately, now passengers of fast and passenger trains almost do not see the beauty of the mountains and the thread of detour winding through them - they all pass through the tunnel, and in the dead of night. Only work trains Taksimo-Novy Uoyan, transporting mainly railway workers, follow a detour twice a day in each direction, meeting at the Pereval crossing. Such a train usually consists of an old reserved seat car, a platform for track equipment and an electric locomotive VL-65. Occasionally on the platform you can see not only sleepers and jacks, but also a mountain of multi-colored backpacks - tourists come to see the landscapes of the North-Muya ridge and bypass.

In order for the beauty of the “BAM Golden Buckle” to be revealed to you, you will have to make some efforts. To explore the bypass from the train and at the same time have time to walk while stopping at the sidings, you need to spend the night in Novy Uoyan (there are no hotels or tourist centers there, only a station with hard benches), and then take the morning work train to Taksimo. The opposite option does not include an overnight stay at the station, but is less preferable due to small parking lots at the sidings.

But it’s best to come here in the summer with a tent, disembark at the Pereval crossing and slowly walk along the line in one direction or another - to Kazankan or Angarakan, where long-distance trains stop. The tunnels are guarded, but no one bothers you to take a shortcut, descending from loop to loop along the mountain slope, surrounded by dwarf cedar and rare larches.

It is the walking route that will allow you to fully enjoy the beauty of the mountain peaks and admire the human genius who laid the railway in the most difficult conditions of the North Muisky ridge...

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