• Music: MoozE - Radwind

Hike to ChEZ (Part 1: road to Pripyat)

In mid-November, in the company of four guys from St. Petersburg, I went on an illegal trip to the center of the exclusion zone. The main goal was Pripyat and its surroundings, but a long and difficult path, filled with dangers and adventures, lay ahead of the finish point. To visit illegally inside the zone, as they say, is invaluable :) After all, this is an opportunity, without the sensitive control of the guide, not only to climb through abandoned residential buildings, structures and places where life had previously flowed, stopped as a result of a global catastrophe, but also to be imbued with absolutely wild nature and wildlife that grew up in contaminated areas. The period of "disintegration" will last for hundreds, or even thousands of years, and there is no talk of opening borders in the near future, so the zone has become a real reserve. Nature is gradually recapturing the lands seized by man, braiding concrete structures and breaking through the layers of asphalt ...

Excursion walks will convey to you all the apocalyptic beauty and atmosphere of these places. You will not get adrenaline from a loudly cracking dosimeter, extraneous rustles, sounds of wild animals, or a patrol that suddenly appeared nearby. Adrenaline and unforgettable experiences are guaranteed. I will tell you about everything and in order in several parts. Make yourself comfortable. In this review, the path to Pripyat.

From the very beginning, the upcoming campaign smacked of amateurism - none of us had ever been to the ChEZ, except for Andrey, and he was legal. A general idea was obtained from reports on the network, but many unresolved issues remained with the route and autonomous stay during the week. After going through the options, we decided to go to the center of the zone along the "Western Trail". Part of the way was along an abandoned railway line, part of forests and fields. In contrast to the popular option along the side of the road, it was necessary to walk about 2 times more, but it did not require constantly hiding from regularly darting cars and wading across rivers.

Our modest company of five started from Kiev at lunchtime. Before the hike, I managed to spend a couple of days in the capital of Ukraine and climb to several interesting places, I will write about this sometime separately ...

We reached the approaches to the border of the zone by car and left it under the supervision of one of the residents of nearby villages. We set out on our way already in the dark.

However, they did not go for a long time. it was difficult to navigate the terrain, and there was no enthusiasm for wading through branches and bushes. We decided to spend the night in an abandoned village a few kilometers from the border of the zone in order to cheerfully continue our journey in the morning.

As such, we did not find the boundaries of the "zone of mandatory resettlement" along the perimeter. Perhaps, once a barbed wire was stretched, but now practically nothing indicates the transition to the forbidden territory.
We cross the last "live" asphalt road near Vilcha settlement.

The settlement is officially located within the territory of mandatory resettlement, which became such immediately after the accident. However, the last resident left his home only in 1993.
A few words about the railway traffic within the zone. According to various rumors, it was terminated somewhere in the early 90s, and the entire line from Art. Vilcha to st. Lisp is pretty overgrown with impenetrable thickets. Cloth up to st. Vilcha is in satisfactory condition and is sometimes used. Judging by the concrete sleepers, it was changed relatively recently.

Until 2005, a diesel electric train even ran from Ovruch to here, despite the fact that the population of the village had been evicted long ago. The fact is that only here there was the necessary track development for the turn of the locomotive. The cargo flow is maintained here to this day - the forest is being developed.
It is often in these places that "illegal tourists" are caught, so a beginner "stalker" should be extremely careful in an open area.
Station building.

Abandoned factory workshops are located not far from the station tracks.

I did not define the purpose of the workshops, and we did not have too much time to study them.

As I already wrote, the movement of trains in the exclusion zone was stopped back in the 90s. For a little over ten years, nature has literally "captured" the railway tracks and now they look like this:

Therefore, our further path mainly passed through forests. In the evening we got to the second, already former, railway station on the territory of the zone - P *. It was here that our first acquaintance with the animal world took place. Having made a halt on the platform, we suddenly heard a dull but loud wheezing at a distance of 150 meters. For the next 10 minutes, our gallant company was quieter than water below the grass. Making sure that the wheezing gradually subsided, we hastened to get out of this place as soon as possible.

This frame shows the edge of the platform.

The first crossing turned out to be long in distance, and by the evening we were exhausted. We get up for the night right under the canopy of the Klivny station.

By the morning supplies of drinking water ran out and it became necessary to find it. Even on the outskirts of Klivny, in the dark, we passed a small stream on the right side of the railway embankment. Returning to him for water, for the sake of curiosity, we decided to look beyond the other side of the embankment. The sight was simply amazed!

Beavers erected a noble dam, which caused flooding of the surrounding areas, in some places even affecting the forest.

And here is the "pure" natural drinking water :)

A little about its extraction during our trip: after filling the water into the container, we carried out a dosimetric control for gamma and beta radiation. If the device showed a value within the normal range, the water was poured using special travel filter into a clean container. As a rule, the transparency of the water did not noticeably change from this, but any nastiness was eliminated. The water had a pronounced taste of wood.

The second contour of the zone is located not far from the Klivny station. This is a stretched, it looks like in Soviet times, barbed wire and a primer around the perimeter.

To the next station - Tolstoy Les, about 7 km. One third of the way is another river. The dirt road running parallel to the railway embankment is connected to the opposite bank by a pontoon ferry.

View from the railway bridge.

We are renewing water supplies.

Andrey is fond of video blogging and made valuable travel notes throughout the trip. In the near future, our entire trip will appear as separate episodes on his channel. In this frame, Andrei is filming a video about a small house of the switchman on the approaches to the Tolstoy Forest.

And inside there is a massive stove - a potbelly stove and the remains of a mattress.

Art. Tolstoy Les was a sorting point and has a well-developed track development. After the disaster, there was a point for cleaning the rolling stock that took part in the liquidation of the consequences, so in some places the background is quite high. It is noteworthy that the village of the same name in honor of which the station was named is located about 5 km to the east. The station closer to the village is Krasnitsa. The village itself was subject to mandatory eviction immediately after the accident. Previously, about 800 people lived here.
Currently, almost all tracks have been dismantled.

Station building.

We enter the waiting room.

And inside is an owl!

A surviving poster on the principle of operation of the semi-automatic locking.

We study documents and travel journals.

In one of the administrative rooms, several artifacts attracted my attention: an old bench "MPS" (Ministry of Railways), a "frightening" sign based on a kerosene lamp, and a konogon. Not a bad composition.

Control room.

The walls are soundproofed.

There is such a sign near the station.

In the Tolstoy Forest, we decided to take a break to have a snack. After spreading food and setting fire to a gas burner, suddenly, we were taken by surprise by people in military uniform! The first thought - is the trip really over so quickly? Before the trip, I heard that the military has recently been engaged in perimeter protection ... But the alarm turned out to be false - the "eagles" they met turned out to be stalkers from Belarus, and were returning from a two-week campaign.

Group photo. They are much more professionally equipped than we are :)

After exchanging handshakes and useful information, we continue our journey. The next station on the way is Krasnitsa. Perhaps the most difficult part of the path - the forests are heavily overgrown here, and the legs now and then cling to the climbing bushes.

Rainbow greetings to the zone's stalkers from a certain "Bat": " Dear stalkers, please do not litter in parking lots, on the routes of your movements in the ChEZ"Don't upset Bat!

We stopped for the night in the station house at the Buryakova station, having covered a distance of 20 km in a day.
Inside, we have already seen a stove - a stove.

The next room is the kitchen.

Not far from the house there is an old well with a bucket that is completely rusted. Because there were often problems with water during the hike, there was no choice here. This is how the process of its extraction went:

As for the name of the Buryakovka station, there is a similar story here, as with Tolstoy Les - the name is distorted geographically. The village of Buryakovka is located closer to the next station - Shepelichi.

However, there is a dacha association not far from the station.

There is emptiness inside the houses. The glasses are broken.

A new railway line begins near the Buryakovka station. Andrey measures the background, at the junction, and it is noticeably different after a few meters than before him - apparently the embankment was also updated.

According to various rumors, the path was changed in the early 2000s. I am still wondering why the initiators did not confine themselves to the site, for example, to Yanov? After all, this is a "dozen" extra dead-end kilometers. Old sleepers are scattered on both sides of the embankment.

The next and last platform on our way is Shepelichi.

Primer over the level crossing. The wheel tracks are fresh.

Halfway to Yanov, we found two abandoned carriages and wheels on the side of the road.

They were probably left to rust on the tracks after stopping the movement and were removed when it was re-laid.

A little about Yanov station (from wiki):
“Before the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, passenger and cargo work was carried out at the station. The access roads of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, OPC warehouses, oil depots and other enterprises of the city of Pripyat were adjacent to it.
During the reconstruction of the Chernigov-Yanov railway section, in 1986-1987, the Yanov station and the section from Yanov to Slavutych were electrified to provide services to the personnel of the ChNPP and contractors. At the moment, the contact network is not used and is partially dismantled at the station itself and on the Yanov-Semihody stretch.
Currently, one of the paths passing through the station has been reconstructed and is used to support construction work on the construction of the Shelter-2 facility - a new sarcophagus for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. "

According to rumors, the Yanov station is considered inhabited, so we did not go to it, but made the final march - a throw through the woods right to the outskirts of Pripyat. The next few hours turned out to be very tense - I had to listen to every rustle and movement. By nightfall, we safely crossed the border of the city, which is a moat filled with water and a mesh fence stretched along the perimeter. We approach sixteen-story buildings located on the outskirts of the city. The houses are tall, so we decide to immediately go up to the roof of one of them.

I cannot convey the sensations when I first saw the "dead city" from a height! For many tens of kilometers. darkness spreads around him. Not a single light bulb! And only the most powerful glow emanating from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and a lone checkpoint flashlight at the entrance to Pripyat (pictured on the right) "dilute" the pitch darkness.

Construction of a new sarcophagus "Shelter 2".

With a higher exposure.

Having estimated the scale of the city, we set off in search of a suitable place to spend the night. After a short walk through the deserted streets, it was decided to squat an apartment with whole windows in one of the sectional nine-story buildings not far from the center. The background in 2 of the 3 rooms turned out to be within the normal range - apparently in the third at the time of the accident, the window openings were open.
We are preparing a festive dinner to "achieve the ultimate goal."

The windows of the room chosen for the gatherings overlooked the courtyard of the house, thereby minimizing the likelihood of being seen from the street. For added effect, we hung wallpaper on the windows.

Tomorrow we will have to go around and inspect a lot, and now we will gain strength ...

One of the attractions of the Chernobyl exclusion zone is the half-abandoned railway, which before the Chernobyl accident was intensively used to transport goods and passengers between the cities of Chernigov and Ovruch. Actually, the presence of this transport highway was one of the important factors that determined the choice of the location of the nuclear power plant and the foundation of the city of nuclear scientists - Pripyat near the railway station Yanov... Already after the disaster, according to an unpredictable zigzag of fate, the railway line became a transport artery that determined the location of the alternative, suffocated in radioactive dust, the atomic city of Pripyat - the city Slavutich... The new city was built forty kilometers north of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the site of the little-known railway station Nerafa.

Railway station in the city of Slavutich

Electric trains at the Slavutich station

As you can see, the Chernigov - Ovruch railway line played an important historical role in the recent past of the Chernobyl region. The stated facts are generally known to the majority. At the same time, on the construction of the railway itself and bridges across the rivers Pripyat and Dnieper very little information. Today, thanks to the extensive search work carried out by Evgeny Alimov, director of the local history museum of the city of Slavutich and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, we can tell you about when, how and with the help of what mechanisms this railway was built.
Railway bridge over the Pripyat river

The beginning of the construction of the railway Any construction work begins with pre-design studies, which determine in what geological and hydrological conditions the railway will be created, what height to build a railway embankment, how much labor and building materials will be needed to create a railway track. The survey began in March 1927 and was completed by May of this year. According to the documentation, the studies were carried out in difficult conditions - about one hundred kilometers of the territory for the future railway line were flooded. A hundred years ago, the floodplain Pripyat and the Dnieper was swampy, reclamation came to these places after the war.
Already on May 5, large-scale work began on filling the embankment for the future railway. The work was carried out along the entire length of the future transport artery - from Chernigov to Ovruch, with the exception of flooded areas near the Pripyat River and the Dnieper River.
Railway embankment near the bridge over the Pripyat River

To carry out these works, 4000 wheelbarrows were prepared, 1200 roller boards - wheelbarrows with sand were rolled on these boards to form an embankment. Also, 3000 shovels and 500 special wagons - grabar, with the help of which they carried sand, were specially prepared. Rail delivery was organized by water. The barges were loaded in Kiev and delivered along the Pripyat River to Yanov, as well as along the Dnieper and along the Desna to Chernigov. Also, carriages and steam locomotives were delivered on barges. So to Chernigov, 2 steam locomotives and 69 cars were transported on barges, and 4 steam locomotives and 101 cars were transported to Yanov.

Yanov station - modern view

Engineer V.I. Batmanov was appointed the head of the work, who was appointed by the People's Commissariat for construction on February 20, 1927.
The work was carried out so successfully that already on September 15, 1927 (15 days ahead of schedule) the railway track - sleepers and rails were laid. Such efficiency in the construction of the railway line made it possible to organize the technical operation of the railway in the same year. Traffic was organized on three sections of the new railway - the first section - from Chernigov to Nedanchichi, the second - from Yolchi to Zimovishche and the third section from Ovruch to Yanov. The total length of the railway track between Chernigov and Ovruch was 177,685 meters. It is curious that this transport highway allowed passenger trains to develop an average speed of 27.9 kilometers per hour, and military trains 35.2 kilometers per hour.
abandoned equipment at the Yanov station

Construction of railway bridges across the Pripyat, Dnieper and Belous The construction of the bridges began only after the railway lines were connected to these sections. By the fall of 1927, the construction of bridges began. At that time, metal structures for bridges, which were created at the "Bryansk plant" in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, were delivered by water.
Fragment of the metal structure of the railway bridge over the Pripyat River
First of all, during the construction of bridges, the banks were strengthened - bulls were created. These supporting elements of the bridges were made of granite, which was delivered from the Korosten quarries.
By the way, for the construction of bridges on the Dnieper and Pripyat, it was decided to build a temporary, wooden bridge on the Pripyat River in order to ensure the delivery of stone in the required quantities. It was very laborious and costly to deliver the stone by horse-drawn carts. This winter, on the river Pripyat a temporary railway bridge was built. It took only one week to build it.
The bridge was built in the following way - wooden piles and supports for the bridge were driven through the ice. Beams were laid on the supports, on which the railroad tracks were laid. The historian E. Alimov even established the cost of this temporary bridge. It cost the state 4929 rubles.
It is curious that during the operation of the temporary bridge, steam locomotives did not call in. The locomotive pushed cars with building material onto the bridge from one bank (from the Yanov station), and on the other side, the other locomotive hooked up the train and dragged it to the bridge under construction across the Dnieper. The length of the train was at least 35 cars.
The next spring, March 15, 1928, the bridge was dismantled, and the piles driven into the bottom of the Pripyat River were removed - they could interfere with navigation, which was the main mode of transport in this region.
How were building materials transported without a bridge? By ferries. One ferry could carry three loaded or four empty railroad cars. The design of the ferry pier and the ferry made it possible to roll up the wagons from the railroad tracks. In total, 2,717 wagons were transported by ferries, and the cost of transporting a wagon was 2 rubles 90 kopecks.
The cable car across the Pripyat River It is noteworthy that the movement of the ferry was carried out exclusively with the help of the muscular strength of the ferry crew. No mechanical or other devices were used. At the same time, in just three months of the existence of cable cars, in 1928, 36088 people, 51 cars, 6433 horses and 5174 carts were transported, and a total of 34247 poods of cargo were transported.
Completion of the construction of railway bridges Construction of the bridges continued until 1929. Unfortunately, the construction of a bridge across the Pripyat River was not without an accident and casualties. In the summer (July 4, 1929) the unfinished bridge span collapsed into the river. According to unverified information, the metal farm fell due to unfavorable meteorological conditions - there was a strong wind and a thunderstorm.
By the winter of 1929, the bridges were built. Already on November 7, 1929, traffic on railway bridges across the Pripyat and Dnieper rivers was opened.
The opening of the movement was held in a solemn atmosphere - an orchestra played, and residents of the nearest villages who came to the celebration were treated to gingerbread and sweets. The organizers arranged a solemn train ride to the Pripyat bridge to the Yanov station.
In total, there were six stations and twelve crossings on the Chernigov - Ovruch railway line. Stopping points were located in the following sequence -
station Ovruch, siding Selyshche, passing junction Nivki, junction Privar, station Alekseevka, junction Pavlovichi, junction Tolstoy Les, junction Burakovka, station Yanov, siding Zimovishche, junction Posudovo, junction Yolcha, station Nedanchichi, junction Nerafa (since 1987 - station Slavutich ), junction Maleyka, junction Levkovichi, stations Lgovka and Novy Chernigov.
It is curious that some of the stopping points were renamed - the same names are not allowed on the railway. So on January 20, 1928, the patrols were renamed: Selishche - to Grezlya, Zimovishche - to Pripyat, Alekseevka station - to Vilcha, Lgovka - to Belous.
With the construction of the railway, new perspectives have opened up for remote Polessye villages and, in fact, a new page has opened in the life of the Chernobyl region.
Photo - railway track

Photo - the movement of the electric train delivering personnel to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant from the city of Slavutich

Winter view of an abandoned railway in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Abandoned railway crossing in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Abandoned Station Thick Forest

Abandoned building of the Thick Forest station

Diesel serving enterprises of the ChNPP exclusion zone

Station "Yanov" is a railway junction, which is located near the now defunct Yanov farm - the first mention of which dates back to the 18th century. The Yanov railway station is located on the Chernigov - Ovruch section (length 177.5 km), this is the South-Western railway, which is located near the city of Pripyat. In 1925, when a railway connection was built between the cities of Chernigov and Ovruch, Yanov found himself right in the middle of these two cities. By the time of the Chernobyl accident, about 450 people lived in the village of Yanov. The presence of the railway junction as one of the elements of the infrastructure served in the choice of the location for the construction of the future "atomic city" - Pripyat and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. After all, it was convenient to deliver building materials to the construction site by railway. Before the Chernobyl disaster, the Yanov station operated passenger traffic and cargo operations. Also from the station there were railway branches to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant itself, an oil depot and other enterprises of the city of Pripyat.

In 1986, the village and the Yanov station came under high radiation exposure. Radiation dose levels were hundreds of milliroentgens per hour. Also, the village and the station are located near the "Red Forest" site, so the village of Yanov was evacuated on April 27, its residents were taken out on two diesel trains, and the houses were soon buried, since they could not be decontaminated. During the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident, Yanov station provided transportation of goods for the construction of the Shelter (Sarcophagus) facility.

After the disaster, some sections of the railway were reopened. The construction of a new city of atomic scientists - Slavutich served as well. Now every day an electric train runs, which transports the personnel of the Chernobyl NPP along the route Slavutich - Semihody - Slavutich. Also, during the construction of the NSC (New Safe Confinement), some of the railways were reopened and used to support construction work.

Tours to Chernobyl and excursions to Pripyat

It should be noted that, since September 2018, the Yanov station has also become a tourist location. The object was included in the program of tourist routes introduced by the State Agency of Ukraine for the Management of the Exclusion Zone. Therefore, the CHERNOBYL ADVENTURE company invites you to visit this place, on the territory of which you can see abandoned diesel locomotives and diesels, special equipment, military engineering vehicles, carriages and more. Station Yanov, is one of the locations of the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. "Call of Pripyat", on which the members of the "Duty" and "Svoboda" groups are located, is also a transit point. Therefore, I think it will be interesting to compare the differences between a computer game and reality. The Exclusion Zone is a fairly large area and is very rich in history. We invite you to visit the remote corners of the restricted area together with our experienced escorts, who will not only guide you through the era of the past, but also tell you interesting facts, myths and legends. For your convenience, the CHERNOBYL ADVENTURE team has developed several formats of excursions, which you can familiarize yourself with on our website and choose the most optimal travel option for yourself. Book a tour to Chernobyl and Pripyat right now and soon you will be able to participate in a journey that you will hardly ever forget.

One of the attractions of the Chernobyl exclusion zone is the half-abandoned railway, which before the Chernobyl accident was intensively used to transport goods and passengers between the cities of Chernigov and Ovruch. Actually, the presence of this transport highway was one of the important factors that determined the choice of the location of the nuclear power plant and the foundation of the city of nuclear scientists - Pripyat near the railway station Yanov... Already after the disaster, according to an unpredictable zigzag of fate, the railway line became a transport artery that determined the location of the alternative, suffocated in radioactive dust, the atomic city of Pripyat - the city Slavutich... The new city was built forty kilometers north of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the site of the little-known railway station Nerafa.

Railway station in the city of Slavutich

Electric trains at the Slavutich station

As you can see, the Chernigov - Ovruch railway line played an important historical role in the recent past of the Chernobyl region. The stated facts are generally known to the majority. At the same time, on the construction of the railway itself and bridges across the rivers Pripyat and Dnieper very little information. Today, thanks to the extensive search work carried out by Evgeny Alimov, director of the local history museum of the city of Slavutich and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, we can tell you about when, how and with the help of what mechanisms this railway was built.
Railway bridge over the Pripyat river

The beginning of the construction of the railway Any construction work begins with pre-design studies, which determine in what geological and hydrological conditions the railway will be created, what height to build a railway embankment, how much labor and building materials will be needed to create a railway track. The survey began in March 1927 and was completed by May of this year. According to the documentation, the studies were carried out in difficult conditions - about one hundred kilometers of the territory for the future railway line were flooded. A hundred years ago, the floodplain Pripyat and the Dnieper was swampy, reclamation came to these places after the war.
Already on May 5, large-scale work began on filling the embankment for the future railway. The work was carried out along the entire length of the future transport artery - from Chernigov to Ovruch, with the exception of flooded areas near the Pripyat River and the Dnieper River.
Railway embankment near the bridge over the Pripyat River

To carry out these works, 4000 wheelbarrows were prepared, 1200 roller boards - wheelbarrows with sand were rolled on these boards to form an embankment. Also, 3000 shovels and 500 special wagons - grabar, with the help of which they carried sand, were specially prepared. Rail delivery was organized by water. The barges were loaded in Kiev and delivered along the Pripyat River to Yanov, as well as along the Dnieper and along the Desna to Chernigov. Also, carriages and steam locomotives were delivered on barges. So to Chernigov, 2 steam locomotives and 69 cars were transported on barges, and 4 steam locomotives and 101 cars were transported to Yanov.

Yanov station - modern view

Engineer V.I. Batmanov was appointed the head of the work, who was appointed by the People's Commissariat for construction on February 20, 1927.
The work was carried out so successfully that already on September 15, 1927 (15 days ahead of schedule) the railway track - sleepers and rails were laid. Such efficiency in the construction of the railway line made it possible to organize the technical operation of the railway in the same year. Traffic was organized on three sections of the new railway - the first section - from Chernigov to Nedanchichi, the second - from Yolchi to Zimovishche and the third section from Ovruch to Yanov. The total length of the railway track between Chernigov and Ovruch was 177,685 meters. It is curious that this transport highway allowed passenger trains to develop an average speed of 27.9 kilometers per hour, and military trains 35.2 kilometers per hour.
abandoned equipment at the Yanov station

Construction of railway bridges across the Pripyat, Dnieper and Belous The construction of the bridges began only after the railway lines were connected to these sections. By the fall of 1927, the construction of bridges began. At that time, metal structures for bridges, which were created at the "Bryansk plant" in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, were delivered by water.
Fragment of the metal structure of the railway bridge over the Pripyat River
First of all, during the construction of bridges, the banks were strengthened - bulls were created. These supporting elements of the bridges were made of granite, which was delivered from the Korosten quarries.
By the way, for the construction of bridges on the Dnieper and Pripyat, it was decided to build a temporary, wooden bridge on the Pripyat River in order to ensure the delivery of stone in the required quantities. It was very laborious and costly to deliver the stone by horse-drawn carts. This winter, on the river Pripyat a temporary railway bridge was built. It took only one week to build it.
The bridge was built in the following way - wooden piles and supports for the bridge were driven through the ice. Beams were laid on the supports, on which the railroad tracks were laid. The historian E. Alimov even established the cost of this temporary bridge. It cost the state 4929 rubles.
It is curious that during the operation of the temporary bridge, steam locomotives did not call in. The locomotive pushed cars with building material onto the bridge from one bank (from the Yanov station), and on the other side, the other locomotive hooked up the train and dragged it to the bridge under construction across the Dnieper. The length of the train was at least 35 cars.
The next spring, March 15, 1928, the bridge was dismantled, and the piles driven into the bottom of the Pripyat River were removed - they could interfere with navigation, which was the main mode of transport in this region.
How were building materials transported without a bridge? By ferries. One ferry could carry three loaded or four empty railroad cars. The design of the ferry pier and the ferry made it possible to roll up the wagons from the railroad tracks. In total, 2,717 wagons were transported by ferries, and the cost of transporting a wagon was 2 rubles 90 kopecks.
The cable car across the Pripyat River It is noteworthy that the movement of the ferry was carried out exclusively with the help of the muscular strength of the ferry crew. No mechanical or other devices were used. At the same time, in just three months of the existence of cable cars, in 1928, 36088 people, 51 cars, 6433 horses and 5174 carts were transported, and a total of 34247 poods of cargo were transported.
Completion of the construction of railway bridges Construction of the bridges continued until 1929. Unfortunately, the construction of a bridge across the Pripyat River was not without an accident and casualties. In the summer (July 4, 1929) the unfinished bridge span collapsed into the river. According to unverified information, the metal farm fell due to unfavorable meteorological conditions - there was a strong wind and a thunderstorm.
By the winter of 1929, the bridges were built. Already on November 7, 1929, traffic on railway bridges across the Pripyat and Dnieper rivers was opened.
The opening of the movement was held in a solemn atmosphere - an orchestra played, and residents of the nearest villages who came to the celebration were treated to gingerbread and sweets. The organizers arranged a solemn train ride to the Pripyat bridge to the Yanov station.
In total, there were six stations and twelve crossings on the Chernigov - Ovruch railway line. Stopping points were located in the following sequence -
station Ovruch, siding Selyshche, passing junction Nivki, junction Privar, station Alekseevka, junction Pavlovichi, junction Tolstoy Les, junction Burakovka, station Yanov, siding Zimovishche, junction Posudovo, junction Yolcha, station Nedanchichi, junction Nerafa (since 1987 - station Slavutich ), junction Maleyka, junction Levkovichi, stations Lgovka and Novy Chernigov.
It is curious that some of the stopping points were renamed - the same names are not allowed on the railway. So on January 20, 1928, the patrols were renamed: Selishche - to Grezlya, Zimovishche - to Pripyat, Alekseevka station - to Vilcha, Lgovka - to Belous.
With the construction of the railway, new perspectives have opened up for remote Polessye villages and, in fact, a new page has opened in the life of the Chernobyl region.
Photo - railway track

Photo - the movement of the electric train delivering personnel to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant from the city of Slavutich

Winter view of an abandoned railway in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Abandoned railway crossing in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Abandoned Station Thick Forest

Abandoned building of the Thick Forest station

Diesel serving enterprises of the ChNPP exclusion zone

Panorama


A new railway line begins near the Buryakovka station. Andrey measures the background, at the junction, and it is noticeably different after a few meters than before him - apparently the embankment was also updated.


According to various rumors, the path was changed in the early 2000s. I am still wondering why the initiators did not confine themselves to the site, for example, to Yanov? After all, this is a "dozen" extra dead-end kilometers. Old sleepers are scattered on both sides of the embankment.


The next and last platform on our way is Shepelichi.




Primer over the level crossing. The wheel tracks are fresh.


Halfway to Yanov, we found two abandoned carriages and wheels on the side of the road.


They were probably left to rust on the tracks after stopping the movement and were removed when it was re-laid.


A little about Yanov station (from wiki):
“Before the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, passenger and cargo work was carried out at the station. The access roads of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, OPC warehouses, oil depots and other enterprises of the city of Pripyat were adjacent to it.
During the period of reconstruction of the Chernigov-Yanov railway section, in 1986-1987, the Yanov station and the section from Yanov to Slavutych were electrified to provide services for the personnel of the ChNPP and contractors. At the moment, the contact network is not used and is partially dismantled at the station itself and on the Yanov-Semihody stretch.
Currently, one of the paths passing through the station has been reconstructed and is used to support construction work on the construction of the Shelter-2 facility - a new sarcophagus for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. "


According to rumors, the Yanov station is considered inhabited, so we did not go to it, but made the final march - a throw through the woods right to the outskirts of Pripyat. The next few hours turned out to be very tense - I had to listen to every rustle and movement. By nightfall, we safely crossed the border of the city, which is a moat filled with water and a mesh fence stretched along the perimeter. We approach sixteen-story buildings located on the outskirts of the city. The houses are tall, so we decide to immediately go up to the roof of one of them.
I cannot convey the sensations when I first saw the "dead city" from a height! For many tens of kilometers. darkness spreads around him. Not a single light bulb! And only the most powerful glow emanating from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and a lone checkpoint flashlight at the entrance to Pripyat (pictured on the right) "dilute" the pitch darkness.


Construction of a new sarcophagus "Shelter 2".


With a higher exposure.


Having estimated the scale of the city, we set off in search of a suitable place to spend the night. After a short walk through the deserted streets, it was decided to squat an apartment with whole windows in one of the sectional nine-story buildings not far from the center. The background in 2 of the 3 rooms turned out to be within the normal range - apparently in the third at the time of the accident, the window openings were open.
We are preparing a festive dinner to "achieve the ultimate goal."


The windows of the room chosen for the gatherings overlooked the courtyard of the house, thereby minimizing the likelihood of being seen from the street. For added effect, we hung wallpaper on the windows.


Tomorrow we will have to go around and inspect a lot, and now we will gain strength ...


To be continued ...
Link to first