World Lines Real-life railway children
Jonathan James visits the St Petersburg Children’s Railways, two lines with a distinctly young outlook.
Many former communist countries operated ‘Pioneer Railways’, which were also referred to as ‘Children’s Railways’. The first of these opened in Gorky Park, Moscow in 1932 and they eventually appeared in most communist states around the world.
A few closed following the fall of communism, although a surprising number have survived, including around a dozen in Germany and more than 20 in Russia.
Pioneer Railways were operated by children, under adult supervision, as part of their education. The children, aged between nine and 15, were required to wear a uniform and work the railways in accordance with main-line practice.
St Petersburg in Russia has two 750mm gauge Children’s Railways, one to the north of the city and one to the south. Both are located close to stations on the Blue Metro Line, so can easily be visited on the same day.
Small October Railway – Northern Line
The Malaya Oktyabrskaya Detskaya Zheleznaya Doroga is located towards the north of St Petersburg. It is around a 20-minute walk from Ozerki metro station and a fiveminute walk from Ozerki main line station. This is the oldest of the two lines, having opened on 28th August 1948, and has a complicated history.
The original railway was 8.1 kilometres long and served three
stations at Kirovskaya, Zoo and Ozernaya – St Petersburg was known as Leningrad at the time. Trains were operated by steam and diesel locomotives and as with many Children’s Railways, secondhand material was used to construct the line, much of it left over from the Second World War.
There was a single track, with a passing loop and two platforms at Zoo station. A triangle was provided at Kirovskaya and Ozernaya stations for turning the locos. The railway proved to be very popular and offered a handy way of reaching the zoo.
Sadly, there was a serious accident at the end of the 1964 season, following a level crossing collision, which resulted in the death of four children and an instructor.
Following the accident, the railway was shortened to 3.1km, with three stations at Pionerskaya (Zoo), Yuniy (Young) and Ozernaya. Zoo was renamed Pionerskaya (Pioneer) in 1969 as by then the zoo had long since been closed. The northern section of the line, where the accident took place, was closed and a majority of the original rolling stock was moved elsewhere.
Due to the building of a new housing development, in 1990 the railway was again shortened to operate between Yuniy (Young) and Ozernaya only. Initially the closure of the remaining section was going to be temporary, whilst utility pipes were installed, but it never reopened.
In 1999 the line was extended by 4.2 km from Ozernaya to Shuvalovo via Lesnaya and Beregovaya. This was achieved by connecting the Children’s Railway with the adjacent main line at Ozernaya and laying a third rail to create a mixed gauge line of 750mm/ 1520mm (Russian standard gauge).
Narrow gauge and main-line trains shared the same track and platform at Shuvalovo but at the other two stations separate platforms were provided for the two gauges.
Unfortunately the extension to Shuvalovo was short-lived, partly caused by timetabling issues, but also due to the complexity of the signalling and maintenance of the third rail. Through services ceased after only two years after which the railway again operated between Yuniy (Young) and Ozernaya, a distance of around 2.1 km.
The 2002 season did not get off to a good start due to an arson attack, which destroyed one of the remaining two diesel locomotives. Since 2002 the railway has continued to operate largely unchanged, although most of the third rail has been removed and the main-line connection severed.
Both stations have two platforms, although there is only usually one train in operation. The rolling stock is stored in the open air at Ozernaya, with heavy maintenance carried out by the southern Children’s Railway which has a proper workshop. There is a substantial station building at Ozernaya, which includes a staff messroom, ticket office and toilets. Yuniy is slightly more modest with just a small station building and ticket office.
The line is fully signalled using semi-automatic block working, based on the Melentyev system. Trains normally run between June and August – the journey takes seven minutes in each direction and there are usually eight return trips between 10:00 and 16:12.
I visited the line on 10th August 2019, when trains were being hauled
“A level crossing collision resulted in the death of four children and an instructor...”
by TY10-025 (TU10-25, as Y is U when translated to English) with four carriages. The TU10 diesel locomotives were specifically built to operate on Children’s Railways, the first appearing in 2010, and a total of 28 have been constructed.
Small October Railway – Southern Line
Construction of the second Children’s Railway at St Petersburg, following the route of Russia’s first railway between Tsarskoye and Selo, started in 2008 and it was opened on 12th July 2011. The line is a ten-minute walk from Kupchino metro and main-line station, via a road bridge, which also provides views of the adjacent Metro depot.
The line is around 10.8km long and has three stations at Molodezhnaya (near Kupchino metro station), Shushary (Uni) and Tsarskosel’skaya. Molodezhnaya has two platforms and a large modern station building containing a café, toilets, ticket office and waiting room as well as a number of displays detailing the history of the railway. The running line is single track and runs parallel with the main line.
Shushary station is located about halfway along the railway and has a passing loop with an island platform and a basic shelter. There is a main-line station next door and a railway museum. Unfortunately I did not have time to visit but the museum appeared to contain a large number of steam and diesel locomotives housed in a yard on the opposite side of the main line to the Children’s Railway.
The final stop is Tsarskosel’skaya which again has two platforms as well as a three-road shed. The substantial station building includes offices, toilets, a model railway, waiting room, museum, shop and café.
The southern route has a modern semi-automatic block signalling system. The journey takes 29 minutes in each direction and between June and August there are usually seven return journeys a day between 10:00 and 16:06. When I visited on 10th August 2019, two trains were in operation, with three locomotives taking turns to work them.
One of these was another Class TU10 diesel, TY10-030, similar to the locomotive that operates the northern railway. The second was a TU7A class numbered TY-7A-2866. The TU7 locomotives were developed in the early 1970s, with more than 3,500 constructed, many of which were exported to other communist countries. The TU7A variant included a 750mm gauge version, which appeared on a number of Children’s Railways.
There was also a 0-8-0+T steam locomotive, numbered KII-4-447, which was used in between the diesel-hauled services. Both trains consisted of five carriages.
Another diesel locomotive was stabled outside the sheds. This was an older TU2 design numbered TY2-167. These locomotives date from the 1950s and operated a number of narrow-gauge lines across the Soviet block as well as several Children’s Railways.