Before the railroad...

    Transportation in the large, harsh, rigid country of Russia has always been a struggle. Originally it began with the use of waterways, but these were inefficient because they were easily disrupted. Roads were the next option, but proved to be usable only during certain times of the year. With the capital of the country transferring back and forth between St. Petersburg and Moscow, and no fast or efficient way to get around, some new form was transportation was needed. Railroads began in 1763, and after a slow start proved to be a more efficient means of transportation than either waterways or roads.

 The river system...

    Russia as a country covers one sixth of the entire world, yet before 1763 all it had was small, inefficient waterways in the summer, and soggy roads in the winter. Rivers as transportation in any country are difficult because they can change depending on the weather. When there are flooding problems, then the river might be too fast and dangerous to use for travel. During times of drought, the river will be impassable because there will not be enough water flowing to move the boat. And finally, Russia’s biggest problem is the issue of geographic location. The rivers in southern Russia are frozen for 3-4 months a year, while the ones in northern Russian are frozen for 6-7 months. This equals out to the rivers only being accessible for 4-6 months a year. This makes movement of goods slow and uncertain because anything can happen.

This is a lake near St. Petersburg at Kransnoe-Selo. It shows the water that Russia once used as transportation. However, the train running along side shows how Russia uses more efficent modern transportation.

The road system...

    Roads were used to transport goods and merchandise in the winter when the rivers were frozen. During the warmer weather, the roads would turn muddy, swampy and nearly impassible. Roads were built with a sand layer on top of a dirt layer. Dry, windy weather would cause large sand drifts, to accumulate on the roadsides. Not to mention the trouble with the soggy roads or sand drifts broken bridges weren’t uncommon and could delay a journey significantly.
     In 1817 Alexander I started the construction of the first real roads. His plan was to construct the country’s first hard-surface road, which would become the St. Petersburg-Moscow Chaussee. However, this had to be continued by Nicholas I in 1833 and was finished by 1834. This road made the travel time between Moscow and St. Petersburg to be only 10 days. The problem with this road was that it was only suitable for some types of goods, and each cart had to be small enough to fit on the road. Since the carts were small, that meant that each one could only carry less than a 1000 pounds. This made the road not very useful since very few goods could be transported and it was still slow, especially with the multiple trips that would have to be made. Despite this Nicholas was determined to set-up a good transportation system and designed long-range

 The first tramways...

      Before these planned roads were completed, railroads were being used for the mining and metallurgical industries. From 1763-1765 the first railway, an ore-carrying tramway was built by K. D. Frolov, who worked at the Zmeinogorsk mine of the Kolyvano-Voskresenski factories in Altai.  It was designed and used to transport ore and is important because it started the idea of railways and tramways. Another tramway was built in 1788 by A. S. Yartsev and with the help of a Scottish engineer Charles Gascoyne. This second tramway was 500 feet long and carried cannon and other products from one part of the factory to the other.

The first railroad...

    The planning of the first real railway began in March of 1806 when P.K. Frolov proposed two plans for improving transportation between his mine (Zmeinogorsk) and nearby factories. Both plans were approved; one plan was for a canal and the other was for a railroad. But he decided to build only the railroad. The railroad when finished in 1810 was 6000 feet long, traveling over very rugged terrain. This was a big ordeal and required extensive construction to make a level track for the train. A huge improvement was made with this railroad in comparison to the old system which used wagons pulled by horses. However it wasn’t a full-working railroad because it only ran during the summer.

The first year-round railway...

    The construction of the St. Petersburg-Tsarkoe Selo Railway.St. Petersburg-Tsarskoe Selo Railway

The connection of the Moscow and St. Petersburg...
    The construction of the Moscow-St. Petersburg Railway. Moscow-St. Petersburg Railway

How the Railroads are used interacively today...
    Railroads are being used in connection with Satelittes in a project called  Transtelesat / Conclusion

Would you like to see where it all came from? Check out... My Works Cited
 
 

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 St. Petersburg: Mystery, Meaning, Authority!!
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