The first railway in Russia appeared in the 19th century

At the end of the eighteenth century the Frolov brotherscreated for industrial needs of one of the large enterprises a new type of transport, which was the cars that moved on the rail track. Rail transport in its modern sense appeared a little later - in 1825 in England. As for our country, the first railway in Russia was built under the direction of Austrian engineer von Gerstner. This idea was supported personally by Nicholas I, who signed the corresponding decree on April 15, 1836. According to this document, the construction of the so-called Tsarskoye Selo railway was launched in the country.

Funds for the construction were provided by the graphBobrinsky, himself von Gerstner, as well as other persons who represented the Russian, American and German capital. The first railway in Russia was supposed to connect Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo. It should be noted that the branch was later extended 700 meters to Pavlovsk. The construction of the facility started on May 1, 1836. A width equal to 1,829 mm was chosen for the gauge, despite the fact that in European countries the value of this indicator was 1,435 mm. To organize the passage of horse-drawn carts, a number of crossings were constructed on the line. The first Russian railway received the Belgian rails, each unit of which had a minimum length of 3.7 m and a maximum length of 6.9 m. Movement along it was opened on October 30, 1837. This date went down in history as the beginning of regular railway traffic in our country.

Rolling stock was acquired in Belgium andOf England. By the day of its opening, the first railway in Russia could boast the presence of six locomotives with design changes dictated by a different gauge, 44 passenger cars and 19 freight cars. The first domestic trains were completed with cars divided into four classes. The most comfortable of them were carriages, which had a covered body. On their soft seats at the same time could accommodate eight people. All others could carry ten passengers. Regardless of class lighting and heating in the cars was absent.

March 15, 1838 into action was for the first timea train schedule was introduced, according to which their departure began at 9-00, and ended at 22-00. The average interval between them was four hours. The first railway in Russia was single-track; therefore, a crossing was equipped in its central part, which allowed crossing trains that left the terminal stations at the same time. Average travel time is 42 minutes. In the summer of 1876, the second main route appeared on the site. Thanks to this, traffic safety has significantly increased, and the time of driving from the beginning to the end has been reduced to 32 minutes. On January 2, 1900, the Tsarskoye Selo line became part of the Moscow-Vindava-Rybinsk railway, as a result of which it ceased to be independent. At the same time, the width of its gauge was changed to the standard one, which was 1,524 mm.

Construction of railways in Russia, whichBegan to intensively develop after the appearance of the Tsarskoye Selo branch, it required skilled specialists. The first domestic educational institution of the corresponding profile was the Corps of Engineers of Communications. Its graduates took an active part in the construction of the railway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg.