Circum-Baikal Railway
Encyclopedia
The Circum-Baikal Railway is a historical railway in Irkutsk region
of Russia
. It runs along the Northern shore of the Southern extremity of the lake from the town of Slyudyanka
to the Baikal settlement
. Until the middle of the 20th century Circum-Baikal railway was part of the main line of Trans-Siberian Railway
; later on, however, a duplicate section of the railway was built. Sometimes called a unique achievement in engineering, the Circum-Baikal is one of the picturesque sights of the area around Lake Baikal
.
to the Mysovaya wharf (now the town of Babushkin on the southeastern shore of Lake Baikal.
and have the railway go down the right (east) bank of the Angara River
(the left bank was too built up); however, later this variant was found to be inexpedient, as the level of water in Angara was subject to fluctuations, and during spring thaws crossing the river would have been difficult. Therefore the planners decided to establish the railway from Irkutsk along the left bank.
The construction of the railway along Angara from Irkutsk to Cape Baranchik (Port Baikal) on Lake Baikal was carried out in 1896-1900, costing a total of 3.47 million rubles. In the meantime, East of the lake the railway from Sretensk
was completed up to Mysovaya on the east shore of Lake Baikal. With the purpose of establishing a through railway connection, before the Circum-Baikal was finished, it was decided to link the shores of the lake with a railway ferry. The trains were carried on special ice breaker-ferries "Baikal" and "Angara". In the cold winter of 1903/04 when the ice breakers were not strong enough to break the ice, a railway line was laid on the ice, and the cars were drawn by draft animals.
Meanwhile, the construction of another section of track, intended to fill the gap in the Transsiberian railroad, was carried out. The routing of its eastern section, from Mysovaya to Kultuk
(at the lake's southwestern tip), passing along the flat southern coast of the lake, did not cause disputes. The greatest complexities were caused by the western section, meant to connect Irkutsk and Kultuk. A group of researchers under the direction of the professor Ivan Vasilʹevich Mushketov
studied four options for routing this section of the railway:
According to the results of the work of mountain engineering parties, on June 29, 1889 the committee on a construction of the Siberian railway chose the first and third options from these four initial proposals. From 1899 to 1900 final survey work was down, and the engineers preferred to lay the line along the lake shore (i.e., the third option). Despite the difficult terrain along the shoreline, which consisted of a rocky ridge with abrupt slopes, towering above the waters by 270 to 400 m, calculations showed this option to be the most economical.
The final decision on the line was made by the committee on the construction of the Siberian railway on . The cost of construction of the given piece of road was 52.52 million rubles. The transportation engineer Boleslav Cavrimovich was appointed the construction director.
was laid. The construction of these sections was carried out chiefly by the detainees and hard labourers of the Aleksandrovsky prison.
Workers began construction on the most complex section, from Slyudyanka to the Baikal station, only in the spring of 1902, with the aim of finishing it by 1905. The original plan required the construction of 33 tunnel
s, at a cost of 5.3 million rubles, a retaining wall
for 3.7 million rubles, and viaduct
s for 1.6 million rubles. With regard to the possible negative impact caused by the lake water, the minimum necessary height of the track route over the water of Baikal was calculated to be 5.33 m. Technical conditions during the arrangement of the double-track sections fixed the bandwidth of the roads at 14 pairs of trains per day.
Owing to the lack of a flat shoreline all the materials (with the exception of stone mined at the site) were brought by water to the site of construction (by barge during the summer, by animal-drawn carts in the winter). The complex terrain of the rocky shore compelled the builders to lay the majority of the route in tunnels or on artificial shelves cut out of the rock; the sides of the railway were strengthened with retaining walls. The workers, already suffering under the hot summers and harsh winters, were required to carry out the majority of the construction by hand.
Every kilometer of the road required the expenditure of about one wagon of explosives. Earthwork was carried out in volume, approximately equal to 400 wagons. Embankments amounted to 28.7% of the length of the road, cutting, to 71.3% (with a great deal in rocky soil). The upper construction of the railroad ways had to be made heavier, using more powerful track and increasing the number of ties
. Because of the difficult terrain the minimum radius of the turns was reduced.
The onset of the Russo-Japanese War
in 1904 caused an acceleration in railway construction. From 1901 to 1902 about 9 thousand workers were employed on the railroads, while in 1903–1904 the number rose to 13.5. The main efforts were focused on the construction of the railway line itself; therefore, the development work on stations and towns in the path of the line did not take place. Work trains began to circulate on the railway on and on the line was brought into permanent operation. The length of the railway in its final form from Baikal station to Mysovaya was 244 verst
s (260 km). The aggregate value of one kilometer of the Circum-Baikal railway was about 130 thousand rubles (compared to 93 thousand rubles on the other legs of the Trans-Siberian Railway).
Initially, only one track was built; from 1911 to 1914 the construction of a second track was undertaken, which increased capacity of the Circum-Baikal to 48 pairs of trains a day. In this stage of the construction of bridges and other engineering structures reinforced concrete
was introduced as a new material. As part of these works, considerable attention was paid to the construction of stations and station towns. On the section from Baikal to Slyudyanka alone ten stopping points were set up. Measures have been taken to improve traffic safety and protect against landslides.
During the revolutionary events of 1917 and the subsequent civil war
the Circum-Baikal was the scene of intense fighting, as evidenced by the mass graves of victims of those events. The Red Army, retreating from the Czechoslovak Legions
, blew up the Kirkidaysky tunnel (№ 39, past Slyudyankoy on the way to Mysovaya) on July 23, 1918. The tunnel was later restored, but there was no movement on the line for almost 20 days.
In the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, the villages were actively developed, and homes, barracks for the troops, and power plants were built.
, the work was completed only by 1947. The group in charge of development came to an unexpected conclusion and citing the enormous cost, proposed not to carry out any work on the railroad along Lake Baikal. Instead they proposed to transform the single track from Irkutsk to Slyudyanka across the mountains into an electric
double track.
From 1947 to 1949 an electric transfer railway from Irkutsk to Bolshoy Lug to Slyudyanka was built, noticeably shortening the distance compared with the Circum-Baikal branch line. The main route of the Trans-Siberian Railway was therefore transferred to the new section.
In 1950, construction on the Irkutsk Hydroelectric Power Station
plant was begun. In connection with this, the part of the Circum-Baikal railroad from Irkutsk to the town of Baikal that passed along the Angara River
was disassembled and in 1956 flooded during the filling of the Irkutsk reservoir (only remnants of dam
s remained on the shore of the Angara near the town of Baikal). In the end, a modern, "dead-end" route of the Circum-Baikal (from Slyudyanka-2 to Kultuk to Marituy to Baikal). The railway lost its strategic importance, the number of trains on the road dropped sharply, and security was withdrawn from the tunnels and bridges.
Because it was no longer needed, the second track of the Circum-Baikal was disassembled. In the early 1980s, some even proposed the closure of the line, or that an automobile highway be constructed in its place. The villages along the road gradually deteriorated, and people began to abandon their houses. Virtually the only means of communication with the heartland for the residents of these places was the rarely running diesel locomotive, and later a locomotive connected Slyudyanka, Kultuk, and Baikal (Port Baikal is linked to the village of Listvyanka on the opposite shore of the Angara by an automobile ferry).
The greatest challenge for the Circum-Baikal Railway was and still is frequent landslides and mud flows. Even at the time of surveying, engineers noted a strong weathering of the rock layers and a great amount of scree
. The demolition of the hillside and the steep slopes during the construction of the road provoked a catastrophic intensification of geodynamic processes. Severe landslides occurred during the construction of roads, in particular by tunnel 5 in April 1904 a collapse of about 3000 m3 occurred, and a month before the end of the construction a collapse occurred in tunnel 9 of about 1000 m3, damaging the masonry of the tunnel.
The results of further studies of the rocks along the road showed that they were not as robust as the initial surveys had expected. Moreover, the work associated with the construction of the railroad (particularly the work using explosives) led to the formation of numerous cracks in the rocks below. Having recognized this danger, the authorities agreed on the construction of retaining walls, the stripping of the hillside, and other measures. In some places dangerous sections were rerouted with new tunnels.
Nevertheless, in spite of the work to prevent natural hazards, landslides were a frequent and dangerous phenomenon on the Circum-Baikal, often leading to crashes and interruptions in roadwork. For example:
In 1936, the Marituiskaya section was built for safety purposes. It was one of the most complicated sections of railway in the country. In 1939 on the Western Siberian Railway the Travelling Machine Station was built, which was carried out by anti-landslide workers (including even rock-climbers). The levelling and clearing of dangerous slopes has continued until this day.
Among other natural phenomena, mudflows and floods had a negative influence on the Circum-Baikal traffic safety. The greatest activity in this respect occurred on the river Slyudyanka, which runs into Baikal near station 1. On July 29, 1934 a mudflow on this river had catastrophic consequences, carrying off in its wake several apartment houses and covering the station with a thick layer of silt and sand. In 1960 the mudflow on Slyudyanka again washed away train tracks and destroyed a series of dams. Powerful downpours in 1971 caused the strongest floods, which led to the destruction of several bridges and tunnel entrances, as well as a the foundations of a track on the Circum-Baikal (the interruption of traffic lasted almost a week). Another unusual natural phenomenon occurs on the south side of Baikal: the deposition of ice sometimes causes a several-meter heap of ice blocks on the coast, covering the railways with ice.
In 16 years alone, from 1932 to 1947, 721 collapses occurred, of which 502 were without consequences for the railway, 201 closed off a single stage and disturbed the top structure of the railway, and 18 caused train-wrecks and the destruction of the embankment. According to the data of the Eastern Siberian Engineering Service, between 1930 for 1984 about 1200 collapses and mud-flows were recorded. Besides this, about 500 cases of falling of separate stones caused damage to the railway and a rolling-stock. Engineers described trips on the Circum-Baikal as exciting but dangerous.
The kilometers on the modern Circum-Baikal are traditionally measured from the Irkutsk sorting station, which until 1934 was the administrative border between the Tomsk railway and the railway after Baikal. The Baikal station is thus located 72 km from this point of readout, and the Slyudyanka-2 station, at 161 km.
In the 1980s and 1990s, measures were begun to reconstruct and strengthen the railway. Currently, normally one train a day (a diesel locomotive
and two cars) runs on the railway. The duration of the trip from Slyudyanka to the Baikal station is four hours and forty minutes. The inhabitants of the roadside settlements call the train a передача, or "transfer", reflecting the value of this transport for the supply of necessary articles such as bread, salt, matches, vodka, and tobacco. Another name given to the train is мотаня (so called because the train rushes or мотается between stations). In addition, tourist trains periodically pass along the Cicum-Baikal, including steam locomotives and retro-style cars. Tourists can also rent handcar
s.
With the decision of the Irkutsk regional council on December 21, 1982, the section of the Circum-Baikal from Baikal station to Kultuk station was declared an architectural and scenic reserve (it is now part of the Baikal National Park) and put under the state protection. Beginning in the early 1980s the tourist potential of the Circum-Baikal Railway has started to come into its own (the stations, however, were used to a limited degree since the railroad's inception as areas for dacha
s and recreation). A series of tourist areas are in operation ("Taiga" at 134 km, "Sensation" at 102 km, "Coniferous" at 98 km, "Retro" and the "Silver Key" at 80 km.
Along with actual railway sights, tourists on the Circum-Baikal route are attracted by the numerous nature sanctuaries, including the rocky formations such as "Белая выемка". In the settlements along the Circum-Baikal, especially in Maritui, a number of early twentieth-century in the modernist
style are preserved.
The following establishments are also located on the Circum-Baikal:
The 100th anniversary of the railway was celebrated in autumn of 2005. For this event the Baikal station was reconstructed, in which an exhibit was opened, devoted to the Circum-Baikal. The Sludyanka station was also rebuilt.
Irkutsk Oblast
Irkutsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of Angara River, Lena, and Nizhnyaya Tunguska Rivers. The administrative center is the city of Irkutsk. Population: -History:...
of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. It runs along the Northern shore of the Southern extremity of the lake from the town of Slyudyanka
Slyudyanka
Slyudyanka is a town and the administrative center of Slyudyansky District of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located at the southern tip of Lake Baikal south of Irkutsk. It is a stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Population:...
to the Baikal settlement
Baykal, Irkutsk Oblast
Baykal is an urban locality in Slyudyansky District of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located near Lake Baikal on the left bank of the Angara River, south of Irkutsk. Population:...
. Until the middle of the 20th century Circum-Baikal railway was part of the main line of Trans-Siberian Railway
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...
; later on, however, a duplicate section of the railway was built. Sometimes called a unique achievement in engineering, the Circum-Baikal is one of the picturesque sights of the area around Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is the world's oldest at 30 million years old and deepest lake with an average depth of 744.4 metres.Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the...
.
History
When the Siberian railway, later called the "Trans-Siberian-railway" was under design, it was divided into seven sections. Circum-Baikal railway was one of them from IrkutskIrkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
to the Mysovaya wharf (now the town of Babushkin on the southeastern shore of Lake Baikal.
Survey work
The first exploration of a possible route for the first section of the Circum-Baikal, from Irkutsk to Lake Baikal, was carried out in 1894. Initially the surveyors proposed to build a pontoon bridgePontoon bridge
A pontoon bridge or floating bridge is a bridge that floats on water and in which barge- or boat-like pontoons support the bridge deck and its dynamic loads. While pontoon bridges are usually temporary structures, some are used for long periods of time...
and have the railway go down the right (east) bank of the Angara River
Angara River
The Angara River is a long river in Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai, south-east Siberia, Russia. It is the only river flowing out of Lake Baikal, and is the headwater tributary of the Yenisei River....
(the left bank was too built up); however, later this variant was found to be inexpedient, as the level of water in Angara was subject to fluctuations, and during spring thaws crossing the river would have been difficult. Therefore the planners decided to establish the railway from Irkutsk along the left bank.
The construction of the railway along Angara from Irkutsk to Cape Baranchik (Port Baikal) on Lake Baikal was carried out in 1896-1900, costing a total of 3.47 million rubles. In the meantime, East of the lake the railway from Sretensk
Sretensk
Sretensk is a town and the administrative center of Sretensky District of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, located on the right bank of the Shilka River , east of Chita.Population: It was founded in 1689 and granted town status in 1926....
was completed up to Mysovaya on the east shore of Lake Baikal. With the purpose of establishing a through railway connection, before the Circum-Baikal was finished, it was decided to link the shores of the lake with a railway ferry. The trains were carried on special ice breaker-ferries "Baikal" and "Angara". In the cold winter of 1903/04 when the ice breakers were not strong enough to break the ice, a railway line was laid on the ice, and the cars were drawn by draft animals.
Meanwhile, the construction of another section of track, intended to fill the gap in the Transsiberian railroad, was carried out. The routing of its eastern section, from Mysovaya to Kultuk
Kultuk
Kultuk is an urban locality in Slyudyansky District of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the southwestern tip of Lake Baikal. Population: It was established in 1647....
(at the lake's southwestern tip), passing along the flat southern coast of the lake, did not cause disputes. The greatest complexities were caused by the western section, meant to connect Irkutsk and Kultuk. A group of researchers under the direction of the professor Ivan Vasilʹevich Mushketov
Ivan Mushketov
Ivan Vasilʹevich Mushketov was a famous Russian geologist, tectonist, explorer, and geographer who was born in the Don region and entered Saint Petersburg University in 1867, but soon transferred to the Mining Institute where he was a student of A. P. Karpinsky, and graduated from there in 1872...
studied four options for routing this section of the railway:
- from Irkutsk along the left bank of the Irkut RiverIrkut RiverIrkut is a river in the Buryat Republic and Irkutsk Oblast of Russia; Angara's left tributary. The length of the river is . The area of its basin is . The Irkut River freezes up in late October - mid-November and stays icebound until late April - early May. The city of Irkutsk is located at the...
across the Zyrkuzunsky ridge to the KultukKultukKultuk is an urban locality in Slyudyansky District of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the southwestern tip of Lake Baikal. Population: It was established in 1647.... - from Irkutsk through the valleys of the Greater Olkha and the Krutaya Guba Rivers and further along the coast of lake Baikal up to the Kultuk settlement
- from the BaikalBaykal, Irkutsk OblastBaykal is an urban locality in Slyudyansky District of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located near Lake Baikal on the left bank of the Angara River, south of Irkutsk. Population:...
station to Kultuk along the lake shore - from Belektui village (located on the Transsiberian railway to the west of Irkutsk) across the Tunkinsky ridge to Kultuk
According to the results of the work of mountain engineering parties, on June 29, 1889 the committee on a construction of the Siberian railway chose the first and third options from these four initial proposals. From 1899 to 1900 final survey work was down, and the engineers preferred to lay the line along the lake shore (i.e., the third option). Despite the difficult terrain along the shoreline, which consisted of a rocky ridge with abrupt slopes, towering above the waters by 270 to 400 m, calculations showed this option to be the most economical.
The final decision on the line was made by the committee on the construction of the Siberian railway on . The cost of construction of the given piece of road was 52.52 million rubles. The transportation engineer Boleslav Cavrimovich was appointed the construction director.
Construction of the railway
The construction of the Circum-Baikal railway began in late 1899. Originally the efforts of the builders were concentrated on the section from Mysovaya to Tankhoy. Beginning in 1901, the section from Tankhoy to SlyudyankaSlyudyanka
Slyudyanka is a town and the administrative center of Slyudyansky District of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located at the southern tip of Lake Baikal south of Irkutsk. It is a stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Population:...
was laid. The construction of these sections was carried out chiefly by the detainees and hard labourers of the Aleksandrovsky prison.
Workers began construction on the most complex section, from Slyudyanka to the Baikal station, only in the spring of 1902, with the aim of finishing it by 1905. The original plan required the construction of 33 tunnel
Tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...
s, at a cost of 5.3 million rubles, a retaining wall
Retaining wall
Retaining walls are built in order to hold back earth which would otherwise move downwards. Their purpose is to stabilize slopes and provide useful areas at different elevations, e.g...
for 3.7 million rubles, and viaduct
Viaduct
A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
s for 1.6 million rubles. With regard to the possible negative impact caused by the lake water, the minimum necessary height of the track route over the water of Baikal was calculated to be 5.33 m. Technical conditions during the arrangement of the double-track sections fixed the bandwidth of the roads at 14 pairs of trains per day.
Owing to the lack of a flat shoreline all the materials (with the exception of stone mined at the site) were brought by water to the site of construction (by barge during the summer, by animal-drawn carts in the winter). The complex terrain of the rocky shore compelled the builders to lay the majority of the route in tunnels or on artificial shelves cut out of the rock; the sides of the railway were strengthened with retaining walls. The workers, already suffering under the hot summers and harsh winters, were required to carry out the majority of the construction by hand.
Every kilometer of the road required the expenditure of about one wagon of explosives. Earthwork was carried out in volume, approximately equal to 400 wagons. Embankments amounted to 28.7% of the length of the road, cutting, to 71.3% (with a great deal in rocky soil). The upper construction of the railroad ways had to be made heavier, using more powerful track and increasing the number of ties
Railroad tie
A railroad tie/railway tie , or railway sleeper is a rectangular item used to support the rails in railroad tracks...
. Because of the difficult terrain the minimum radius of the turns was reduced.
The onset of the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
in 1904 caused an acceleration in railway construction. From 1901 to 1902 about 9 thousand workers were employed on the railroads, while in 1903–1904 the number rose to 13.5. The main efforts were focused on the construction of the railway line itself; therefore, the development work on stations and towns in the path of the line did not take place. Work trains began to circulate on the railway on and on the line was brought into permanent operation. The length of the railway in its final form from Baikal station to Mysovaya was 244 verst
Verst
A verst or werst is an obsolete Russian unit of length. It is defined as being 500 sazhen long, which makes a verst equal to 1.0668 kilometres ....
s (260 km). The aggregate value of one kilometer of the Circum-Baikal railway was about 130 thousand rubles (compared to 93 thousand rubles on the other legs of the Trans-Siberian Railway).
Active operation
When the Circum-Baikal railway was put into operation, the Trans-Siberian railway around Baikal was linked, and began to be used to transport goods and passengers. The Circum-Baikal was called the "golden buckle on the steel belt of Russia".Initially, only one track was built; from 1911 to 1914 the construction of a second track was undertaken, which increased capacity of the Circum-Baikal to 48 pairs of trains a day. In this stage of the construction of bridges and other engineering structures reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
was introduced as a new material. As part of these works, considerable attention was paid to the construction of stations and station towns. On the section from Baikal to Slyudyanka alone ten stopping points were set up. Measures have been taken to improve traffic safety and protect against landslides.
During the revolutionary events of 1917 and the subsequent civil war
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
the Circum-Baikal was the scene of intense fighting, as evidenced by the mass graves of victims of those events. The Red Army, retreating from the Czechoslovak Legions
Czechoslovak Legions
The Czechoslovak Legions were volunteer armed forces composed predominantly of Czechs and Slovaks fighting together with the Entente powers during World War I...
, blew up the Kirkidaysky tunnel (№ 39, past Slyudyankoy on the way to Mysovaya) on July 23, 1918. The tunnel was later restored, but there was no movement on the line for almost 20 days.
In the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, the villages were actively developed, and homes, barracks for the troops, and power plants were built.
Decline
In 1940, exploration work was initiated to strengthen the track and ensure the safety of traffic on the Circum-Baikal Railway. Owing to the start of the Second World WarWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the work was completed only by 1947. The group in charge of development came to an unexpected conclusion and citing the enormous cost, proposed not to carry out any work on the railroad along Lake Baikal. Instead they proposed to transform the single track from Irkutsk to Slyudyanka across the mountains into an electric
Railway electrification system
A railway electrification system supplies electrical energy to railway locomotives and multiple units as well as trams so that they can operate without having an on-board prime mover. There are several different electrification systems in use throughout the world...
double track.
From 1947 to 1949 an electric transfer railway from Irkutsk to Bolshoy Lug to Slyudyanka was built, noticeably shortening the distance compared with the Circum-Baikal branch line. The main route of the Trans-Siberian Railway was therefore transferred to the new section.
In 1950, construction on the Irkutsk Hydroelectric Power Station
Irkutsk Hydroelectric Power Station
The Irkutsk Hydroelectric Power Station is an earthen embankment dam on the Angara River with an adjacent hydroelectric power station. It is located adjacent to Irkutsk, Irkutsk Oblast in Russia and is the first dam on the Angara cascades. Construction on the dam began in 1950, its reservoir began...
plant was begun. In connection with this, the part of the Circum-Baikal railroad from Irkutsk to the town of Baikal that passed along the Angara River
Angara River
The Angara River is a long river in Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai, south-east Siberia, Russia. It is the only river flowing out of Lake Baikal, and is the headwater tributary of the Yenisei River....
was disassembled and in 1956 flooded during the filling of the Irkutsk reservoir (only remnants of dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
s remained on the shore of the Angara near the town of Baikal). In the end, a modern, "dead-end" route of the Circum-Baikal (from Slyudyanka-2 to Kultuk to Marituy to Baikal). The railway lost its strategic importance, the number of trains on the road dropped sharply, and security was withdrawn from the tunnels and bridges.
Because it was no longer needed, the second track of the Circum-Baikal was disassembled. In the early 1980s, some even proposed the closure of the line, or that an automobile highway be constructed in its place. The villages along the road gradually deteriorated, and people began to abandon their houses. Virtually the only means of communication with the heartland for the residents of these places was the rarely running diesel locomotive, and later a locomotive connected Slyudyanka, Kultuk, and Baikal (Port Baikal is linked to the village of Listvyanka on the opposite shore of the Angara by an automobile ferry).
Landslides and other natural phenomena on the Circum-Baikal
Scree
Scree, also called talus, is a term given to an accumulation of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, or valley shoulders. Landforms associated with these materials are sometimes called scree slopes or talus piles...
. The demolition of the hillside and the steep slopes during the construction of the road provoked a catastrophic intensification of geodynamic processes. Severe landslides occurred during the construction of roads, in particular by tunnel 5 in April 1904 a collapse of about 3000 m3 occurred, and a month before the end of the construction a collapse occurred in tunnel 9 of about 1000 m3, damaging the masonry of the tunnel.
The results of further studies of the rocks along the road showed that they were not as robust as the initial surveys had expected. Moreover, the work associated with the construction of the railroad (particularly the work using explosives) led to the formation of numerous cracks in the rocks below. Having recognized this danger, the authorities agreed on the construction of retaining walls, the stripping of the hillside, and other measures. In some places dangerous sections were rerouted with new tunnels.
Nevertheless, in spite of the work to prevent natural hazards, landslides were a frequent and dangerous phenomenon on the Circum-Baikal, often leading to crashes and interruptions in roadwork. For example:
- In early April 1913 a 4000 m3 landslide occurred on the Irkutsk side at tunnel 16. As a result, the movement of trains was suspended for ten days.
- In April 1929, owing to an earthquake there was a shift in the rock mass at the 143 km mark, which then collapsed from a height of 200 m. The rocks broke the retaining wall and damaged both tracks (some pieces were as much as 30 m3 in size; they were removed through detonation). The delay in traffic as a result of the collapse was 12 hours.
- In 1937, a piece of rock about 4 m in diameter fell on a train car, broke through the roof and the floor, and caused a train crash.
In 1936, the Marituiskaya section was built for safety purposes. It was one of the most complicated sections of railway in the country. In 1939 on the Western Siberian Railway the Travelling Machine Station was built, which was carried out by anti-landslide workers (including even rock-climbers). The levelling and clearing of dangerous slopes has continued until this day.
- In May 1941 at the 87 km mark of the railway, an 8 m3 block, having broken off from height of 30 meters, overturned a moving train together with a steam locomotive into the lake. This boulder, which has become a popular sight, still today holds down some parts of the car. On September 27, 1948 at the 104 mark, a slope collapsed (100 m in length and 35 meters in height), with a general volume of about 20 thousand m3. As a result, circulation stopped for four days.
- In 1982, a collapse of 900 m3 occurred, stopping circulation for a week.
- In 1991, a collapse of about 700 m3 closed off the entrance to a tunnel at the 140 mark.
Among other natural phenomena, mudflows and floods had a negative influence on the Circum-Baikal traffic safety. The greatest activity in this respect occurred on the river Slyudyanka, which runs into Baikal near station 1. On July 29, 1934 a mudflow on this river had catastrophic consequences, carrying off in its wake several apartment houses and covering the station with a thick layer of silt and sand. In 1960 the mudflow on Slyudyanka again washed away train tracks and destroyed a series of dams. Powerful downpours in 1971 caused the strongest floods, which led to the destruction of several bridges and tunnel entrances, as well as a the foundations of a track on the Circum-Baikal (the interruption of traffic lasted almost a week). Another unusual natural phenomenon occurs on the south side of Baikal: the deposition of ice sometimes causes a several-meter heap of ice blocks on the coast, covering the railways with ice.
In 16 years alone, from 1932 to 1947, 721 collapses occurred, of which 502 were without consequences for the railway, 201 closed off a single stage and disturbed the top structure of the railway, and 18 caused train-wrecks and the destruction of the embankment. According to the data of the Eastern Siberian Engineering Service, between 1930 for 1984 about 1200 collapses and mud-flows were recorded. Besides this, about 500 cases of falling of separate stones caused damage to the railway and a rolling-stock. Engineers described trips on the Circum-Baikal as exciting but dangerous.
Current condition
In the present day the Circum-Baikal Railway is the name of an 89-km–long branch covering the route Slyudyanka-2–Kultuk–Maritui–Baikal. Four stations are currently in operation: Kultuk, Maritui, Ulanovo, and Baikal, with one section of double track at 137 km. The Circum-Baikal contains thirty-eight tunnels for a total length of 9063 m (the longest of them, a tunnel through cape Polovinnyj, is 777.5 m long). There are also 15 stone galleries with a total length of 295 m and 3 ferro-concrete galleries with apertures, 248 bridges and viaducts, and 268 retaining walls. The Circum-Baikal has no equal in Russia as to the richness of engineering constructions. The tunnels and stone galleries of the Circum-Baikal are unique in that they were constructed atypically and have not been reconstructed since, conserving the initial plan of architects and engineers of the beginning of the century.The kilometers on the modern Circum-Baikal are traditionally measured from the Irkutsk sorting station, which until 1934 was the administrative border between the Tomsk railway and the railway after Baikal. The Baikal station is thus located 72 km from this point of readout, and the Slyudyanka-2 station, at 161 km.
In the 1980s and 1990s, measures were begun to reconstruct and strengthen the railway. Currently, normally one train a day (a diesel locomotive
Diesel locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...
and two cars) runs on the railway. The duration of the trip from Slyudyanka to the Baikal station is four hours and forty minutes. The inhabitants of the roadside settlements call the train a передача, or "transfer", reflecting the value of this transport for the supply of necessary articles such as bread, salt, matches, vodka, and tobacco. Another name given to the train is мотаня (so called because the train rushes or мотается between stations). In addition, tourist trains periodically pass along the Cicum-Baikal, including steam locomotives and retro-style cars. Tourists can also rent handcar
Handcar
A handcar is a railroad car powered by its passengers, or by people pushing the car from behind. It is mostly used as a maintenance of way or mining car, but it was also used for passenger service in some cases...
s.
With the decision of the Irkutsk regional council on December 21, 1982, the section of the Circum-Baikal from Baikal station to Kultuk station was declared an architectural and scenic reserve (it is now part of the Baikal National Park) and put under the state protection. Beginning in the early 1980s the tourist potential of the Circum-Baikal Railway has started to come into its own (the stations, however, were used to a limited degree since the railroad's inception as areas for dacha
Dacha
Dacha is a Russian word for seasonal or year-round second homes often located in the exurbs of Soviet and post-Soviet cities. Cottages or shacks serving as family's main or only home are not considered dachas, although many purpose-built dachas are recently being converted for year-round residence...
s and recreation). A series of tourist areas are in operation ("Taiga" at 134 km, "Sensation" at 102 km, "Coniferous" at 98 km, "Retro" and the "Silver Key" at 80 km.
Along with actual railway sights, tourists on the Circum-Baikal route are attracted by the numerous nature sanctuaries, including the rocky formations such as "Белая выемка". In the settlements along the Circum-Baikal, especially in Maritui, a number of early twentieth-century in the modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
style are preserved.
The following establishments are also located on the Circum-Baikal:
- at 80 km: a research experimental base, the Center for Preservation of Historical and Cultural Heritage
- at 106 km: the base of a nuclear research institute
- at 119–120 km (Maritui): a research area for students of the Biological and Soil Studies department of the Irkutsk State UniversityIrkutsk State UniversityIrkutsk State University was founded in October 1918 in Irkutsk, Siberia.At present, the University consists of 10 faculties, 4 educational institutions and 2 branches. Over 18 thousand students including 300 foreign students from 27 countries study at University in 52 specialties. More than 620...
The 100th anniversary of the railway was celebrated in autumn of 2005. For this event the Baikal station was reconstructed, in which an exhibit was opened, devoted to the Circum-Baikal. The Sludyanka station was also rebuilt.
List of stations and stops
| Distance (km) | Name | Location |
| 159 | 159 km stop | Kultuk |
| 156 | Kultuk station | Kultuk |
| 154 | 154 km stop | 154 km settlement |
| 149 | 149 km stop | Angasolsky village |
| 139 | 139 km stop | Sharyzhalgai village |
| 138 | Sharyzhalgai stop | Lokomotiv Lokomotiv (sports society) Lokomotiv is the Russian sports club and a member of the International Railway Sports Association.Lokomotive traces its history to the All-Union Voluntary Sports Society of rail transport workers' Trade Unions, one of the first sports societies of workers of the USSR. Established in 1936, it... Voluntary Sports Society |
| 137 | 137 km stop | VSZhD Rest stop |
| 134 | 134 km stop | 134 km village |
| 129 | 129 km stop | Balkan village |
| 120 | 120 km stop | Maritui settlement |
| 119 | Maritui station | Maritui settlement |
| 110 | 110 km stop | Poloviny village |
| 107 | 107 km stop | Ponomareva settlement |
| 106 | 106 km | Ivanovka settlement |
| 102 | 102 km stop | Shumikha village |
| 98 | Ulanovo station | Khvoiny Tourist Center |
| 80 | 80 km stop | "Retro" Tourist Center |
| 80 | 79 km stop | "Silver Key" Tourist Center |
| 74 | 74 km stop | Baikal settlement |
| 72 | Baikal station | Baikal settlement |
Depictions
- The construction of the Circum-Baikal Railway is described in Baikal: A Sacred Sea (1989) by the Siberian writer Kim Balkov
- The Circum-Baikal Railway is praised in a poem by the Irkutsk poet Yuri Levitansky, "И вот расступаются горы" ("Here the mountains part")
- The Trans-Siberian Railway, including the Circum-Baikal section, has been depicted by a number of painters, including Vladimir Tomilovsky, and by photographers such as Igor Berzhinsky and Galina Korobova.