Moscow Railroad

Luzhnetsky railroad and automobile bridge

This short train gave me the idea of the today post.
Small railroad ring in Moscow (red ring in the picture below, blue veins are rivers) is 54 km long and has 14 stations, 6 bridges over Moskva-river and has intersections with 32 roads.
The first stations were opened in 1908-1910, the trains served for passenger and cargo transportation. After 1930, when Moscow metro took the passengers, the railroad served for cargoes shipping only.
Considering heavy traffic situation in the city the Moscow government has plans to include the ring into the passenger transportation network again, to connect it with Underground and Ground transport facilities by 2012.

Photo of the map from Russian Wiki

Posted by Irina.
 

City and traffic

We have forced you to stay underground for three days, so now let us go upstairs.
Traffic!
It is 18-00 at the photo, so the jams are only starting to form.
Anybody wants fresh air?

Google map.

Posted by Irina

Moscow Metro

I would like to follow Ashira's post, so today I post the Moscow metro map. If we intend to show you all the stations, you will have to be sticked to our blog for half a year. Which is so good.

Here are few links to my favorite stations (great site about metro history and today, full of photos, but only in Russian (site link).
Komsomolskaya
Kropotkinskaya
Ploshad revolutsii (Revolution Square)

And the photo I made few days ago (when seeds-aircraft from previous post hit me in the head) of the subway station "Vorobievy Gory". It is located inside the bridge above Moksva-river.
Irina's (the blog founder) post about the inside of the station is here (link)
And here is the link to my post showing the view of the bridge from above (link).

Google map for Vorobievy Gori metro station.
Wiki about Moscow metro.

Posted by Irina.

Updated following the comment: They are changing the cars to the new ones, so it is not the problem now. The problem popped up during the extreme heat in the summer 2010: the metro is not air-conditioned, and the temperatures down there reached 50-55C (130-140F - if I recalculate right). The ventilation system was organized in 50-70th of 20th century and can hardly survive the growth of the metro users of 21st century(.

Thank you!

My dear readers (or viewers ? :)),

Thank you so much for those warm words you have for me! I will miss you comments, too. In a few days I should get home Internet so I will be able to post whose photos of Moscow as I still have in the store. Then, I believe, Ashira will take up the torch.

I'm staying in Auckland so far. There are already a few Auckland Daily Photo blog so may be I will start something different. In any case, my camera is working in non-stop mode over here.

And today's photo represents the monorail as seen from Ostankino tower.

Moscow metro: Mayakovskaya

Railways

There is not much of railways going through the Moscow center so when you find a piece it's always interesting. Well, not the very heart of the city but close enough.
This photograph was taken in the neighbourhood of Belorusskiy railroad terminal. As you can see, some apartment building are within a stone throw of railways! I always wondered how residents could bear such noise and shake.

Moscow metro

It's been a while since I took you to Moscow underground. Well, now it's time to fix it. Please meet Aeroport station as it is.

Junction

This is the junction of two very busy highways of Moscow: the Third Ring Road and Leningradskiy Prospect. I was always fascinated by the curves such junction make. How do they build such thing?!

Armoured car

As I told you yesterdays, there are some shoe-pieces by the Museum of Modern History. One of them (and my favourite, in fact) is this armoured car used in Revolution days of 1917. Just look at it! Isn't it cute?

Belorussky terminal

First railway station was created here in 1870. In a couple decades traffic became so intense that terminal had to be reconstructed. New building was open for passangers in 1912, and this is the one (with minor chages) we see now.

Belorussky got its name because it serves westward (Belorussia-ward) train lines.

Final rehearsal

This morning those who live or work in Moscow downtown could watch the final rehearsal of the military parade. The parade is dedicated to Victory Day and to be held on May, 9th. Today I went out of office just in time to catch some photos of participating airforce. It was rather chilly and rainy this morning but nevertheless streets were full of curious idlers - and notwithstanding extremely limited access to the downtown! Really, people would go a great lenght for a rare show!

More photos on my extension site.

Moscow metro: Park Cultury

Just another sample of Moscow metro. This time it's Park Culture station, on of the first built. It looks very much like Sokolniki and some other station in that line.

Going out of city

There is always a mistery about railroads. It's like an endless expectation of something exciting to tempt you every time you go by.

Rush hour

A tram

Someone was asking me if there are any trams in Moscow nowadays. Well, there are :) I took that picture this morning to give you an example of what modern Moscow trams look like. To tell you the truth, I believe this particular type rather ugly (oh, those squarish forms!), and it make such a terrible clatter! Definitely, not my favourite one!

Waiting for a tram

Every morning I take a tram to reach nearest metro station. As a rule, trams run every few minutes, but sometimes you have to wait. And wait. And wait...

Moscow Monorail

Monorail road was open in Moscow just a few years back. There is but one line of about 4,5 km long which connect only 6 stations. The line is located in northen part of the city and is used rather for fun. Although monorail is a part of Moscow metro system, special tickets are need to be bought(for the same price as original metro ones, though). Monorail trains consist of 6 cars and run every 10-15 minutes.

Filling a steam-engine

This is a real steam-engine running on coil and water. I captured it as it was being filled with water (which later would get heated and transformed into steam to operate the engine). There are only few such water-filling systems left in Moscow so engines come to this station nearly daily to get 'watered'.

At last I had good luck so I could catch the steam-engine!
For closer view visit my extension site.

Victory Day

Today Russia celebrates 63rd anniversary of great victory in World War II. There was a tremendous military parade in Moscow, and I took few photos of its researsal in Tverskaya St. The street was crowded with armed vehicles! I don't understand why less numbers couldn't be used, but it seems that the parade was supposed to raise a 'national idea'.

I'm glad that officials don't forget Vistory Day and do some things (at least, pretend to) for veterans. But I'm bitterly sorry that today's Russia seems to have nothing else to be proud of but 60 years old victory.

Do remember about that war. But may you and your family never have to fight in any war at all.

P.S. More photos on my extension site.