Russian Railways RetroTrain Trip 2016
Vitebski Station to the St.Petersburg (Southern) Children’s Railway

After many years in Moscow, Harvey Smith relocated to St. Petersburg in 2014. There is a list of linked reports at the bottom.

The trip took place on 12th June 2016.and was organized by РЖД Тур, which is part of Russian Railways. The website is here:

http://rzdtour.com/routes/retrotrain-petersburg/ (link broken by 29th October 2017)

We had a guided tour of the Art Nouveau Vitebski Station. We were shown the Royal Station which lies to the south of the main station. We were shown the original first class waiting rooms and restaurants, and the statue of Franz Anton von Gerstner the Austrian-Czech engineer whom proposed the railway line from St.Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo in 1835. This was Russia’s first mainline railway. Finally, we were shown the replica of “Provorny” the first Russian Mainline Locomotive, which was built by George Stephenson and Co.

We then boarded a train consisting of a single carriage and LV 0522, which I remember in dilapidated condition awaiting repair at Podmoskovnaya Depot in Moscow. She is now fully restored to working order and painted in authentic dark blue livery. We journeyed south to Kupchino Station with its common terminal with the Children’s railway. On the way refreshments were provided. From Kupchino Station we traveled behind the 750mm gauge steam locomotive K^p-4-447 to the Children’s railway southern terminus in Tsarskoye Selo, next to a main line station called “21km”. For more information on this see here for my previous report:

We had a tour of the control rooms of the railway, and then everyone had some fun with the contents of the sheds. We were shown diesel locomotive Tu2-167. Several trips on a trolley and latterly a diesel powered railbus took place. A diesel locomotive Tu7A-2866 was taken out for a spin. Finally, re-fuelling the steam locomotive with water was also demonstrated.

When everybody had had enough of enjoying these antics we walked to 21Km station and took LV 0522 back to Vitebski enjoying more hot tea and biscuits on the way.

In all the trip took 4 hours.

Thank you Russian railways for a great day out.

(NB RUB 2000 for locals and RUB 3000 for foreigners.)

Staircase Vitebski Station

1st Class Waiting Room, Vitebski Station

Statue of Franz Anton von Gerstner, Vitebski Station

The group with the replica of Provorny, Vitebski Station

Tu2-167

Tu7A-2866

Trolley Ride

K^p-4-447

The railbus ride while K^p-4-447 is watered 

LV 0522 at 21km

At Vitebski Station

See also:

• The St. Petersburg Outdoor Railway Museum, 2006 

• The St. Petersburg Outdoor Railway Museum, 2013 (updated 30th May 2017)

• A St. Petersburg Railway Miscellany (updated 11th April 2017)

• Moscow Railway Station / St. Petersburg Depot, 2014 

• The Indoor Railway Museum, St. Petersburg, 2014 

• The Shushary Museum, St. Petersburg, 2006 

• Moscow Sort Depot, St. Petersburg, 2014 (updated 2nd February 2015)

• Grand Maket Rossiya / The Grand Model of Russia

• VE Day in St. Petersburg (14th May 2015)

• Moscow Sort Depot, St. Petersburg, 2015-7 (updated 5th November 2017)

• The St. Petersburg Southern Children's Railway (updated 27th June 2016)

• Lebyazhe Railway Museum Depot (16th June 2015)

• The Tsar's Private Railway Station, St.Petersburg (updated 8th August 2017)

• The Shushary Museum, St. Petersburg, 2015 (5th August 2015)

• The Northern St. Petersburg Children's Railway (10th June 2016)

• E^M-721-83 at Petrokrepost (3rd August 2017)

• The new Russian Railway Museum in St. Petersburg 2017 (1st December 2017)

• The Russian Railway Museum, St. Petersburg 2018 (25th October 2018)