music: MoozE-Radwind

Hiking in the ChEZ (Part 1: the road to Pripyat)

In mid-November, I, in the company of four guys from St. Petersburg, went on an illegal hike to the center of the exclusion zone. The main goal was Pripyat and its environs, but there was a long and difficult path to the finish line, filled with dangers and adventures. To visit illegally inside the zone, as they say, is priceless :) After all, this is an opportunity, without the sensitive control of a guide, not only to climb abandoned residential buildings, structures and places where life had previously flowed, terminated as a result of a global catastrophe, but also to be imbued with absolutely wild nature and wildlife that grew up in contaminated areas. The period of "decay" will last for hundreds or even thousands of years, and there is no talk of opening borders in the near future, so the zone has become a real reserve. Nature is gradually reclaiming the lands occupied by man, braiding concrete structures and breaking through the thickness of asphalt...

Excursion walks on will give you all the apocalyptic beauty and atmosphere of these places. You will not get adrenaline from a loud crackling dosimeter, extraneous rustles, sounds of wild animals, or a patrol that suddenly appeared nearby. Adrenaline and unforgettable impressions are guaranteed. I will tell about everything and in order in several parts. Get comfortable. In this review, the path to Pripyat.

From the very beginning, the upcoming trip smacked of amateurism - none of us had been to the ChEZ before, except for Andrey, and he was legal too. The general idea was obtained from reports on the network, but there were many unresolved issues with the route and autonomous stay throughout the week. After sorting through the options, we decided to go to the center of the zone along the "Western trail". Part of the way lay along an abandoned railway line, part through forests and fields. Unlike the popular option along the side of the road, it was about 2 times more to go, but it was not necessary to constantly hide from regularly darting cars and ford rivers.

Our modest company of five started from Kyiv at lunchtime. Before the trip, I managed to spend a couple of days in the capital of Ukraine and climb to several interesting places, I will write about this separately somehow...

We drove to the approaches to the border of the zone by car and left it under the supervision of one of the residents of nearby villages. They set out on the road in the dark.

However, they didn’t go for a long time. It was difficult to navigate the terrain, and there was no enthusiasm to wade through branches and bushes. We decided to spend the night in an abandoned village a few kilometers from the border of the zone in order to cheerfully continue our journey in the morning.

As such, we did not find the borders of the "obligatory evacuation zone" around the perimeter. Perhaps, barbed wire was once stretched, but now there is practically nothing about the transition to the forbidden territory.
We cross the last "living" asphalt road near the urban settlement Vilcha.

The settlement is officially located within the territory of compulsory evacuation, which became such immediately after the accident. However, the last resident left his house only in 1993.
A few words about the railway communication within the zone. According to various rumors, it was discontinued somewhere in the early 90s, and the whole line from Art. Vilcha to st. Shepel is fairly overgrown with impenetrable thickets. Canvas to st. Vilcha is in a satisfactory condition and is sometimes used. Judging by the concrete sleepers, it was changed relatively recently.

Until 2005, a diesel train even ran from Ovruch to here, despite the fact that the population of the village was evicted long ago. The fact is that only here there was the necessary track development for turning the locomotive. The cargo flow is maintained here to this day - forest development is underway.
Often it is in these places that "illegal tourists" are caught, therefore, in an open area, a novice "stalker" should be extremely careful.
Station building.

Abandoned factory workshops are located not far from the station tracks.

I did not determine the purpose of the workshops, and we did not have extra time to study them.

As I already wrote, the movement of trains in the exclusion zone was stopped back in the 90s. For a little over ten years, nature has literally "captured" the railway tracks and now they look like this:

Therefore, our further path mainly passed through forests. By evening, we reached the second, already former, railway station on the territory of the zone - P *. Here we had our first acquaintance with the animal world. Having arranged a halt on the platform, we suddenly heard a dull but loud wheezing at a distance of 150 meters. In the next 10 minutes, our brave company was quieter than water below the grass. After making sure that the wheezing gradually subsided, we hurried to get out of this place as soon as possible.

This frame shows the edge of the platform.

The first transition turned out to be long in distance, and by the evening we were thoroughly exhausted. We get up for the night right under the canopy of the Klivny station.

By morning, the supply of drinking water had run out and there was a need to find it. Still on the outskirts of Klivny, in the dark, we passed a small stream on the right side of the railway embankment. Returning to him for water, for the sake of curiosity, we decided to look beyond the other side of the embankment. The spectacle was simply amazing!

Beavers erected a noble dam, which caused flooding of nearby territories, in some places even affecting the forest.

And here is the "clean" natural drinking water :)

A little about her production in our campaign: after filling the water into the container, we carried out dosimetric control for gamma and beta radiation. If the device showed a value within the normal range, water was poured using special travel filter into a clean container. As a rule, the transparency of the water did not noticeably change from this, but any muck was eliminated. The water had a pronounced taste of wood.

The second contour of the zone is located not far from the Klivny station. This is a stretched, it seems like back in Soviet times, barbed wire and a primer around the perimeter.

To the next station - Tolstoy Les, about 7 km. Another river flows a third of the way. The primer running parallel to the railway embankment is connected to the opposite bank by a pontoon ferry.

View from the railway bridge.

Renewal of water supplies.

Andrei is fond of video blogging and throughout the trip he made valuable travel notes. In the near future, our entire trip will appear as separate episodes on his channel. In this frame, Andrey is making a video about a small switchman's house on the approaches to Tolstoy Les.

And inside there is a massive stove - a potbelly stove and the remains of a mattress.

Art. Thick Forest was a sorting point and has a developed track development. After the disaster, there was a point for cleaning the rolling stock involved in the aftermath, so in some places the background is quite high. It is noteworthy, but the village of the same name, after which the station was named, is located about 5 km to the east. The station closest to the village is Krasnitsa. The village itself was subject to mandatory eviction immediately after the accident. Previously, about 800 people lived here.
Currently, almost all tracks have been dismantled.

Station building.

We enter the waiting room.

And inside is an owl!

A surviving poster on the principle of operation of a semi-automatic lock.

We study documents and travel journals.

In one of the administrative rooms, several artefacts caught my attention: an old "MPS" (Ministry of Railways) bench, an "intimidating" sign based on a kerosene lamp, and a konogon. Good composition.

Control room.

The walls are soundproofed.

There is a sign next to the station.

In the Thick Forest, we decided to make a halt to have a bite to eat. After laying out the food and setting the gas burner on fire, all of a sudden, we were taken by surprise by people in military uniforms! The first thought - is the campaign over so quickly? Before the trip, I heard that the military has recently been guarding the perimeter ... But the alarm turned out to be false - the "eagles" we met turned out to be stalkers from Belarus, and were returning from a two-week campaign.

Group photo. They are much more professionally equipped than we are :)

After exchanging handshakes and useful information, we continue on our way. The next station on the way is Krasnitsa. Perhaps the most difficult part of the path - the forests here are heavily overgrown, and the legs now and then cling to the climbing bushes.

Iridescent greetings to the stalkers of the zone from a certain "Bat": " Dear stalkers, please do not litter in the parking lots, on the routes of your movements in the ChEZ"Don't upset Bat!

We camped for the night in the station house at the Buryakova station, having covered a distance of 20 km in a day.
Inside, we have already seen a stove - a potbelly stove.

The next room is the kitchen.

Not far from the house there is an old well with a completely rusted bucket. Because there were often problems with water during the hike, there was no choice here. This is how the mining process went:

With regards to the name of the Buryakovka station, the story is the same here as with Tolstoy Les - the name is distorted geographically. The village of Buryakovka is located closer to the next station - Shepelichi.

However, not far from the station there is a dacha association.

Empty houses inside. The glasses are broken.

Near the Buryakovka station, a new railway line begins. Andrey measures the background, at the junction, and after a few meters it is noticeably different than before - apparently the embankment was also updated.

According to various rumors, the way was changed in the early 2000s. I am still wondering why the initiators did not limit themselves to the section, for example, to Yanov? After all, this is a "ten" extra dead-end kilometers. Old sleepers are scattered on both sides of the embankment.

The next and last platform on our way is Shepelici.

Primer across the crossing. The wheel tracks are fresh.

Halfway to Yanov, we found two abandoned wagons and wheels on the side of the road.

Probably, they were left to rust on the tracks after the cessation of traffic and were removed during its shifting.

A little about Yanov Station (from wiki):
"Before the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, passenger and cargo work was carried out at the station. Access roads of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, ORS warehouses, an oil depot and other enterprises of the city of Pripyat adjoined it.
During the period of reconstruction of the railway section Chernihiv - Yanov, in 1986-1987, the Yanov station and the section from Yanov to Slavutych were electrified to provide maintenance for the personnel of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and contractors. At the moment, the contact network is not in use and has been partially dismantled at the station itself and on the Yanov-Semihody stretch.
Currently, one of the tracks passing through the station has been reconstructed and is used to support construction work on the construction of the Shelter-2 facility - a new sarcophagus for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Station Yanov, according to rumors, is considered inhabited, so we did not go to it, but made the final march - a throw through the forests right to the outskirts of Pripyat. The next few hours turned out to be very tense - I had to listen to every rustle and movement. By nightfall, we safely crossed the border of the city, which is a moat filled with water and a mesh fence stretched around the perimeter. We approach the sixteen-story buildings located on the outskirts of the city. The houses are tall, so we decide to immediately climb the roof of one of them.

I can not convey the feeling when I first saw the "dead city" from a height! For many tens of kilometers. darkness surrounds him. Not a single light bulb! And only the most powerful glow emanating from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and a lone checkpoint flashlight at the entrance to Pripyat (in the photo on the right) "dilute" the pitch darkness.

Construction of a new sarcophagus "Shelter 2".

With a higher exposure.

Having assessed the scale of the city, we set off in search of a suitable place for spending the night. After a short walk through the deserted streets, it was decided to squat an apartment with whole windows in one of the sectional nine-story buildings not far from the center. The background in 2 of the 3 rooms turned out to be within the normal range - apparently in the third at the time of the accident the window openings were wide open.
We are preparing a festive dinner for "achieving the ultimate goal."

The windows of the room chosen for gatherings overlooked the courtyard of the house, thereby minimizing the likelihood of being seen from the street. To heighten the effect, we hung wallpaper on the windows.

Tomorrow we have a lot to go around and see, and now to gain strength ...

Panorama

Near the Buryakovka station, a new railway line begins. Andrey measures the background, at the junction, and after a few meters it is noticeably different than before - apparently the embankment was also updated.

According to various rumors, the way was changed in the early 2000s. I am still wondering why the initiators did not limit themselves to the section, for example, to Yanov? After all, this is a "ten" extra dead-end kilometers. Old sleepers are scattered on both sides of the embankment.

The next and last platform on our way is Shepelici.

Primer across the crossing. The wheel tracks are fresh.

Halfway to Yanov, we found two abandoned wagons and wheels on the side of the road.

Probably, they were left to rust on the tracks after the cessation of traffic and were removed during its shifting.

A little about Yanov Station (from wiki):
"Before the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, passenger and cargo work was carried out at the station. Access roads of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, ORS warehouses, an oil depot and other enterprises of the city of Pripyat adjoined it.
In 1986-1987, during the reconstruction of the Chernihiv-Yanov railway section to provide service to the personnel of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and contractors, the Yanov station and the section from Yanov to Slavutych were electrified. At the moment, the contact network is not used and partially dismantled at the station itself and on the Yanov - Semihody stretch.
Currently, one of the tracks passing through the station has been reconstructed and is used to support construction work on the construction of the Shelter-2 facility - a new sarcophagus for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Station Yanov, according to rumors, is considered inhabited, so we did not go to it, but made the final march - a throw through the forests right to the outskirts of Pripyat. The next few hours turned out to be very tense - I had to listen to every rustle and movement. By nightfall, we safely crossed the border of the city, which is a moat filled with water and a mesh fence stretched around the perimeter. We approach the sixteen-story buildings located on the outskirts of the city. The houses are tall, so we decide to immediately climb the roof of one of them.
I can not convey the feeling when I first saw the "dead city" from a height! For many tens of kilometers. darkness surrounds him. Not a single light bulb! And only the most powerful glow emanating from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and a lone checkpoint flashlight at the entrance to Pripyat (in the photo on the right) "dilute" the pitch darkness.

Construction of a new sarcophagus "Shelter 2".

With a higher exposure.

Having assessed the scale of the city, we set off in search of a suitable place for spending the night. After a short walk through the deserted streets, it was decided to squat an apartment with whole windows in one of the sectional nine-story buildings not far from the center. The background in 2 of the 3 rooms turned out to be within the normal range - apparently in the third at the time of the accident the window openings were wide open.
We are preparing a festive dinner for "achieving the ultimate goal."

The windows of the room chosen for gatherings overlooked the courtyard of the house, thereby minimizing the likelihood of being seen from the street. To heighten the effect, we hung wallpaper on the windows.

Tomorrow we have a lot to go around and see, and now to gain strength ...

To be continued....
Link to first

One of the attractions of the Chernobyl exclusion zone is a semi-abandoned railway, which, before the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, was intensively used to transport goods and passengers between the cities of Chernihiv and Ovruch. Actually, the presence of this transport highway was one of the important factors that determined the choice of the location of the nuclear power plant and the laying of the city of nuclear scientists - Pripyat near the railway station Yanov. Already after the catastrophe, by an unpredictable zigzag of fate, the railway line became a transport artery that determined the location of the alternative atomic city Pripyat, suffocated in radioactive dust - the city Slavutych. The new city was built forty kilometers north of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the site of the little-known railway station Nerafa.

Railway station in the city of Slavutych

Electric trains at Slavutych station

As you can see, the railway line Chernihiv - Ovruch played an important historical role in the recent past of the Chernobyl region. The stated facts are well-known to the majority. At the same time, about the construction of the railway itself and bridges across the rivers Pripyat And Dnieper there is very little information. Today, thanks to the great search work performed by Evgeny Alimov, director of the local history museum of the city of Slavutych and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, we can talk about when, how and with what mechanisms this railway was built.
Railway bridge across the Pripyat river

The beginning of the construction of the railway Any construction work begins with pre-project studies, which determine in what geological and hydrological conditions the railway will be created, how high the railway embankment will be built, how much labor and building materials will be needed to create the railway track. Surveys began in March 1927 and by May of this year they were completed. According to the documentation, the studies were carried out in difficult conditions - about a hundred kilometers of the territory for the future railway line were flooded. A hundred years ago floodplains Pripyat and the Dnieper were swamped, melioration came to these places after the war.
Already on May 5, large-scale work began on filling the embankment for the future railway. The work was carried out along the entire length of the future transport artery - from Chernigov to Ovruch, with the exception of flooded areas near the Pripyat River and the Dnieper River.
Railway embankment near the bridge over the Pripyat River

To carry out these works, 4000 wheelbarrows, 1200 wheelbarrows were prepared - wheelbarrows with sand were rolled over these boards to form an embankment. Also, 3,000 shovels and 500 special carts - grabarok were specially prepared, with the help of which sand was transported. Rail delivery was organized by water. Barges were loaded in Kyiv and delivered along the Pripyat River to Yanov, as well as along the Dnieper and along the Desna to Chernigov. Also, wagons and steam locomotives were delivered on barges. So, 2 steam locomotives and 69 wagons were transported to Chernigov on barges, and 4 steam locomotives and 101 wagons were transported to Yanov.

Yanov station - modern view

The engineer Batmanov V.I. was appointed the head of the work, who was appointed by the People's Commissariat for construction on February 20, 1927.
The work was carried out so successfully that already on September 15, 1927 (15 days ahead of schedule) the railway track - sleepers and rails were laid. Such efficiency in the construction of the railway track made it possible to organize the technical operation of the railway in the same year. Traffic was organized on three sections of the new railway - the first section - from Chernigov to Nedanchichi, the second - from Yolcha to Zimovishcha and the third section from Ovruch to Yanov. The total length of the railway track between Chernihiv and Ovruch was 177,685 meters. It is curious that this transport highway allowed passenger trains to develop an average speed of 27.9 kilometers per hour, and military trains 35.2 km / h.
abandoned equipment at Yanov station

Construction of railway bridges across Pripyat, Dnieper and BelousThe key stage in the construction of the Chernihiv-Ovruch railway was the construction of railway bridges. Bridges began to be built only after the railway lines were brought to these sections. Already by the autumn of 1927, the construction of bridges began. At this time, metal structures for bridges were delivered by water, which were created at the Bryansk Plant in the city of Dnepropetrovsk.
Fragment of the metal structure of the railway bridge across the Pripyat River
First of all, during the construction of bridges, the banks were strengthened - bulls were created. These supporting elements of the bridges were made of granite, which was delivered from the Korosten quarries.
By the way, for the construction of bridges on the Dnieper and Pripyat, it was decided to build a temporary, wooden bridge on the Pripyat River in order to ensure the delivery of stone in the required quantities. It was very laborious and costly to deliver the stone on horse-drawn carts. That winter, on the river Pripyat a temporary railway bridge was built. It took only one week to build.
The bridge was built in the following way - wooden piles, supports for the bridge, were driven through the ice. Beams were laid on the supports on which the railway tracks were laid. Historian E. Alimov even established the cost of this temporary bridge. It cost the state 4929 rubles.
It is curious that during the operation of the temporary bridge, steam locomotives did not call on it. The steam locomotive pushed the wagons with building material onto the bridge from one side (from the side of the Yanov station), and on the other hand, another steam locomotive picked up the train and dragged it to the bridge being built across the Dnieper. The length of the train at the same time was at least 35 wagons.
Already next spring, on March 15, 1928, the bridge was dismantled, and the piles driven into the bottom of the Pripyat River were removed - they could interfere with navigation, which was the main mode of transport in this region.
How was building materials transported without a bridge? With the help of ferries. One ferry could transfer three loaded or four empty railway cars. The design of the ferry pier and the ferry made it possible to roll up the wagons from the railroad tracks. In total, 2717 wagons were transported by ferries, and the cost of transporting a wagon was 2 rubles 90 kopecks.
Rope crossing across the Pripyat RiverSpecial rope crossings were used to transport cars, people and wagons across the Pripyat, Dnieper, Desna rivers. It is noteworthy that the movement of the ferry was carried out solely with the help of the muscular strength of the ferry team. Mechanical and other devices were not used. At the same time, in just three months of the existence of cable crossings, in 1928, 36,088 people, 51 cars, 6,433 horses and 5,174 wagons were transported, and 34,247 pounds were transported in total.
Completion of the construction of railway bridgesThe construction of bridges continued until 1929. Unfortunately, the construction of a bridge across the Pripyat River was not without an accident and casualties. In the summer (July 4, 1929), the unfinished span of the bridge collapsed into the river. According to unverified information, the metal farm fell due to unfavorable meteorological conditions - there was a strong wind and a thunderstorm.
By the winter of 1929, the bridges were built. Already on November 7, 1929, traffic on the railway bridges across the Pripyat and Dnieper rivers were opened.
The opening of the movement was held in a solemn atmosphere - an orchestra played, and residents of the nearest villages, who came to the celebration, were treated to gingerbread and sweets. The organizers staged a solemn train ride to the Pripyat bridge to Yanov station.
In total, there were six stations and twelve sidings on the railway line Chernihiv - Ovruch. Stops were arranged in the following order:
Ovruch station, Selishche junction, Nivki junction, Privar junction, Alekseevka station, Pavlovichi junction, Tolstoy Les junction, Burakovka junction, Yanov station, Zimovishche junction, Posudovo junction, Yolcha junction, Nedanchichi station, Nerafa junction (since 1987 - Slavutich station ), Maleyki junction, Levkovichi junction, Lgovka and Novy Chernihiv stations.
It is curious that some stopping points have been renamed - the same names are not allowed on the railway. So on January 20, 1928, the crossings were renamed: Selishche - to Grezlya, Zimovishche - to Pripyat, Alekseevka station - to Vilcha, Lgovka - to Belous.
With the construction of the railway, new prospects opened up for the remote Polessye villages and, in fact, a new page in the life of the Chernobyl region was opened.
Photo - railroad tracks

Photo - the movement of the train delivering personnel to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant from the city of Slavutych

Winter view of an abandoned railway in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Abandoned railway crossing in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Abandoned Tolstoy Les Station

Abandoned building of Tolstoy Les station

Diesel engine serving the enterprises of the Chernobyl exclusion zone

So I didn't get to go to those places. Not just going to, but no luck. Let's walk in someone else's footsteps.
Pediviki quote: The section Chernihiv - Ovruch is a single-track railway line with a length of 177.5 km and a gauge of 1520 mm, belonging to the South-Western Railway, part of the latitudinal course connecting the north-eastern and north-western regions of Ukraine.

The section has been built since 1928 as part of the program for the restoration, modernization and development of the Southwestern Railway. In 1930, the movement of trains on the site was opened.

Here it is, Chernihiv - Pripyat - Ovruch -

Interestingly, years after the Chernobyl tragedy, the site is not abandoned, it is partially covered by passenger traffic. Now even an express train goes that way, No. 846 "Kyiv - Nedanchichi" -

It reaches almost to the Belarusian border.

There are also commuter trains calling in Belarus. On weekends, the international suburban train No. 6855 "Chernihiv - Yolcha" runs -

"Rarity" ER9M-530 flight 6852 "Yolcha - Chernihiv" -

If we return our gaze to the topic "" we can find out that these electric trains are from RPC-8 Fastov-Motorvagonny.

Through Korosten, you can get to Ovruch by ambulance No. 061 "Chisinau - St. Petersburg", and regional express No. 874 "Korosten - Vozlyakovo", and suburban: "Korosten - Vystupovichi", "Korosten - Vozlyakovo", "Korosten - Berezhest". But, not one of them turns from Ovruch to Pripyat.

They get to the nuclear power plant only through Chernihiv. On the section Slavutych - Semihody for servicing the personnel of the ChNPP SSE and contractors, the electric trains of the ER9T series rented by the State Enterprise "Chernobylservis" from the Chernigov depot of the South-Western Railway run by Slavutych - Semihody (2-4 pairs depending on the day of the week).

And there is a vigorous electric train. Before you read and watch further, feel the mood of the area, watch this creepy-atmospheric video. We visit the hunting grounds of stalkers. Train to Chernobyl -

Electric train workers of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
The city of Slavutich, the Dnieper River, the territory of the Republic of Belarus, abandoned villages and railway stations in the exclusion zone, the city of Pripyat, the Pripyat River, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the New Safe Confinement Arch (NSC) are shown.

Man, of course, is the king of nature! Sometimes nature wants to take a break from it. A depressing impression, isn't it? Although what is healthy for a person is death for nature. On the contrary, maybe? Are such cases known to science?

Next is Yanov station. Many people took there all sorts of artifacts of the virtual world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. -

There is now a car repair shop inside the station, and in the courtyard there is a parking lot of cars belonging to one of the construction organizations working in the Zone. Photo 2006.

And once trains ran through it - fast No. 191/192 "Moscow-Khmelnitsky", suburban: "Yanov - Chernihiv", "Yanov - Ovruch", "Yanov - Korosten".

Now suburban traffic is -

In 1986-1987, the Yanov station, and the section from Yanov to Slavutych, were electrified ...

Electric trains ran to Chernigov, diesel trains went to Ovruch and Korosten.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Winter in the Zone. Music clip. Part 2. Yanov Station -

In the summer, everything is juicy. I just want to put up a tent and live -

Yanov station.

The deserted settlement Tolstoy Les - the last refuge of Ilyich in Ukraine -

One of the attractions of the Chernobyl exclusion zone is a semi-abandoned railway, which, before the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, was intensively used to transport goods and passengers between the cities of Chernihiv and Ovruch. Actually, the presence of this transport highway was one of the important factors that determined the choice of the location of the nuclear power plant and the laying of the city of nuclear scientists - in the area of the railway station Yanov. Already after the catastrophe, by an unpredictable zigzag of fate, the railway line became a transport artery that determined the location of the alternative atomic city Pripyat, suffocated in radioactive dust - the city Slavutych. The new city was built forty kilometers north of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the site of the little-known railway station Nerafa.

Railway station in the city of Slavutych

Railway bridge across the Pripyat river

Start of construction of the railway

Any construction work begins with pre-project studies, which determine in what geological and hydrological conditions the railway will be created, how high the railway embankment will be built, how much labor and building materials will be needed to create the railway track. Surveys began in March 1927 and by May of this year they were completed. According to the documentation, the studies were carried out in difficult conditions - about a hundred kilometers of the territory for the future railway line were flooded. A hundred years ago, the floodplain and the Dnieper were swamped, melioration came to these places after the war.
Already on May 5, large-scale work began on filling the embankment for the future railway. The work was carried out along the entire length of the future transport artery - from Chernigov to Ovruch, with the exception of flooded areas near the Pripyat River and the Dnieper River.

Railway embankment near the bridge over the Pripyat River

Yanov station - modern view

The engineer Batmanov V.I. was appointed the head of the work, who was appointed by the People's Commissariat for construction on February 20, 1927.
The work was carried out so successfully that already on September 15, 1927 (15 days ahead of schedule) the railway track - sleepers and rails were laid. Such efficiency in the construction of the railway track made it possible to organize the technical operation of the railway in the same year. Traffic was organized on three sections of the new railway - the first section - from Chernihiv to Nedanchichi, the second - from Yolcha to Zimovishcha and the third section from Ovruch to Yanov. The total length of the railway track between Chernihiv and Ovruch was 177,685 meters. It is curious that this transport highway allowed passenger trains to develop an average speed of 27.9 kilometers per hour, and military trains 35.2 km / h.

abandoned equipment at Yanov station

Construction of railway bridges across the Pripyat, Dnieper and Belous

The key stage in the construction of the Chernihiv-Ovruch railway was the construction of railway bridges. Bridges began to be built only after the railway lines were brought to these sections. Already by the autumn of 1927, the construction of bridges began. At this time, metal structures for bridges were delivered by water, which were created at the Bryansk Plant in the city of Dnepropetrovsk.

Fragment of the metal structure of the railway bridge across the Pripyat River

First of all, during the construction of bridges, the banks were strengthened - bulls were created. These supporting elements of the bridges were made of granite, which was delivered from the Korosten quarries.
By the way, for the construction of bridges on the Dnieper and Pripyat, it was decided to build a temporary, wooden bridge on the Pripyat River in order to ensure the delivery of stone in the required quantities. It was very laborious and costly to deliver the stone on horse-drawn carts. That winter, on the river Pripyat a temporary railway bridge was built. It took only one week to build.
The bridge was built in the following way - wooden piles, supports for the bridge, were driven through the ice. Beams were laid on the supports on which the railway tracks were laid. Historian E. Alimov even established the cost of this temporary bridge. It cost the state 4929 rubles.
It is curious that during the operation of the temporary bridge, steam locomotives did not call on it. The steam locomotive pushed the wagons with building material onto the bridge from one side (from the side of the Yanov station), and on the other hand, another steam locomotive picked up the train and dragged it to the bridge being built across the Dnieper. The length of the train at the same time was at least 35 wagons.
The following spring, on March 15, 1928, the bridge was dismantled, and the piles driven into the bottom of the Pripyat River were removed - they could interfere with navigation, which was the main mode of transport in this region.
How was building materials transported without a bridge? With the help of ferries. One ferry could transfer three loaded or four empty railway cars. The design of the ferry pier and the ferry made it possible to roll up the wagons from the railroad tracks. In total, 2717 wagons were transported by ferries, and the cost of transporting a wagon was 2 rubles 90 kopecks.

Rope crossing across the Pripyat River

For transportation across the rivers Pripyat, Dnieper, Desna of cars, people and wagons, special cable crossings were used. It is noteworthy that the movement of the ferry was carried out solely with the help of the muscular strength of the ferry team. Mechanical and other devices were not used. At the same time, in just three months of the existence of cable crossings, in 1928, 36,088 people, 51 cars, 6,433 horses and 5,174 wagons were transported, and 34,247 pounds were transported in total.

Completion of railway bridges

Bridge construction continued until 1929. Unfortunately, the construction of a bridge across the Pripyat River was not without an accident and casualties. In the summer (July 4, 1929), the unfinished span of the bridge collapsed into the river. According to unverified information, the metal farm fell due to unfavorable meteorological conditions - there was a strong wind and a thunderstorm.
By the winter of 1929, the bridges were built. Already on November 7, 1929, traffic on the railway bridges across the Pripyat and Dnieper rivers were opened.
The opening of the movement was held in a solemn atmosphere - an orchestra played, and residents of the nearest villages, who came to the celebration, were treated to gingerbread and sweets. The organizers staged a solemn train ride to the Pripyat bridge to Yanov station.
In total, there were six stations and twelve sidings on the Chernihiv-Ovruch railway line. Stops were arranged in the following order:
Ovruch station, Selishche junction, Nivki junction, Privar junction, Alekseevka station, Pavlovichi junction, Tolsty Les junction, Burakovka junction, Yanov station, Zimovishche junction, Posudovo junction, Yolcha junction, Nedanchichi station, Nerafa junction (since 1987 - Slavutich station ), Maleyki junction, Levkovichi junction, Lgovka and Novy Chernihiv stations.
It is curious that some stopping points have been renamed - the same names are not allowed on the railway. So on January 20, 1928, the crossings were renamed: Selishche - to Grezlya, Zimovishche - to Pripyat, Alekseevka station - to Vilcha, Lgovka - to Belous.
With the construction of the railway, new prospects opened up for the remote Polessye villages and, in fact, a new page in the life of the Chernobyl region was opened.

Photo - railroad tracks