The history of the imperial trains of Russia. The imperial train goes to headquarters

23.09.2019

As you know, the first railway in Russia was called Tsarskoye Selo. It opened on October 30 (old style) 1837 and connected St. Petersburg with Tsarskoe Selo and Pavlovsky. Then the train, which consisted of eight carriages, in which there were Emperor Nicholas I, government ministers, members of the State Council and foreign diplomats, spent 35 minutes on the road from the capital to Tsarskoe Selo. At the same time, the king was seated in his carriage, set on an open cargo platform. Judging by the postcard with the image of the festive train, the tsar's crew on the platform was immediately behind the first car after the locomotive.

Of course, it was not yet an imperial train in the full sense of the word, but the train turned out to be the forerunner of the actual imperial train, built specifically for the official opening of traffic on the St. Petersburg-Moscow (Nikolaev) railway, held on November 1 (old style) 1851.

It should be noted that running in luxury train began somewhat earlier - in the early morning of August 18, 1851, Nicholas I went on it from St. Petersburg to Moscow to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his coronation.

The train consisted of the actual imperial carriage (two identical carriages were built, but the spare one remained in St. Petersburg), suite and service carriages, as well as two kitchen carriages. All of them were built in 1850-51. at the capital's Alexandrovsky plant.

Naturally, the imperial carriage differed from the others not only in size, but also in its special interior decoration, exquisite comfort for those times. The length of the car was 25.247 m, and it rested on two four-axle bogies, which was new and unusual even for the beginning of the twentieth century. (after all, at that time, twenty-meter-long passenger cars had just begun to enter railway practice). The carriage was painted blue on the outside, and the windows on either side were crowned with gilded double-headed eagles.

The ceiling of the Tsar's carriage was covered with white satin, the walls were upholstered with quilted crimson damask. The same material was used to cover the furniture, for which French decorators from Lyon were invited. There were bronze clocks on the tables, and the interior was also decorated with Sevres porcelain vases and bronze candelabra. Mosaic doors opened and closed completely silently, and fresh air was brought in through bronze ventilation pipes decorated with weathercocks in the form of eagles above. The heating pipes were disguised with bronze gratings, which also successfully served as spectacular decorative details.

Subsequently, several more wagons of various functional purposes were added to this train. During operation, some cars were modernized and rebuilt in order to improve their interior decoration and technical arrangement.

Until October 17 (old style) 1888, when the tsarist train wrecked at the Borki station of the Kursk-Kharkov-Azov railway. etc., not only Nicholas I, but also Alexander II and Alexander III managed to travel on this train, which consisted of 10 cars (with three spare).

Since the track was shown in the XIX century. An absolute advantage over other roads of that time, both in terms of speed and comfort, the Russian autocrats and members of their surnames gave a natural preference to rail travel.

Most of the imperial residences were located around St. Petersburg - in Gatchina, Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, Pavlovsk, Strelna, Oranienbaum, etc. Therefore, each railway direction (respectively, a joint-stock company) gradually acquired its own imperial train for the august persons.

For traveling on foreign European railways with a narrow gauge, a train was made from three-axle cars purchased in the early 70s. in France.

By 1917, the railways of Russia had the largest fleet of imperial trains in the world, both obsolete by that time and the latest. Their carriages were, in fact, palaces on wheels. In this regard, the train of the last construction (1905) was especially distinguished, in which the latest achievements of technical and design ideas of that time were embodied.

The aforementioned crash of the imperial train in 1888 forced the specialists to undergo a special revision of all the existing cars of the imperial park, as a result of which a decision was made to build two new trains - one for traveling only in Russia, and the other for traveling abroad.

The new Russian domestic train consisted of 10 four-axle cars and was completed by 1897, and the foreign train consisted of 11 four-axle cars by 1894. It is characteristic that the first of these trains was the most effective in terms of interior and exterior decoration, as well as in terms of technical parameters. ...

Its carriages were dark blue in color with thin gold rims along the bars that covered the seams of the paneling iron of the sheathing. The roof was painted light gray. The carts were painted black with gold outlines along the contour lines. The outside of the window frames, regardless of the type of wood of the interior, was made of teak, renowned for its highest strength. The walls between the windows were decorated with gilded double-headed eagles. The ends of the polished teak exit handrails were adorned with ornamented gilded bronze heads.

Four of the 10 carriages of the train (the bedchamber, the dining room, the nursery and the "grand ducal"), distinguished by a special chic decoration, were used only by members of the royal family. To accommodate the suite, the suite carriage was intended, as well as several rooms of the service carriage. A separate carriage was occupied by the kitchen, to which a carriage for kitchen servants was attached, which closed the whole train. Immediately after the locomotive was a luggage car and a workshop car with an electric station, spare parts and technical personnel.

As already reported, by 1905 the second instance of the domestic Russian train was built. This was largely due to security considerations: for example, when the king followed one of the trains, the other - without passengers - followed or before the first one. The interior of the backup train was somewhat more modest, but outwardly they looked almost the same. Only in the second train did the saloon car have several wider windows. The reason for this is still not clear.

Unfortunately, time has not spared these truly wonderful trains. Not a single carriage survived, everything was destroyed.

Separately, I would like to mention the imperial chambers at the railway stations in Russia (now such premises are called V. I. P. -room). As not a single carriage of the imperial trains has survived, so these imperial chambers were not lucky. However, in St. Petersburg at the Vitebsk (formerly Tsarskoye Selo) railway station, which now turns 100 years old, there is still a separate wing, which until 1917 served as the so-called "station of the imperial trains." However, not a single pre-revolutionary interior has survived in this building, and the last details of the interior decoration disappeared during the reconstruction of the late 20th century.

Therefore, a real sensation can be considered the discovery of the imperial room at the St. Petersburg Varshavsky railway station, taken out of practical use in the first years of the third millennium. It is interesting that these chambers were one of the earliest in time of creation.

Varshavsky railway station was opened for public use in April 1860, and the imperial chambers (recreation room and study) began to function there a little earlier - on March 8, according to the old style. At that time the Varshavsky railway station was the main railway gate of the Russian Empire. It was here that crowned heads from all over the world arrived from abroad, members of their families, heads and ministers of governments, and other dignitaries. Apparently, the aforementioned premises of the Varshavsky railway station were used by those leaving abroad and returning back, as well as when traveling to the country residences of Alexander II, Alexander III, Nicholas II, their children and households.

It can be safely asserted that the aesthetics of the decoration of the imperial premises of the Varshavsky railway station was of great importance for Russian history and art. Hopefully, with the upcoming reconstruction of the station and its transformation into a shopping and entertainment complex, the remaining elements of the decoration of the royal room will be preserved, despite all the previous misadventures.

History of the imperial trains of Russia

On the opening day of the Tsarskoye Selo railway in October 1837, Nicholas I personally traveled in the first train, which consisted of a steam locomotive with a tender and 8 wagons. There are different opinions about how the emperor rode in it with the empress and heir. Some write that in their own carriage, installed on an open platform, but this is unlikely; others, which are in a separate eight-seat compartment of the 1st class carriage. In later periodicals, there are statements that Nicholas I always traveled in such compartments and in ordinary trains following a schedule. Perhaps this was the case in the first period after the opening of the road, but it has been documented that later the emperor with his family and retinue traveled only on "emergency trains" (there were no imperial cars and trains yet). The Great Dukes and their children traveled on "ordinary trains", but with special precautions.

At the end of the reign of Nicholas I, in 1851, the construction of the railway from St. Petersburg to Moscow was completed.

Since the tsar paid much attention to the railway under construction, he became its first passenger, having traveled from Moscow to Bologoye. A special train was prepared for this trip. The train was driven by an ordinary passenger steam locomotive of type 2-2-0 series B, built at the Alexandrovsky plant in St. Petersburg.

The train consisted of a steam locomotive, a saloon car, a kitchen car, a bedchamber car, a dining car, a service car, and suite carriages (which gave the prestigious abbreviation SV). The cars were connected by covered passages. Some of these cars were built in 1850-1851 at the St. Petersburg Alexandrovsky plant. The length of the train, including the steam locomotive with the tender, was about 80 m.

It should be noted that the running-in of the luxury train began a little earlier - in the early morning of August 18, 1851, Nicholas I set off on it from St. Petersburg to Moscow to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his coronation.

The length of the "Own" imperial carriage was 25.25 m, it was installed on two four-axle bogies, which was new and unusual even for the beginning of the 20th century (after all, then twenty-meter long passenger carriages had just begun to enter railway practice). At the ends of the car there were capacious entrance platforms with a fence.

The carriage was painted blue on the outside. Gilded double-headed eagles were placed over ten windows with large piers, located along the length of the body on each side.

There were bronze clocks on the tables; the interior was also decorated with vases of Sevres porcelain and bronze candelabra. Mosaic doors opened and closed completely silently, and fresh air was brought in through bronze ventilation pipes decorated with weathercocks in the form of eagles above. The heating pipes were camouflaged with bronze gratings, which also successfully served as spectacular decorative details.

As part of the Imperial Train was the carriage of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, which consisted of "three elegantly decorated rooms, with a fireplace, a kitchen, a cellar and a glacier."

During the reign of Alexander II railway transport more and more actively enters the life of the country, new lines are being opened Petersburg - Warsaw (1862), Moscow - Ryazan (1864), Rigo-Orlovskaya (1866-1868), Moscow - Kursk (1868) and a number of others ... Tsarist railroad travel began to expand, and their duration increased, which required an increase in comfort. In addition, imitation of Western monarchs, who had their own trains, played a role.

On April 4, 1866, the first assassination attempt was made on Alexander II, and this may have served as the impetus for tightening the regime of imperial travel. At the same time, the Aleksandrovsky plant for movement on Russian railways with a gauge of 1524 mm built a fifteen-car imperial train. It consisted of a luggage car-power station, a workshop, the carriages of the Minister of Railways, the Grand Duke, their Imperial Majesty, the heir to the Tsarevich, a carriage for servants, a kitchen, a buffet and a dining room, in addition, at the tail of the train there were 5 carriages for the suite.

Since in the 1870s Empress Maria Alexandrovna was diagnosed with a serious pulmonary disease, in 1872 an order was placed in France for the construction of a new railway train for the Empress's trips abroad. France was chosen because it was cheaper to build a train there than in other countries. Supervised the execution of the order by the Imperial Trains Inspectorate.

The empress's railway staff was formed gradually. In 1872, the first seven carriages were purchased in France; they cost the treasury 121,788 rubles. The possibility of their adaptation to the Russian track by the Main Society of the Russian Railways cost another 17,787 rubles. A freight car purchased separately from this consignment was equipped with a glacier and adapted for the transportation of provisions (1839 rubles). A little later, four more new cars were purchased at the Milton Pay and K 0 plant (51,620 rubles). As a result, the royal train was equipped with 10 cars. This train began to be intended only for overseas travel, since it was built to fit a narrower European standard railway track.

When developing the train project, much attention was paid to the comfort level of the train and its finish. Taking into account the Empress's illness, one of the main requirements was to ensure a comfortable temperature and ventilation of the composition. The quality of these works was monitored by the empress's physician, professor S.P. Botkin. So, at temperatures from + 8 ° to -20 ° degrees, the composition should maintain a constant temperature of 13 to 15 ° C, both "at the floor and at the ceiling." It also provided for the possibility of changing the temperature in the compartment regardless of the temperature in the corridor. For this, a signal button was installed in the compartment. In the empress's carriage and in the large salon, “humidifiers” were installed to maintain a certain level of humidity (48–58% in winter). Air conditioning fans were installed in four cars of the train to cool the air entering the cars in summer. With the doors and windows closed, the temperature in the carriages had to be 5 ° C lower than the outside air.

The furnishings for these cars were also ordered from France. The contract with the French factories "Milton Pay and K 0" stipulated that "these wagons must be supplied with all the necessary furniture and other accessories ... except for linen and washing appliances, table candlesticks and candelabra, ashtrays and matchboxes."

The interior was truly royal: for example, a silver sink was installed in the empress's carriage. Despite the fact that at that time water closets (toilets) were already provided in the carriages, according to tradition, the list of ordered items also mentions "white with gilded night porcelain vessels."

For the first time, the Empress traveled abroad in a new composition in December 1873. During this trip, some shortcomings in the equipment of several cars came to light. After all the alterations and modifications, the cost of the royal train for foreign travel was 320,905 rubles.

By the 1880s, the Russian railway network had expanded significantly. By this time, the imperial family had a car fleet, which began to form under Nicholas I.

In one of the trains, which consisted of 10 carriages, on October 18, 1888, the royal family almost died as a result of a train disaster that occurred near the town of Borki near Kharkov.

After the crash of the Tsar's train in Borki, the expert commission revealed serious technical flaws in the design of the train and significant violations of the basic rules of its operation. Based on the conclusions of this commission, a decision was made to build a new train for the royal family.

Already on October 28, 1888, by the highest decision, a commission was established to resolve issues related to the formation of the concept of the future tsarist train. The main thing for the commission was the definition of the type of new imperial cars, their comparative analysis with the existing analogues, operated by the heads of European states.

Thus, in October 1888, initially it was about the construction of two trains: for domestic and for foreign trips of the royal family.

The trains were conceived as palaces on wheels. They must provide a smooth ride and a proper level of safety along with luxury and convenience for travelers. To determine the number of people accompanying the emperor on his trips abroad, the guards compiled a list of passengers usually accompanying the king on his travels. As a result, it was decided that the tsarist train will include 11–12 wagons, with a total weight of about 400 tons.

For the construction of the Imperial trains, a special Imperial Construction Committee was formed, with direct supervision of the progress of the work of the Imperial Train Inspectorate.

In November 1889, a decision was made in principle to place a prestigious order at the Aleksandrovsk Mechanical Plant of the Nikolaev Railway. At the Aleksandrovsky Zavod, the construction of a seven-carriage train was completed by February 1896. However, on the very first trips, it turned out that seven cars were not enough. As a result, two cars were already built in the workshops of the St. Petersburg-Warsaw railway, and the third was restored after the aforementioned crash.

Already during the construction of the train for the emperor's trips abroad, it was decided to use it for the internal trips of the royal family. For this, a procedure was developed for changing the slopes of the foreign gauge of 1435 mm to the Russian gauge of 1524 mm.

Initially, changing the slopes took up to 3 hours on each carriage. That is, it took up to three days to "change the shoes" of the entire train. In extreme cases, the railroad workers were packed at 6 pm. To speed up the process, a special car lift was installed at the Verzhbolovo border station in 1903. It cost the treasury 206 thousand rubles.

The wagons in the train were supposed to be distributed as follows:

In the first car - a power plant with its staff.

Second car - luggage.

Third car from the compartment of the first and second class was intended for servants.

In the fourth carriagethe first persons of the royal retinue were located in seven compartments. Fifth carriage the 6th compartment was occupied by the Minister of the Imperial Court, the commander of the main imperial apartment, the head of the security, the knight marshal, the life-doctor, one spare compartment.

Sixth car, also on the 6th compartment, - ladies'. Two grand ducal compartments. Two single compartments were intended for maids of honor. The Empress's maids rode in a two-seater compartment. The sixth compartment was intended for maids of honor. The level of comfort in this carriage provided for a separate toilet room in each of the grand ducal compartments and another common toilet for the maids of honor and their maids.

Seventh carriage was called grand-ducal. It was designed for coupe 5. The first of them was intended for the heir-Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Nicholas II. The second two-seater compartment was intended for the young Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich and his tutor. In the third compartment was the second son of the tsar - Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich. The carriage had two toilets.

The next two carriages were called imperial.

Eighth carriage - sleeping. The emperor's bedchamber was lined with morocco. Each bedroom had three windows. The emperor's bedroom had a table, a sofa, a small dressing table, double wall lamps and a washbasin. Each bedroom has its own toilet facilities. The interiors of the premises of the emperor and empress differed in style of decoration. In the same carriage a dressing room was arranged, and there were two compartments for the valet of the emperor and for the chamber-frau of the empress. A steam boiler was placed in the car to heat it.

In the ninth carriage housed the imperial salon and the king's study.

In the tenth carriage there was an imperial dining room, it was divided into three sections: a dining room, a snack bar and a buffet. Only members of the royal family used these four out of 10 carriages of the train (bedchamber, dining room, nursery and grand ducal), distinguished by a special luxury of decoration.

The two trailing wagons are utility ones.

In the eleventh carriage there was a kitchen, which also consisted of three sections: a kitchen, a buffet and a section for provisions. In the twelfth carriage the second class housed compartments for 4 cooks and 4 waiters, as well as 14 sleeping places for servants and 6 places for Cossack guards. In total, the carriage was designed for 32 berths with one shared toilet.

Later, another carriage was added, used as a church.

The average weight of a carriage was about 40 tons, that is, with a bogie pressure on the rails of 20 tons, but there were cars, for example, Bedchamber, whose bogie pressure reached 23.3 tons.

The length of the carriages between the outer edges of the buffer beams is 18 m, of the Bed and Children's carriages - 19.6 m, the height of the car inside is 2.9 m, the width is 2.94 m. The bodies are wooden: both the crate and the frame with channels.

The trolleys were used with a metal frame; biaxial, equipped with a triple system of springs: elliptical carriage type, axle-box leaf and axle-box special. Reinforced ramps.

The cars were connected with each other by Ulengut ties, and for the convenience of passage from one car to another, there were intercar passages with leather bellows - harmonics.

Initially, to save space, it was supposed to illuminate the composition with candles only and do without electric lighting. Then the option of gas lighting was considered, but after some hesitation, electric lighting was arranged on the train. Each compartment was equipped with 1-2 lamps in the Art Nouveau style.

Installed incandescent lamps for 8, 16 and 25 candles each at a voltage of 50 volts were powered by a dynamo and batteries; in case of damage to the car, there was a battery in the kitchen car, which provided lighting for the entire train for 3 hours. In total, there were 200 pieces of electric lamps on the train. In the daytime, in addition to the windows, light entered the carriages through the skylight windows.

For communication between all the cars, a telephone network was installed. All the cars were equipped with Siemens and Halske telephones of their own system with a sink on a common telephone box screwed to the wall. Later, they were replaced by Erickson's phones with talk-back and ear shells on one portable tripod.

The power station car was put at the head of the train, which made it possible to take water for the boiler of the power plant directly from the tender of the rear steam locomotive.

The train is heated by steam, local, with small boilers installed in 7 cars; a carriage without its own boiler was fired from the boiler of a neighboring carriage.

Brakes - Westinghouse, Hardy and Hand; pressing the pads is double-sided, and each axis was inhibited.

To give a signal, the locomotive had an electric alarm, which, when the train was moving on automatic brakes, was used to regulate the speed of the train, and when the hand brakes were used, its purpose was the same as the signal rope - the immediate stop of the train.

All the carriages of the train had the same appearance. The carriages are painted dark blue with thin gold layering on the glazing beads covering the seams of the panel iron. The last coat of lacquer was lightly sanded to soften too high gloss.

The roof was painted light gray to protect it from heat. The trolleys are black with gold layering along the contour lines. Wheels were painted according to the rules of the General Agreement.

There were no inscriptions on the carriages, but each carriage had its own letter indicating the purpose of the carriage, for example, Sl. - Service, D. - Children, etc.

Their Imperial Majesties occupied the wagon - Bedchamber; it had two offices, between them a bathroom, and on the sides - compartments for His Majesty's valet and Her Majesty's chamber-frau.

The decoration of the carriage was distinguished by the simplicity and rigor of the style of all details.

The Emperor's Bedchamber

The walls of His Majesty's office were trimmed with dark olive leather screed, and the ceiling was polished mahogany boards. The floor over the 3-layer felt was covered with a plain olive-colored velvet carpet with a check pattern. A large sofa with a removable mattress, which serves as a bed at night, is separated from the door by a glass screen with a curtain; the furnishings consisted of a desk, 3 armchairs, a wardrobe and a bookcase for papers; a door next to the table led to a lavatory, where a washstand was placed; dressing of the restroom - a Chinese mat. Bronze is gilded.

The office was lit by 5 electric bulbs with 10 candles each. Ventilation was carried out by 2 fans of the Korshunov system. To stop the train at the head of the sofa, there was a handle from the automatic brake stop valves. Next to the restroom is the valet's room, where the necessary things were also placed.

The bathroom was finished with a water-repellent mat. The bathtub itself was made in Paris from bimetal, its outer side was made of sheets of copper, and the other, facing the inside of the bathtub, was made of silver. A shower was installed over the bathroom.

Her Majesty's apartment was arranged in almost the same way as His Majesty's office, with the only difference that instead of leather, pale green English cretonne was used for the walls and furniture.

Empress's bedchamber

Behind the Bedchamber was the Salon-dining car.

On the walls - kenkets, clocks, barometer and port-bouquets; in addition, above the mirror, between the doors to the dining room, there is a pressure gauge and a vacuum gauge from the brake cylinders of Westinghouse and Hardy.

Elements of decor of the dining car

Wood for decoration is applied red with American walnut inserts. Doors, tables, window cornices are inlaid.

The dining room is decorated in the English Renaissance style; its character is quite strict and very simple: the walls are upholstered with embossed French leather, rollers, brown, the panel - pebbled leather, rollers; the furniture is upholstered with smooth pebbled leather; the dining table was optionally disassembled into 3 separate card tables; on the side of the salon there was a cupboard with a folding board for serving snacks.

The salon and the dining room were illuminated - each with 16 ten-candle lamps

A Children's carriage was placed in front of the Bedchamber.

The main sections of the carriage were the premises of Their Imperial Highnesses, the Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana Nikolaevna.

In both of these compartments, the upholstery of the walls is smooth, English cretonne - flowers over a white field; the tree is beech.

The same carriage housed 2 maids of honor; their branches were arranged according general type premises of the retinue.

In the Grand Duke there were 3 grand ducal offices, one valet compartment and a compartment for the chamber-frau.

The 1st Grand Ducal Department was decorated in the Empire style: polished mahogany furniture with bronze decorations; walls and furniture are upholstered in dark green leather in a screed; the ceiling is covered with greenish, silk fabric with laurel wreaths in the style; the same wreaths were repeated in the pattern of the carpet, a thick red-brown tone.

In general, the character of the decoration was very rich, but calm and strict.

The decoration of the 2nd compartment, consisting of 2 parts separated by a folding partition, was made in lighter colors; the walls are finished with silk fabric, with a colored pattern; the woodwork on the walls was of red beech and Karelian birch; the furniture was dominated by maple with pear wood inlays.

If desired, on some trips, this compartment from 2 sleeping halves turned into a salon.

The 3rd Grand Ducal compartment was also finished to the top with a stitch for less resonance; the general tone of the finish is a combination of lilac with pale yellowish; lilac silk matting was used for the panel; for walls - brocart fabric with a yellowish woven pattern on a light purple background and, finally, plush for furniture borders; the walls are upholstered with the same brocart fabric.

Beech and maple predominated in the wooden decoration of the walls, and maple with pear wood inlays was taken for the furniture.

The bed, as well as in the office of Her Majesty in the new carriage, was arranged in the form of a hammock and was separated from the door by a wooden screen.

At the head of the hammock there was a small folding table and a portable electric lamp, which could also be hung on the wall; a dressing table with a mirror is set by the window; in the partitions between the windows - a writing table with a hanging board; an armchair, stool and chair complemented the furnishings of this compartment.

The Svitsky carriage consisted of 4 male and 2 ladies' compartments and a compartment for female servants.

The arrangement of these compartments is similar to the arrangement of the maid of honor in the Children's carriage and differed mainly only in the choice of material for the upholstery of the walls and furniture: in the men's compartments, the sofa, chair and wall panel are upholstered in dark green leather, and the upper part of the walls "kotlin" -green color with a woven pattern of shiny silk; in ladies' finishes in vieil or (dull gold), leather is replaced by satin.

The service carriage consisted of a saloon compartment and six compartments.

The device of these compartments is modeled on the men's suite. The salon was intended to accommodate officers on duty from the train administration, as well as agents of the administration of the route and officials of the gendarme administration.

Control devices were placed on the wall: a train speed indicator, two pressure gauges from the main air line and the brake cylinder of the Westinghouse brake, vacuum gauges from the same parts of the Hardy brake, a clock, a repeating call from an electric alarm to a locomotive and a button to send a signal there; a barometer and thermometers - indoor and outdoor - complemented this collection.

On the wall was a map of Russian railways. There was also a telephone for communication with the department of the Engineer of the cars in the workshop car and with the Baggage car. At the end of the carriage there was a small tea buffet.

The workshop car was entirely intended to house the technical staff of the train and the power station for its lighting.

The Carriage Engineer's department was equipped with two sofas, a sliding table, a telephone and all control devices as in the Service carriage with the addition of a voltmeter, as well as two cabinets and shelves for storing train journals.

For the rest of the personnel of the technical and internal crew of the train, who had changed from duty, three large compartments were arranged for six berths each and one small compartment for three people.

The sleeping benches were located in three tiers: the lower and upper ones were fixed motionless, the middle one was lowered on hinges, which made it possible to sit freely during the day on the lower bench.

The benches were made of polished teak wood and covered with removable hair mattresses covered with gray cloth. The top dress and personal luggage of the artisans were placed in the corridor. To feed the train crew, there was a small separate kitchen with a stove, sufficient for cooking for 30-35 low-level employees accompanying the train from the owner's road.

For the convenience of drawing water from the tender tank, the boiler of the power plant was placed at the end of the car, facing the locomotive.

The walls were painted with light oil paint over a canvas previously glued to them; the floor near the boiler is lined with iron; the upper windows in the skylight are made of opening for better ventilation of the room.

Coal for heating was poured into a chest on the side of the boiler; there was also a small workbench with a vice for minor repairs needed along the way.

Dynamo machines were installed on additional benches located across the carriage and were fenced with railings.

The floor of the room is covered with linoleum; the walls are painted with oil paint. There are two cabinets on the wall for storing spare lamps, fuses and other electric lighting accessories.

Carriage - Kitchen.

Almost the entire carriage was set aside for the culinary part, but two compartments were arranged: one - double, the other - in one sofa, to accommodate the gof-furrier, waiters and cooks for small suburban trips, when the train went in a reduced composition without the car of the 2nd class for the Palace servants.

In the center of the car there is a compartment with a slab located at one of the longitudinal walls. On the other wall was a cake cabinet. A long beech cooking table was set up opposite the stove, with a supply of wood underneath. The water was stored in a tub made of tinned copper, dipped in zinc, and set in a wooden container. There is a sink in the corner of the kitchen with running water.

The walls are lined with cupboards, shelves and crockery hooks. For ventilation, in addition to ceiling fans, the skylight windows are hinged, on springs. The walls are painted under light oak with oil paint; the floor is covered with linoleum, and around the hearths there is also iron.

The stove and cake cabinet are all made of iron and cast iron, with sand filling the gaps in the outer skin.

At the end of the carriage, from the side of the dining room, there is a pantry compartment for preparing snacks and a supply of regular dishes.

On the other side of the kitchen was the so-called cold compartment; it is lined with glaciers on all the free walls in the form of boxes with lids; all the supplies of the palace kitchen were preserved here. The door to the compartment with the stove is equipped with an automatic lock.

In the absence of another more suitable place a battery of electric lighting accumulators had to be placed in this compartment.

The carriages Luggage and 2nd class for the palace servants are finished in the same way as the living quarters in the carriage Kitchen - by type passenger cars Class 2: the top of the walls is covered with oilcloth, and the bottom and seats are upholstered in gray cloth.

In the baggage car there was a Graftio apparatus for recording the progress and idle times of the train.

Along the walls of the corridor there are hydro-controls, stretchers and torches in case of any incidents on the way.

In the class II carriage, in addition to the offices for the Palace servants, there was an office space for the paramedic and the foreman of the train, who directly supervised the railway servant of the train. One wall of this compartment is occupied by a large wardrobe, which stores a supply of bed linen for the entire train; under the sofa - a box with a full stock of the most common and necessary medicines on the way.

Until 1905, Nicholas II used trains built by order of his father, Alexander III. But since Nicholas II traveled around the country quite often, then gradually, on each railway, its own royal train began to form. By 1903, the fleet of the imperial trains already consisted of five trains. The first is the Imperial train of the Nikolaev railway for the travels of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna with carriages on four-axle carts. The train consisted of 10 cars. The second is "His own Imperial Majesty»For long-distance travel across Russia, commissioned in 1897, on four-axle bogies. The third - the Imperial train "for the foreign gauge", which entered service in 1894, consisted of 11 cars on four-axle bogies. The fourth is the "Imperial suburban train" with three-axle cars for traveling in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, which included 13 cars. Fifth - the Imperial train of the Kursk railway "for the travels of foreign and local nobility" of 16 three-axle cars.

Internal political events had a significant impact on the increase in the fleet of imperial trains. It was necessary to strengthen measures to ensure the security of the emperor in the conditions of a brewing revolutionary explosion. Therefore, in the early 1900s, construction began on the second "copy" of the Russian Imperial Train. The construction of this train was completed by 1905.

It was the twin trains that provided the "cover" for the king, constantly changing places on the route. A similar practice in protecting the tsar developed back in the late 1870s under Alexander II. Special personnel were assigned to the backup train from among the room servants with the task of constantly flickering in the windows of the carriages, giving them a residential look. The interior of the backup train was somewhat more modest, but outwardly they looked almost the same.

They tried to keep the cars of the imperial trains on each of the tsar's railway routes. Therefore, the Imperial train could be quickly equipped with the required number of wagons.

Especially often the Imperial composition was used by the tsar during the First World War. For maneuverability and secrecy of movement, the royal train was completed with an incomplete train. The imperial train was small. It consisted in the center of His Majesty's carriage, where the Emperor's bedroom and study were located; next to it, on the one hand, there is a suite, and on the other, a dining car. Next came the kitchen with a sideboard, a carriage with a military field office and the last carriage, where the railway engineers and the commander of the road along which the train followed. Arriving at the front at Headquarters, the Tsar remained to live on his train. When in the summer of 1915 Nicholas II took over the duties of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and most he began to spend time in Mogilev, where his headquarters was located, then the empress often came there with her daughters.

In fact, in 1915-1917, the imperial train became one of the permanent residences of the last Russian emperor. This train also included a saloon car, in which Nicholas II signed his abdication on March 2, 1917.

After the abdication of Nicholas II in March 1917, his trains were used by the ministers of the Provisional Government for six months. After the Bolsheviks came to power, the famous train of the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council L.D. Trotsky was formed from the imperial cars. He enjoyed the amenities of the Imperial Train, including a garage car built in 1915 for Nicholas II's train.

The fate of all the luxurious royal carriages turned out to be sad. Most of them were lost in the fire of the Civil War. The surviving carriages were lost in 1941, and today none of the original imperial trains have survived on the territory of Russia.

Based on materials from: Zimin I. The Adult World of Imperial Residences. Second quarter of the 19th - early 20th century; Railway transport - 2000. - No. 8. - S. 68-73: ill. Imperial trains.B.V. YANUSH, employee of the Center for Railway Transport of the Ministry of Railways; Tsarskoye Selo Newspaper , November 9, 2002 No. 87 (9409) Yu. Novoselsky;Transport information bulletin. - 2009. - No. 1. - P.27-29. KI Pluzhnikov Imperial Train; Imperial broad-gauge train for traveling around Russia built in 1896-1897. : [album] / MPS; comp. P. Malevinsky. - SPb. ; M.: Tipo-lit. Kushnerev, 1900 .-- 220, 19 p. : ill., photos, plans, fol. heck.

The calculation is made in rubles at the euro exchange rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation + 2% on the date of payment.

Prepayment amount:

for one seat in a VIP compartment - 1500 €, including VAT;
for one seat in a business class compartment - 1500 €, including VAT;
for one seat in a first class compartment plus - 900 €, incl. VAT;
for one seat in a first class compartment - 900 €, incl. VAT.

Payment and cancellation terms:

Advance payments made upon tour confirmation are non-refundable.
Full payment for the tour is due 60 days before the start of the tour.
If a confirmed reservation is canceled 60 days before the start of the tour, 50% of the tour cost is withheld.
If a confirmed reservation is canceled 30 days before the start of the tour, 100% of the tour cost is withheld.

The tour price includes:

meeting at the Moscow airport, transfer to the hotel and to the railway station, seeing off to the Vladivostok airport;
hotel porter and porters railway station;
one night in a hotel in Moscow and one night in a hotel in Vladivostok;
accommodation on board the Imperial Russia train (towels, bathrobes and slippers are provided; water, tea, coffee);
full board according to the tour program (except for the first and last day);
excursions in Russian, English, German, Spanish and French, accompanied by local guides in accordance with the tour program (in other languages \u200b\u200bon request);
escort of the train by a qualified doctor, as well as English-speaking travel managers and tour leaders;
cultural and entertainment program on board the train (board games, live music, travel information).

Additionally paid:

flights (international and domestic);
the cost of an entry visa *;
drinks ordered from the bar car;
additional excursions (in each city along the route of the trip and in other cities of Russia);
meals on the day of arrival and departure;
personal expenses and tips;
insurance policy**;
vaccination***.

* The company is not responsible for passengers whose visas are incorrectly issued or expired.
** Each passenger is required to purchase a medical insurance policy for the entire duration of the tour.
*** We recommend that you consult your doctor or medical center about the need for vaccination.

Description of wagons:

VIP carriage (1–2 passengers per compartment)

The carriage consists of five compartments with two berths one above the other. Each compartment is equipped with an armchair, a table, an LCD TV, a built-in wardrobe for clothes and luggage, individual air conditioning, a washbasin, a shower and a toilet. The lower seat transforms into a sofa, and the upper one leans back.

Business class carriage (1-2 passengers per compartment)

The carriage consists of six compartments with two berths one above the other. Each compartment is equipped with an armchair, a table, an LCD TV, a built-in wardrobe for clothes and luggage, individual air conditioning, a washbasin, a shower and a toilet. The lower seat transforms into a sofa, and the upper one leans back.

First class carriage plus (1–2 passengers per compartment)

The carriage consists of eight compartments with two berths one above the other. Each compartment has a table, armchair, LCD TV and built-in wardrobe. A shower and washbasin are located between every two compartments, while the ninth compartment contains a luggage room. The car is equipped with a general air conditioning system with the ability to regulate the temperature in each compartment (± 3 degrees). Toilets are located at the beginning and end of the car.

First class carriage (1–2 passengers per compartment)

The carriage consists of eight compartments with two lower seats opposite each other. Each compartment has an LCD TV. The ninth compartment contains a shower and a washbasin. Toilets are located at the beginning and end of the car. The car is equipped with a general air conditioning system with the ability to regulate the temperature in each compartment (± 3 degrees).

Drove.
It turns out that the tripadvisor has a series of reviews about the Trans_Siberian_Railway object. Reviews are generally fascinating: they write about unsanitary conditions on trains, high prices in a restaurant, and so on.
I found only one review of the Imperial Russia train from a tourist from New Zealand. Expectations were confirmed))
You can read it in the original or on screenshots.

I will try to translate, do not judge strictly, the main point is:
I usually travel on a budget or on my own, so I figured this would be my most luxurious trip of my life. What a disappointment and a waste of my money.
It started with a hotel that was different from the one planned in the itinerary.
It was located outside the city, the hotel I was planning to stay in was in the city center.
On the first day, we did not see the two main attractions, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. They just said there are events (big ceremony) and we can't attend.
This trip was organized 9 months in advance! And it's strange that no one warned until that day.
No other replacement attractions were offered.
These two excursions were paid for, but not provided to us!
Then they would have to get from Ulan Bator to National park Terelzh camping from yurts, and have lunch there. We couldn't get there by horseback before 6 pm.
This was due to the fact that the guide of Imperial Russia decided to dine in Ulan Bator, 2.5 hours, a total loss of time.
Night at the yurt camp meant night stargazing. This was not the case.

There were no conference rooms on the train, no TV, no seating during the day as the dining room was occupied by the kitchen staff who spent the day watching the only TV in the dining room and then slept on chairs (pushed together) at night.

Neither tea nor coffee was available during the day only when you ate in your compartment and if you additionally requested.
"Plenty of entertainment" - we did not visit the ballet and the opera of Novosibirsk, but only examined the pictures of the interior.
The English speaking group leader, our guide, limited his English and did not want to communicate with the guests for whom he was paid, but preferred to spend time in his iPhone.

The doctor accompanying the trip did not speak English and when asked for help as the two guests were feeling very unwell and he did not provide medical assistance until these guests almost reached the hospitalization stage.
I almost doubted he was a doctor, as he did not seem to understand how sick these guests were.

Entertainment program on board the train, including lectures on the Trans-Siberian Railway, geography and history of Russia, there was no, except for one 1st violinist, who once joined the train.

The local guides were like prison guards, that is, if you strayed from the group, although within the group - you were ordered to return to the group and listen to the lectures of these guides, who did not seem to understand that the group wandered around to watch on their own because they were SO BORING.

Finally, at some point, the Leader of the group from Imperial Russia decided to take us to an unplanned event - a university collection of stones for 2 hours, and all this time we were ordered to stand and listen to the lecturer.

In general, the local guides were boring and seemed to be taking the time to keep us away from the train. So that the kitchen staff can sit in the dining room, watch TV or sleep - where I have no idea because there was only one compartment with 2 staff beds, but there were 8 people on board.

The train staff on the last day said they could provide us with laundry services, but this was not talked about until the last day.
There was no free time to visit the markets. We were either in our compartments or in buses where we listened to lectures, or in museums where we again listened to lectures.
Then, in excess, I agreed to spend a week in Xi'an and a week in St. Petersburg, with its own personal guide, who was very professional and had nothing to do with Imperial Russia.

As I understand it, the tourist traveled to Imperial Russia along the route

Carriage No. 1 Russian Empire - this was the name of the train on which Tsar Nicholas II, together with the headquarters and his retinue, moved around the country, making inspection trips, official visits or simply traveling with his family. This train was a real palace on railway wheels and Nikolai Alexandrovich had the opportunity to live and work in the usual tsarist conditions. When the First began world War, the imperial cortege became the permanent residence of Nicholas II. Here on March 2, 1917, he signed the abdication of the throne.

Characteristics of the royal train

The creation of car number one was a personal order of Tsar Alexander III, according to the plan of which the Russian monarch was supposed to have separate means of transportation on domestic and foreign railway lines. After the death of Alexander Alexandrovich, the Imperial Train (1896) was built for his heir in the workshops of the Nikolaev railway, which over time changed the composition and number of carriages in accordance with the growing state requirements and the number of imperial children.

For example, in 1902, the tsar's personal railway echelon consisted of ten carriages: the sleeping room of the Emperor and Empress, the reception room, the study, the kitchen, the dining room, the nursery, the departments for servants, railway workers, retinues, family members, the luggage department, as well as a specially equipped chapel. All finishes are made of the best materials and in the latest artistic fashion - polished mahogany, French bimetal, silver, leather and other materials, which allowed the decorators to turn the Tsar's railway cortege into an ideal combination of comfortable movement and work functions.

Photos of the imperial train

After the abdication of the emperor, the luxurious railway cortege was left without an owner and began to pass from hand to hand. From the Tsar to the Provisional Government, from Kerensky to Trotsky, after which he finally fell a victim civil war... The last remains of the royal railway luxury were destroyed in 1941, and only photographs of the imperial train and its decorative furnishings have survived to this day.

The walls and furniture were upholstered in English style with floral designs.

Dining room view

Women's coupe.

Women's coupe.

Internal view of one of the cars.

A women's coupe, perhaps for princesses.

Walls, ceilings and furniture of polished oak, walnut, white and gray beech, maple and Karelian birch were covered with linoleum and carpets.

The interior of one of the carriages.

The salon had mahogany upholstered furniture. The walls, sofas, armchairs and chairs were lined with striped pistachio curtains; The plush carpet on the floor had a proven design.

Dinner car.

The interior of one of the carriages.

Compartment for the maid of honor (junior courtier).

Bathroom.

Dining room.

Carriage for receiving guests.

Compartment of Nicholas II.

The interior of one of the carriages.

Restroom.

The interior of one of the carriages.

The walls, painted blue and decorated with gilding, looked beautiful.

The interior of one of the carriages.

Dining room in the restaurant.

Dining room in the restaurant.

Grand Duchess Anastasia on the Imperial train in 1916.

Empress Alexandra, Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarevich Alexei.

Tsar Nicholas II in the train window.

The tsar with the generals at dinner.

The train was built between 1894-96 by the Nikolaev railway company.

One of the cars.