Царское Село -город технических инноваций

THE   SIGNIFICANCE   OF  TSARSKOSELSKAYA  RAILROAD  IN  THE  HISTORY  

                                OF      RUSSIAN  RAIROADS

                                                 DEAR   GUESTS!

Welcome  to  my  native  city Pushkin,  the  best  city  in  the  world,  icredibly  cosy, green,  having  a  glorious  history.  I’d  like  to  suggest  to  you  a  short  excursion  devoted  to  the  railway  connected  St-Petrsburg  with  Tsarskoe  Selo  more  than  2  centures  ago.

                              From  the  history  of  the  railroad        

The  construction  of  the  road  was  trusted  to   an  Austrian   engineer  Frants  Gerstner.  In  his  opinion  the  width  of  a  track   1435  milimetres  accepted  in  Europe  was  too small  for  creation  correct  designs  of  a  steam  locomotive  and  cars.  Therefore  the  Tsarskoselskaya  Road  was  decided  to  construct  with  the  width  of  a  track  1829 mm.  Originally  the  railroad  had  been  laid  from  St-Petersburg  up  to  Tsarskoe  Selo,  and  then  prolonged  up  to  Pavlovsk.  Inauguration  of  the  railway  took  place  in  October , 30th  1837.

 A  machinist  of  the  first  train,  consisted  of  a  steam  locomotive  “Quick’  and  8  cars  was  Gerstner  himself.  Tsar  Nicolai 1  had  been  invited  to  the  inauguration  of  the  railway.  It  took  only  35  minutes  to  overcome  the  distance  from  Tsarskoe  Selo  to  St-Petersburg.  Average  speed  of  the  train  was  60  km  per  hour  and  it  went  3  times  quickly  then  a  horse.  Next  day  all  newspapers  of  Russian  cities  announced  this  remarkable  event  with  delight.  Frants  Gerstner  became  the  national  hero  of  Russia.

Petersburgers   revere  the  memory  of  this  person.    On  October  30th,  2007  in  honour  of  170th  anniversary  of  the  Russian  railroads  inside  the  building  of  Vitebsk  station  the  monument  to  GERSTNER,  an  Austrian  engineer  was  opened.  The  author  of  this  sculpture  Sherbacov  represented  him  standing  in  full  growth  with  a  model  of  a  steam  locomotive  in  his  hand.

The  movement  on  a  site  of  a  road  St-Petersburg—Pavlovsk  was  opened  on  May,  22nd  1838.  The  beautiful  building  of  the  station  with  the restaurant,  a  billiard  hall  and  a  concert  hall  was  constructed  there.  A  conductor   Yogan  Strauss,  one  of  the  most  fashionable  musician  of  that  time  performed  there.  He  earned  a  huge  fortune  there (  about  22 000  rubles).

How  did  contemporaries  estimate  a  highway?   Estimations  were  different.  Most  contemporaries  considered  a  highway  to  be  an   imperial  entertainment  or  an  attraction.  But  there  was  also  another  point  of  view  that  a highway  had  a  great  importance  for  the  further  development  of  railways  in  Russia.   Since  1841 the  scientific  developments  and  tests  of  steam  locomotives  and  cars  of  several  foreing  firms were  done  there  to  choose  the  best  one  for  manufacture  of  domestic  steam  locomotives  and  cars.

We can  say  that  our  Tsarskoselskaya  Road  was  the  mother  of  all  Russian  railway roads .  I”d like  to  pay  your  attention  to  one  interesting  fact  from  the  history   of railroads ,  connected  with  the  different  width of   a   track in  Russia  and  Europe.  On  the  border  of  Russia  and  Europe  there  is  a  bridge  through  the  river  Vistula  where  wheels   of   rissian trains were  changed  at  crossing  through  the  border.  A small  station  Chop  was  located there. Exactly  there   a famous  proverb- Don”t  say  Гоп  while you  will not  move  Chop.- was born at that time.

Our  small excursion has  come  to  an  end. The last point of it is  Tsarskoselskii  Railway station  which  was  built  in  1837  under  the  project  of  an  architector  Fokkati  in  English  gothic  style.  Since  that  time  the  building  of   the station  was  reconstructed  many  times.  The  modern  building  was  created  under  the  project  of  Levinson  and  Grushke.

I  hope  that in the  nearest  future  a museum  devoted  to  the  history  of   our  railway ,  railway  station  will  be  constructed  in  my  city.  Pushkiners  and  numerous  visitors  should  know and  be  proud  not  only  of  our  famous  parks  and     pa laces  but  also  by our  glorious  railway  road – the  first  railroad  in  Russia .