Vintage train steams off in Siberia

The first vintage train of the western Siberian railway left Novosibirsk on Friday.

The ultimate destination of the unique train is Science City outside Novosibirsk where it will occupy an honorable place in a museum of railway equipment. The distance to be traveled is 25 kilometres.

Alexander Tselko, chief of the western Siberian railway, speaking at a parting ceremony, said that "today we pay a tribute of respect to those generations of railwaymen who built the carriages and the railway".

The train is made up of a steam engine and five passenger carriages: an armour-plated official carriage of 1899, a first-class carriage of 1910, a second-class passenger carriage of 1904, a long-distance fourth-class hard-seated carriage of 1937 and a fourth-class hard-seated carriage of 1901.

Traction is provided by the freight-hauling locomotive of the Lebedyanka series, built in 1945. The series was named after chief designer L.S.Lebedyansky. Design speed is 80 kilometres an hour. The estimated weight of the locomotive and tender is 170 tons. The length of the train does not exceed 180 metres, and weight 400 tons.