Comments on: Railway of Bones

Railway of Bones

parudox — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 23:36:08 -0800

Dead Road - Museum of Communism in the Open. "It was one of the most ambitious projects of the Stalin era, known as the 'railway of bones'. At least 10 people a day died during the four years of its construction [actually 1947-1953], but unlike most of Uncle Joe's grand designs it was never completed and now sits unfinished in the tundra, an icy road to nowhere." The transpolar railway was built by labour camps^ 501 and 503 and construction was stopped after the amnesty following Stalin's death in 1953; 800km, about half, was built. Some sections are currently in operation, but much is abandoned: depot and locomotives in Dolgoe, Dolgoe itself, labour camps, more spectacular decay. (Previously: Norilsk, which was supposed to see an extension of the line.)

By: parudox

parudox — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 23:37:06 -0800

I'm not surprised that there were uprisings. (There's more for those who speak Russian.)

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:30:51 -0800

Interesting post, parudox. The photos of the depot and locomotives were especially interesting; that was awfully light-gauge rail, I suppose to get the job done. Any real heavy freight would need heavier stuff.

By: amyms

amyms — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:43:04 -0800

Very interesting, thanks!

By: Eekacat

Eekacat — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:43:36 -0800

Like maxwelton, I was struck at the light duty rail, and much of it's construction. I imagine it wouldn't have lasted long. Cool post, and neat photos.

By: Brittanie

Brittanie — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 01:03:49 -0800

See also The Road of Bones, introduced to me by Long Way Round.

By: PeterMcDermott

PeterMcDermott — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:49:06 -0800

Good job this kind of thing died out with the end of Communism. Oh, wait...

By: pracowity

pracowity — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 03:04:27 -0800

I was struck at the light duty rail, Stalin: Build me a railway from... [looks at map, points] here to... here. Underling: We don't produce enough steel. Stalin: What did you say? Underling: Consider it a done deal.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 04:04:50 -0800

Stalin: Build me a railway from... [looks at map, points] here to... here. Uncle Joe: Get those traitors busy doing something. Underling: How about a building a railroad? Uncle Joe: Whatever. Just work them to death, or you'll be building it yourself.

By: parudox

parudox — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:02:45 -0800

The first two photo links are down. Whoops. In the meantime, some random site has a copy of the first one.

By: tommasz

tommasz — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:17:11 -0800

It looks like they just stopped in the middle of what they were doing and left. Considering the nature of the camps, they probably did exactly that. What great photos!

By: parudox

parudox — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:51:13 -0800

Another one of the links actually does have an English translation.

By: kjs3

kjs3 — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:57:22 -0800

Good job this kind of thing died out with the end of Communism. Oh, wait... Remind me...whats the equivalent of a Goodwin when it's a specious comparison to mass murdering Commies rather than mass murdering Nazis?

By: sneebler

sneebler — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:50:06 -0800

I was struck at the light duty rail... I think that was normal for the era though. A lot of the non-mainline track in western Canada was built with 100-pound (#100 per yard) rail or smaller, and we saw lots of that when I worked as a railroad surveyor in the mid-eighties. Yes, the cost of steel had a lot to do with it, but rural sections of many railroads were maintained largely by hand (ie. without specialized power machines other than a tractor with a front-end loader) until the 1950's or 60's, and a length of #100 rail (39'?) is about the max that the regular section crews of three or four could handle. Ditto the great photos. This would make a great bike path.