The Railway Conquest of the World

by Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

Four large steel bridges had to be erected in order to carry the railway across the Tobol, Ichime, Irtych and Obi rivers, all of which are navigable. The last two waterways demanded the heaviest pieces of work of this character, the Irtych bridge being about 2,130 feet in length, divided into six spans, each of about 354½ feet. That over the Obi measures some 2,650 feet from end to end, built up of seven spans, three of which are of 594½ feet, and four of 291½ feet respectively.

The rigours of the climate were felt severely. The summer is short and hot, while the winter is long and intensely cold, the temperature ranging between -5 and -13 degrees, while at times the mercury was found to descend to -40 degrees. Moreover, the steppe is swept by terrific winds, and the conditions told heavily upon the labourers working in such an exposed situation. In summer, after making allowances for wet and fête days, only about 120 days were left for operations, and consequently it was essential to continue work during the winter as far as practicable. The sparsely-populated character of the country militated against the engineers, and the labour for the most part had to be brought from Europe, for the peasants were unaccustomed to navvy work. The scarcity of water was another adverse factor, that found in the more sterile reaches being brackish and unfit for consumption. To meet this contingency water had to be brought over long distances for the workmen, while in places artesian wells were sunk which relieved the situation slightly. Under these conditions the completion of the 885 miles of line comprised in this section within four years was an excellent piece of work.

The Central Siberian railway, as it ran through two diametrically different stretches of country—plain and mountainous respectively—was subdivided into two divisions. The first section, stretching from the banks of the Obi, where it connected with the Western Siberian railway, was taken in hand in May 1893, and the work was pushed forward so vigorously that it was completed in advance of the scheduled time. Trains from St. Petersburg could not run over this section, however, until two years later, as the struggles of the engineers upon the mountains, in the second moiety, demanded the utilisation of the first section for the handling of their supplies and material. The broken country proved to be exceedingly troublesome. Moreover, a large number of wide waterways had to be crossed, such as the Yenisei, where a magnificent bridge 2,856 feet in length had to be erected. It is a massive structure, and at present constitutes the largest and heaviest work of its description in Siberia.

The traveller as he rolls over the iron road cannot resist contrasting the solidity and permanent appearance of these noble bridges with the temporary character of the line in other places. The difference is so great as to be incongruous. Yet it was in accordance with the original plans. The earthworks and permanent way can be replaced at leisure, but the bridges, and the reputation of the rivers they span, led the authorities to decide that in these instances first cost should be last cost. When the whole railway is brought up to the standard of the bridge-work, it will be comparable in solidity and travelling comfort with the leading lines of other countries.

Rapidity in laying the track on the first section was due to the fact that the line traversed an undulating plain where heavy works were not demanded. The climate for the most part was found to be analogous with that prevailing in Western Siberia, the mean temperature in summer hovering about 70 degrees, to fall to about -7.6 degrees in winter. In order that the workmen during the latter season might not be interrupted in their tasks of fashioning the stone-work for the bridges, special workshops were provided, heated with steam and stoves, and similar shelters were built over the sites of erection on the ice, where the workmen were enabled to lay the masonry in comfort. At the same time these measures permitted the cement to dry slowly instead of being frozen, only to fall to pieces with the approach of spring.

As the engineers pushed farther and farther away from the European frontier, the country was found to be more and more thinly settled. Along the line of the Central Siberian railway the average population was one person per square mile, and the majority of these people were colonists who had emigrated from European Russia to practise agriculture in the East, and they were settled for the most part along the postal road to Tomsk.

Under such conditions labour had to be brought from several hundreds of miles to the rear. Huge depots had to be established to house provisions and large camps formed for the employees. Furthermore, thousands of horses and hundreds of wagons were required in addition to sleighs. Roads had to be cut for the passage of these vehicles, and at various points stores of provisions and other necessaries had to be stored in deep pits dug in the ground, and covered with heavy tree-trunks to secure protection against bears and other marauders.

The penetration of the dark and matted primeval forests was terrible. The ground was swampy, and in order to facilitate the advance of vehicles the soft soil had to be rendered firmer by tree-trunks laid down to form a kind of timber road. The men engaged in this essential undertaking suffered extreme privations, not only bodily, but mentally as well. The terrible solitude preyed upon their minds, while the rainfall and entire absence of the rudiments of comfort told upon their constitutions.

In order to facilitate the transportation of the provisions and material from European Russia to the main depots along the line, the great waterways were utilised to the fullest extent. Boats of all descriptions took on these stores at convenient points near the Urals, such as Tioumen, and by traversing the various tributaries of the mighty Obi were able to gain numerous points along the location, where they discharged their cargoes. Thence the goods were dispatched to the scattered depots and camps by road.

When Irkutsk was gained, the first serious troubles arising from the mountains confronted the engineers. The survey showed that the line here would have to describe a huge detour to round the southern extremity of Lake Baikal, a sheet of water as large as England. The country was broken up to an extreme degree, and among other works of a heavy nature involved was a tunnel nearly 12,500 feet long through the Zyrkousounsk mountain chain, which towers to a height of 12,000 feet above sea-level. But the tunnel was only one obstacle which would have to be overcome, for heavy cuttings through rock and big fills to cross depressions were indicated on all sides. Some idea of the outlook was afforded from the estimated cost of this 182 miles of line which was ciphered at £2,700,000, or $13,500,000. As, after compassing the lake, the line swung sharply north-eastwards to gain Myssovaia, practically opposite the point on the west bank, a bold temporary expedient was suggested. This was the installation of a large vessel combining the features of an ice-breaker and ferry, which should carry the trains intact across the lake, a distance of about 45 miles. By this means construction from the eastern bank could be hastened, leaving the line around the end of the sheet of water to be built at leisure at a subsequent date.