On April 28, the retro-train "Victory" arrived in Rostov. This is the third time I have met him. And it's time to get used to this power, to the whistle that creeps to the bone, to the steam, looking at which you get goose bumps. But I can not.
On the platform one can hear "Fire is twisting in a small stove", girls in chintz dresses and white socks are dancing, thin boys in the uniform of the war are singing, they are echoed by two rare rows of old men - our veterans. In the year before last, the seats of the participants in the Great Patriotic War were almost all occupied, and this year many seats are empty. Probably someone got sick. Although, to be honest, time does not spare, even when heals.
Retro train under the steam locomotive Su-250-64
The train comes to the Don land for the seventh time. And every year the roads of his victorious procession become longer and longer. This time "grandfather" (so lovingly called by the employees of the North Caucasus Railways), he visited the republics of the North Caucasus, passed through the stations of Makhachkala, Grozny, Vladikavkaz, Nalchik, Pyatigorsk, Cherkessk.
And now - Rostov-Glavny. The platform hums underfoot. People shove smartphones and cameras into the face of the big black “grandfather”.
About blueprints and love for steam locomotives
- The idea to celebrate the Victory Day in such an unusual way came to us seven years ago. There were locomotives in the museum, there was interest from people who come to us to look at them, to touch the history. All trains are on the move, so it was not difficult to combine them and create such a real military train. It is driven by two steam locomotives, to which covered freight cars, heating machines, as well as platforms for transporting military equipment and a saloon car are attached, - said Vladimir Burakov, director of the Museum of the History of the North Caucasian Railway. - Our specialists restored the cars quickly. Drawings, everything was. But I had to tinker with the steam locomotives. Especially with "grandpa". He is already 82 years old! He is a real participant in the Battle of Stalingrad. The Tikhoretsk steam locomotives repaired it, put the "grandfather" on the move, and since then he has been in our work. If you look at the footage of the old newsreel, you will notice that the composition is the same, and the inscriptions, and even small details, are either preserved or restored according to historical documents.
It couldn't have been otherwise. Vladimir Burakov is the owner of the largest personal (private, if you like) collection of drawings for steam locomotives and other railway equipment. He knows everything - from what the pavorozny bolt should be, to the "correct" sound that a steam locomotive should make.
How many rare drawings Burakov has, he himself does not know. But he knows for sure that there is everything. Well, almost everything.
Some drawings have been digitized, others are stored properly on paper. And the collector's house is as if not a house at all, but a repository of precious blueprints. Relatives have long been reconciled, and even his wife accepted this lifelong hobby and tries not to violate the "railway" order established in their house.
The love for steam locomotives passed to Vladimir by inheritance from his uncle the driver, then there was a railway institute, then work as a mechanic, drawings, libraries, book collapses. In the early 90s, when everything was crumbling, the management of the North Caucasus Railways decided to keep at least what little remained of the old times - they came up with the idea of repairing old steam locomotives and carrying tourists on them. That is, to put retro trains on the rails.
Who should be called to organize the business? Of course, Burakova. While everyone was selling junk at flea markets and trying to survive, the collector of drawings took up old steam locomotives. He even resigned from the post of senior foreman, so that there was time for his iron "oldies". Business went on - one steam locomotive, another, a third, there the diesel locomotives pulled up - and that was the open-air museum!
About the wounds of war and long memory
While we were talking, people occupied the train. Someone climbed into teplushki, someone into the heart of a retro train, into the driver's cab.
“We are following this very strictly,” said Vladimir Vladimirovich. - We do not allow not only vandalism, but also make sure that no one gets hurt or burned. Steam locomotives with character!
- Absolutely! Especially when it comes to such machines. It seems to be "grandfather". He is 82 years old. But his spirit is fighting. And he is very sensitive to people. Especially to the locomotive crews. His team, which constantly serves him, accepts. And someone else's - no. Something may fail. Steam engines have a special bond with their car. And it is much stronger than that of electric or diesel locomotives. When working on a steam locomotive, you need to be very sensitive to it. Knowing the character exactly - how it gets under way, how it behaves when approaching a stop, how it slows down … This is important. And therefore, we try not to separate the drivers and their locomotives, not to change the crew. They must live as one organism.
- Were. It was built in 1935. I was, as I said, a participant in the Battle of Stalingrad. According to the documents that have survived to him, from 1940 to 1948 he was assigned to the locomotive depot of Akhtarsk. And he worked on the front-line railways, traveled around Stalingrad. And when the workers of Tikhoretsk were repairing it, in a cart for coal and water, they found holes from bullets and shells inside. He lived with them for almost 70 years! The craftsmen welded them neatly, but when you look inside, it still creeps through.
"So we've met!"
… Then Vladimir Burakov told me a small story about a big meeting. I will try to bring it up without changing my mood. Because, telling about this, the chief keeper of the Don trains, Vladimir Burakov, was hiding tears.
On one of the trips on a retro train (not on this one, however, not on the Victory train, but also on the "old man") at the Malchevskaya station in the north of the Rostov region, the train stopped with a concert. It was winter. The artists, as usual, sang, danced, and then the electric train gave a series of its trademark beeps.
And suddenly the speakers and spectators saw a gray-haired old man running towards them from the other end of the village. Runs, limping, holding earflaps in his hands, screaming something crying.
- We thought, my grandfather went through something, he was fancying something, he was running to the concert. After all, he looked strange - house pants, slippers on his bare feet, a sheepskin coat. It was evident that what he was in at home, in that he ran, - said Vladimir Vladimirovich. - But the grandfather did not go to the speakers, he ran to the head of the train, fell to his knees, reached out to the wheels and began to kiss them. We go to him. What happened, they say? And he can't really explain anything - tears choke him. He caught his breath and, not paying attention to us, whispers: “My dear! I would even recognize your whistle from the grave! Native! So we've met! It turned out that after the war, for many years, my grandfather worked as a machinist on exactly such an electric locomotive - he transported construction materials for the restoration of cities and villages, transported people, their letters, parcels, sad and funny stories. His steam train was his life.
We agreed to meet with Vladimir Burakov after the holidays are over, at the Museum of the History of the North Caucasian Railway. He still has many life and locomotive stories.
In the meantime, the retro-train Pobeda, having stood for three hours in Rostov, issued its own special beep and set off for Saratov.
This year the train "Victory" was met by more than 15 thousand residents of our region. Probably, in the next 2018 there will be even more of them. After all, you can watch dozens of films about the war, read hundreds of books, talk with eyewitnesses of events, but you can really experience at least a little bit of what our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers carried through themselves, only by touching this warm cast-iron side with your palm.
And if, as Vladimir Burakov says, each machine has its own character, this locomotive is, without a doubt, heroic.
