Distance Lodeynoye Pole - Domozhirovo. Railway line yanisyarvi - olonets - lodeynoye field

We continue our journey through Old Finland, or the former Vyborg province. As part of Russia, the Finnish region was divided between our two: the Leningrad region and Karelia. They differ quite a lot from each other: authentic names have been preserved in Karelia, and the landscape itself with lakes and rocky ridges is more like Finland than Russia.

Sortavala has traditionally been the center of the eastern part of Old Finland. It can be reached from St. Petersburg in two ways: along the West Karelian railway by train St. Petersburg - Kostomuksha in just 5 hours; and bypassing Ladoga from Lyaskelya station on the reserved line Lodeynoye Pole - Yanisyarvi. From St. Petersburg to Lyaskel, a trailer car takes 15 hours (of which 4 is in Lodeynoye Pole), then another 30 kilometers must be covered.

I chose the second option. Firstly, night Train allowed me to avoid spending on a hotel; secondly, I traveled along the West Karelian road from St. Petersburg to Sortavala in the summer of 2004 and remember it well; fourthly, the Yanisyarvskaya line is one of the most exotic and protected railways in Russia, where branches scrape along carriage windows and functioning semaphores have been preserved.

I already drove a little along this line in December 2009, during my trip "", and even then I decided to drive it in its entirety. Three photos from that trip I will give in this post.
The total length of the line Lodeinoye Pole - Janisyarvi is about 250 km, and on its way it crosses 3 cities: Lodeinoye Pole in Leningrad region(starting point), Olonets and Pitkyaranta in Karelia - and the latter was part of Finland. The line was built in 3 stages: in 1933, a branch to Pitkyaranta from the West Karelian railway was built; in the 1950s, after the accession of Old Finland to the USSR, the line was extended to Olonets, which became a dead end station. In the 1970s, a section to Lodeynoye Pole was built, and thus this line connected the West Karelian Railway with the Murmansk Mainline.
The current Lodeinoye Pole - Yanisjarvi line, although of normal gauge, looks something like narrow gauge railways in the 1980s:

Probably, in the summer you can stick your hand out the car window and reach out to the trees and rocks. In some areas, the rustling of branches on the lining and windows of the car accompanies almost continuously and very loudly. In winter, in the pallets of the shelves of the first reserved seat there is coal, the smell of which is felt in the car:

(photo 2009)

On the line, real operating semaphores have been preserved, and at many stations they are in fairly good condition (at least painted). The only train consists of two second-class carriages that start from the Ladozhsky railway station in St. Petersburg, settle for 4 hours in Lodeynoye Pole and then go further with a local locomotive. Almost all passengers go to Pitkyaranta, after which it is quite possible to be the only passenger on the train. And it's nice - when the whole train carries only you!
Let's take a little road trip and yes, of course, it is much more beautiful there in summer, no need to remind me of that! ).

Bridge over the Svir (which connects Lake Onega with Ladoga) in Lodeynoye Pole:

(photo 2009).

Built in the 1970s, combined rail and road, and in addition, adjustable, as they walk along the Svir large ships. I drove through both its railway part and the automobile part (returning in 2009 from Olonets). The asphalt on it is broken like Karelian rocks.

About an hour from Lodeynoye Pole - a small (11 thousand inhabitants) provincial town, which was once the capital of Karelia. Moreover, it is the most Karelian city Karelia" - the titular nation makes up 60% of the population here (against 11% in Karelia in general). The city is poor in sights - but it is very colorful and I especially remember it wooden bridges. Around Olonets there is a real "opolye", and there are many interesting things in the surrounding villages, such as the one I visited.

The station is on the outskirts, and Olonets is poorly visible from the train. .
Another hour from Olonets is the station where I drove last time. In December 2009, I met the dawn here on the frozen Ladoga, which is 2 kilometers from the station through the village. There are many interesting things in the village, and here, it seems, is the first semaphore on our way:

(photo 2009).
The photo shows a locomotive driving a freight train with timber. In general, freight traffic here is very developed, but since the line is single-track, it is imperceptible when driving.

Station Ilyinskaya near Vidlitsa. Unpretentious Soviet railway station:

About three hours from Lodeynoye Pole is the Pogrankondushi station - probably the most interesting village on this line. The fact is that there was a border here twice: in 1618-1721, the Russian-Swedish, in 1918-1944 - the Soviet-Finnish. Boundary stones have been preserved from both borders: a boulder Varashev stone near the shore of Ladoga (it has the shape of an irregular parallelepiped the size of a small truck, reliefs with a Swedish crown and a Russian cross have been preserved on different sides) and a border stone with the inscription "USSR" near the highway. In addition, in the village of Pogrankondushi, a whole complex of bunkers and caponiers of the 1930s has been preserved (and it is not clear whether Soviet or Finnish).
At first, I had a plan to get off in the Border Condushi, but after assessing the amount of snow, I decided that it was not worth it. I will probably return to these parts again. And this is how the area at the Borderlands looks like - very borderline:

So, we could again live like a human being in the former Finland. They say that the border guards are also interesting for the combination of Karelian and Finnish huts, the differences between which can be seen. This shot was taken in some other village, since it is a couple of kilometers from the station to Pogrankondush (moreover, the village is in one direction, and Varashev stone is in the other):

I must say that I didn’t shoot everything interesting along the line, because there were screaming children in two adjacent reserved seats, and as a result, I didn’t get enough sleep, and in the morning (when the children screamed and fell asleep) I involuntarily fell asleep. Let's say that's how I overslept the village of Salmi with the ruins of the church.

And by 11 o'clock in the morning (the train leaves Lodeika at about 6) the train arrives in Pitkyaranta - industrial city on the banks of Ladoga with 12 thousand people. I must say that Pitkyaranta looks very gloomy and dull. To the left of the tracks is a pulp and paper mill, the smoke of which is visible even from Valaam:

In Pitkäranta, I managed to see only the station area, where nothing reminds me of the Finnish past. Station itself:

Brick houses with ornaments that are built up most of Pitkäranta:

Although this boiler room may be of Finnish construction:

But the absolute dominant of Pitkyaranta is in any case the pulp and paper mill:

At the station there is a semaphore - quite far (20-card zoom + crop):

Landscapes around Pitkyaranta. By the way, this is Lake Ladoga - only closed by a strip of islands:

Not far from Pitkyaranta is clearly some kind of mining enterprise. Most likely building materials - but the mining past immediately comes to mind:

Well, after Pitkyaranta, the most interesting begins. The relief becomes more and more hilly and rocky:

Sometimes landscapes resemble the Urals:

The forest thickens, becomes more primitive:

And the most amazing thing is the rocks. From time to time, the train goes into real gorges, the slopes of which are higher than the car roof, and if it weren’t for glass, one could reach the stones with one’s hand:

View up - in winter, snow-covered rocks have their own charm:

An amazing sound - the rattle of branches on the lining of the car! It just needs to be heard...
Most train stops are practically in a forest or open field, with no signs of civilization. There are few stations with train stations, but Finnish wooden train stations are very pleasant:

Leppyasinta station:

But now it's time to go. The train left St. Petersburg at 22:01, to Lyaskelya at 12:59. Only in the vestibule did I realize how wrong I was - if the car windows were dusty and cloudy, then the clean glass of the vestibule made it possible to photograph any view in natural color. I photographed only the panorama of Lyaskel:

I took a few more shots from the ground. The view above was taken approximately from this bridge, it seems also Finnish:

Near the bridge on the hill, a handsome semaphore. By the way, it is almost impossible to see them from the train, since they are much higher than the carriages, and the "stalk" of the semaphore is completely inconspicuous:

That's all. The train has less than an hour to go to Janisyarvi, and I have to see Lyaskelya (which will be the next post) and leave for Sortavala.

By the way, by local tradition Finnish names cannot be declined: neither Pitkyaranta, nor Sortavala, nor Lahdenpokhya, nor others. Here, even at school, they teach that saying "in Sortavala" is a sign of ignorance. Indeed, in these parts, the Karelian and Finnish languages ​​​​also have official status.

old finland

If you look at the map of Karelia, you can see that along east coast Lake Ladoga stretches the thread of the railway, which begins at the tiny junction station Janisyarvi (the West Karelian Mainline passes through it) and ends already in the Leningrad Region, in a city with unusual name Lodeynoye Field. This road has an unusual interesting story and, moreover, is a real railway reserve. It's one of those railroads "you must ride before you die."

The road was built in three stages. Branch from the West Karelian railway to big city Pitkyaranta, then still Finnish (60 kilometers), was built in 1933. In the early 1950s, already on the territory of the Karelian-Finnish SSR, the road was extended by 100 kilometers to Olonets. Finally, in the 1970s, the so-called "BAM" was built, the section Olonets - Lodeynoye Pole ("BAMs" are popularly called many railways that were built simultaneously with the famous Baikal-Amur Mainline).
Few people know that this particular railway line was the last one along which conventional trains they drove steam locomotives: passenger - until April 1986, goods - until the early 1990s.
The last steam-powered train in Russia. Section Olonets - Yanisjarvi, April 1986. Photo from the book " Everyday life Russian Railways"

But this is not the only thing that makes her interesting. The Olonets-Yanisjarvi section is one of the few that use semaphores (not traffic lights!), a wand system, and the sleepers are laid not on gravel, but on sand. I already wrote about the wand system.
Finally, the road passes through a very colorful area of ​​​​South Karelia, through pine forests, rocks, over many bridges, through Karelian villages with unusual houses. It is a key part of the "Ladoga circumnavigation" (the route St. Petersburg - Pitkyaranta - Sortavala - St. Petersburg).
Unfortunately, the directorate of the Oktyabrskaya Railway is indifferent to it, the passenger train is unprofitable in 2011-2012. canceled several times. Now passenger traffic it is preserved only 4 times a week (from Friday to Monday) on the Lodeynoye Pole - Pitkyaranta section. There is one wagon.
Moreover, in this car you can travel from St. Petersburg to Pitkäranta and back without a transfer. Econom-class train follows from St. Petersburg to Lodeinoye Pole as part of train No. 657/658 St. Petersburg - Petrozavodsk, settles for 4 hours in Lodeinoye Pole at a dead end, after which it is picked up by a local diesel locomotive and goes to Pitkyaranta already as a suburban one. At the same time, this fact is not reflected in the schedule: officially these are two different trains. You just need to know that in order to get from St. Petersburg to any station along this line, you need to buy a ticket for train No. 658 to Lodeynoye Pole and indicate that you need car No. 20 (from May to September - No. 22). The ticket to the destination will be sold by the conductor after departure from Lodeynoye Pole.
We rode this unique railway on August 5, 2013. Actually the trip began at 22:07 in St. Petersburg, at the Ladozhsky railway station. The 22nd car was, contrary to logic, not after car No. 21, but at the opposite end of the train, next to the 1st. The car was filled to a third, almost all top places were free. We woke up after leaving Lodeynoye Pole.
The symbolic beginning of the road is a bridge across the river. Svir:

Immediately after that - an endless forest corridor, branches in places caught the car, as on the Alapaevsk narrow gauge railway. Half an hour later - the first stop Inema, the former station. There was no hint of the village, the stop was literally in the middle of the forest, no one entered or left. Remains of the station building:


The next one is in half an hour, Olonets. Despite Russian name, this is the "most Karelian" city - representatives of Karelian nationality here are 58% against 8% on average in Karelia.
The only building in the city that can be seen from the train window is the pretty "Stalinist" station.


Probably, as a passenger it is not used now, in the only passenger train Tickets are sold by a traveling cashier.
Here "BAM" ends and the reserved road begins. Again endless forests.


After several stops in the forest - Ilyinskaya station. Well, why did they take and spoil a pretty nice building with plastic siding ?!


This is the first station with semaphores on our way. No, no electricity, they are manually controlled using ropes from such a device:

And here is the semaphore itself. Handsome!

Typical scenery along the road. Lots of moss.


Vidlitsa station building:


Next stop - Border Guards. Before the revolution, this ancient village was called Pogranichnye Kondushi (Kondushi is a common Karelian toponym), in the 1920s it was shortened, forming such an awkward name. In the XVIII century, the Russian-Swedish border passed here, in 1918-1944 - the Soviet-Finnish one. The village is not visible from the railway, but there are many boulders in the vicinity.


The train approaches the Salmi station (fin. "strait") very slowly, you can see the ruins of the ancient church of St. Nicholas, destroyed during the war.


And the entrance semaphore on the hill.

Station building.


Here is Pitkäranta. The train does not go further, please get out of the car. More than four hours spent on the road flew by quite unnoticed and even too quickly. Train Composition:


The station, combined with the bus station, built in 1990.


We have six whole hours to walk around Pitkäranta. We have seen local history museum(I advise you to visit) and the Ascension Church, restored in the early 1990s. Very cozy and extremely clean provincial town.
The rest of the time we looked around the station. We got to the semaphore.

This is a view from the side of the station, so the wings are white. When leaving for the haul, the semaphore readings do not carry information. But at the entrance to the station, such an indication is "closed" or forbidding (similar to red). To allow the train to enter the station, the upper wing is moved to a position at an angle of 135 degrees (see photo of the semaphore in Salmi). You ask: what about at night or in the fog, when the wings are not visible? Near the upper wing you can see a kerosene lantern that burns in the daytime. On the haul side, this lamp has two lenses - red and green. In the disabling position, the wing closes the green lens - accordingly, only the red lens is visible, in the resolving position - on the contrary, the red lens is not visible. The second wing in a vertical position shows a speed limit of 40 km / h (leaves the yellow lens open at night), in a position at an angle of 135 degrees - permission to proceed through the station without stopping (yellow lens is not visible).
Semaphore lever. In the background is the chimney of the pulp and paper mill, the main enterprise in the city. Oddly enough, the air in the city seemed very clean to me, compared to the Moscow region, probably due to a large number pines.


In Pitkäranta, a rolling depot with a turntable has been preserved, which not so long ago launched steam locomotives on the line. Now, as far as I know, it does not formally exist.


Just then a station worker approached me. I mentally prepared for an event similar to what happened a little later at the Novoperedelkino station. But it turned out to be in vain.
- Aren't you afraid to walk along the paths?
- No, we are very careful. Railway yours is interesting.
- Certainly. Zhezlovka, semaphores - where else will you see this. People from afar come to us specifically to look. Rarity.
We got talking. A very friendly man named Alexander told us the extraordinary story of the Pitkäranta station bell.
In those days, when steam locomotives ran along the line, a bell hung at each station, the blows of which escorted the trains. Then they were no longer needed. Some of them were transferred to museums, some were left at the stations, some were taken by the railway workers for themselves - as a keepsake. Alexander, while still a student at the railway technical school, decided to pass the bell to his teacher via the contact network, but the teacher said: "Keep it for yourself. Let you have it." Many years later, after the collapse of the USSR, a church began to be restored in one of the villages near Pitkyaranta. A priest who lived near Alexander asked him for a bell for the temple. The railway worker agreed, and now there is an MPS bell on the bell tower of one of the temples in the vicinity of Pitkyaranta.
Now the time has come, and the composition was filed for landing.
Transfer of the wand from the Pitkäranta - Salmi section "for an encore" before departure:


And yes, it is clear that this is all outdated, but still it is beautiful and alive.
On the way back it was very convenient to shoot from the vestibule, the glass was clean.
Semaphore in Pitkäranta from the side of the haul:


Second semaphore in Salmi. The semaphore is open, the station is receiving us.

Stages:

In some places, the sleepers are laid not on rubble, but on sand.


... Like on some narrow-gauge railway in the North.


The Olonets station, which no longer had semaphores, seemed somehow inanimate.
Forest corridor between Olonets and Inema:


Bridge over the Svir. View from the back window of the vestibule.

Here is Lodeynoye Pole. We get out.
Although we did not drive through the Pitkyaranta-Janisjarvi section, which is considered the most interesting (a year ago, there was such an opportunity), the road made almost a greater impression than the Circum-Baikal Railway. Most likely, thanks to the openness of her life and the cozy, not "ostentatious-excursion" atmosphere.
See you soon, dear!

The distance Lodeynoye Pole - Domozhirovo along the highway is 43 km, in a straight line - 38 km. In countries with English system measures length this route is 27 miles on the road and 24 miles on the straight. The trip Lodeynoye Pole - Domozhirovo by car will last approximately 36 minutes.

The route Lodeynoye Pole - Domozhirovo passes along the following route:

The road scheme is highlighted in red on the map and passes near 2 settlements. To plot the route Lodeynoye Pole - Domozhirovo for a car and find out how many kilometers between these settlements, the exact coordinates of cities, roads and other geographical objects were used.

To find out what traffic jams are on the Lodeynoye Pole - Domozhirovo road now, check the "Traffic jams" box and enlarge the map. To find out how to drive from Lodeynoye Pole to Domozhirov by car through intermediate cities and towns, list them when calculating the distance. To get a map-scheme of the road route in a convenient format, click here.

Attention!
Accurate satellite coordinates of roads and settlements were used to build the route and calculate the distance. We do not guarantee 100% accuracy and are not responsible for the constructed route.