Train to Ulan-Ude (June 17-18, 2019) #5

Posting some photo's with little or no explanations.  Some photo's will be a wee bit blurry because we were after all, going by on a train. These buildings are train stations. Beautiful. We didn't pass one station that didn't look like a period piece and there was construction going on in every one of them.   Steve will comment on most of the country side ones.

This is the engine that is standard on every train and the lower is the standard passenger compartments.  Everything is electric, double-tracked from Vladivostok to Moscow.

Our 48 hr journey, (see map) starts on the right with the 'X' and shall be called Khabarovsk and ends up on the far left and that is Ulan-Ude. A long journey - 48 hours with 2 stops that are maybe 20 minutes.

"Assume the position"... This becomes the typical comfort position after looking out the window for hours, then go to the dining lounge and look out their BIG windows, drink beer, return to assuming the position...repeat as necessary.

Cement railroad ties...miles of them. The ties are attached to rails,
so they just set them in as one piece!

 I had to pull out the handy dandy google translate camera to find out the names of these stations, but all the stations were just so cool. This is Birobidzhan in English..I think

 And this is 'Platforma'..just in case you didn't look down at the English word...

Google Translate says this is 'Radiation'..just beautiful

Archara station

 This was pretty neat but just about missed it..never put the camera lens back on if you don't have to

This is Shimanovskaja.. the sun hit it just right and it was more beautiful than the photo

Break time. Everyone smokes. So as soon as you get off, you have to run the gauntlet through the smokers to get a breath of fresh air. Even if the train only stops for 5 mins, everyone bails out.  And those Provadnistas are watching you...

 Back on the train and off we go. This is Mododha Station

I got him through the window, while looking out at me.  You can see why taking photos out the train window is really hard...very dirty

Break time. Every time we got out, we would head over to the food stands for a top up of water and more noodle packages. Only 1 stop had fresh Russian pirogi etc. and the whole train cleaned the ladies out. 

 Some of their trains were pretty cool. This one, The Golden Fund is sponsored by the Russian Geographic Society. Their history is amazing.

She does not belong to the train but probably to the security detail. I still would not mess with her.

work train...love the pink colour

The only colourful building for miles and miles and miles and miles ...and it was an out house!

A pretty typical village in the Far East.  Turns out the locals see unpainted log buildings as really cool, they don't paint them because they like the look of the wood.  And everyone has a big garden!

Mural porn for Debbi. I will be posting a special post of all the mural photo's at a later date.

Comrade Lenin watching to make sure the trains are still on schedule.

A young sailor headed off to...? 

Once you break over the high ground between Khabarovsk and Ulan Ude the country starts looking like Wyoming.  Rolling terrain, pretty rivers, big sky country. 

This is the northern edge of the Mongol Horde, who are now called Tatars.  They had a horse-based empire for 800 years, gradually shrinking down to this northern enclave, which the Tsar's Cossacks finished off in the 17th-18th century.

Cowboys!  I'm thinking we're finally out of Tiger Country, as these are the first cows we've seen in 2000 km.

And so, we have reached Ulan-Ude. Great to be off the train but find ourselves a big wobbly from the train...kinda like a 'drunk sailor' walk.