The first railway in Russia appeared in the 19th century

As early as the end of the eighteenth century, the Frolov brothers created a new type of transport for the industrial needs of one of the large enterprises, which consisted of wagons moving on a rail track. Railway transport in its modern sense appeared a little later - in 1825 in England. As for our country, the first railway in Russia was built under the leadership of the Austrian engineer von Gerstner. This idea was supported personally by Nicholas I, who signed on April 15, 1836, the relevant decree. According to this document, the construction of the so-called Tsarskoye Selo railway was started in the country.

Funds for the construction were provided by Count Bobrinsky, von Gerstner himself, as well as other persons who represented Russian, American and German capital. The first railway in Russia was to connect Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo. It should be noted that later the branch was extended by 700 meters to Pavlovsk. Works on the construction of the facility started on May 1, 1836. For the track, a width of 1829 mm was chosen, despite the fact that in European countries the value of this indicator was 1435 mm. To arrange the passage of horse-drawn wagons, a number of crossings were constructed on the line. The first Russian railway was provided with Belgian rails, each unit having a minimum length of 3.7 m and a maximum length of 6.9 m. The movement was opened on October 30, 1837. This date went down in history as the beginning of regular rail transportation in our country.

Rolling stock was acquired in Belgium and England. By the day of its opening, the first railway in Russia could boast of the presence of six steam locomotives with structural changes dictated by a different gauge, 44 passenger cars and 19 freight cars. The first domestic trains were equipped with cars, divided into four classes. The most comfortable of them were carriages, which had covered bodies. On their soft seats could accommodate eight people at the same time. All the rest could carry ten passengers. Irrespective of the class, there was no lighting and heating in the cars.

On March 15, 1838, the train timetable was first put into effect, according to which their departure began at 9:00 and ended at 22:00. At the same time, the interval between them averaged four hours. The first railway in Russia was single-track, so in its central part was equipped with a crossing, which allowed to cross the trains that were sent from the terminal stations at the same time. The average travel time is 42 minutes. In the summer of 1876, the second main route appeared on the site. Thanks to this, traffic safety was significantly improved, and the ride time from start to finish was reduced to 32 minutes. On January 2, 1900, the Tsarskoye Selo line became part of the Moscow-Vindava-Rybinsk railway, and as a result it ceased to be independent. Then the width of its track was changed to a standard one, which was 1524 mm.

The construction of railways in Russia, which began to develop intensively after the appearance of the Tsarskoselsk branch, required qualified specialists. The first domestic educational institution of the corresponding profile was the Corps of Railway Engineers. His graduates took an active part in the construction of the railway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg.