My article in the April issue of Railfan & Railroad

If you haven’t heard already, I have a pretty big article in April’s Railfan & Railroad Magazine, featuring my explorations of the railway in Chornobyl’s Exclusion Zone. On April 26th, the 29th anniversary of the Chornobyl Disaster, I’ll be showing my photos from that adventure at Whippany, along with some copies of the magazine. So be sure to check out the April edition of Railfan & Railroad (which if you’re a subscriber, started mailing last week), and come out and visit Whippany for their 50th anniversary, and my showing of photos on Sunday, April 26th!

       
Photos from Saturday’s Easter Bunny Trains at Whippany

Built by the Soviet military in 1927, the line connected the city of Ovruch in the west, to Chernihiv in the east, crossing the Pripyat, Dneiper, and Desna Rivers, and traversing a small portion of Belarus. The territory between the two cities was not especially valuable, nor heavily populated – yet railroad access could be useful from a military perspective, as railroads were considered the cheapest way to transport both soldiers and equipment.

Were it not for a chance event, the Ovruch to Chernihiv line could be operating in obscurity to this day. The chance event I’m mentioning, of course, is the Chernobyl disaster. This little rail line played a part in where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic’s very first nuclear power pant would be built. Around sixteen sites were investigated as potential candidates, and one about 100 kilometers north of Kyiv fit the bill perfectly – it had a rail line with reliable train service, it had the nearby Pripyat River as a natural water source, and it had a lot of infertile land that could be taken over and turned into a cooling pond for the reactor.

If you’d like to read the entire story, which I’ve titled “Radioactive Railroad” – head over to the special site that I built, which can be found here:

RadioactiveRailroad.com

Here’s just a preview of some of the things you’ll find there – an abandoned city, a graveyard of trains too contaminated to use, a city rebuilt for the refugees of the disaster, and a little piece of the abandoned rail line that still operates…

Read the full story: RadioactiveRailroad.com

The Chernihiv – Ovruch line was a relatively unimportant one, primarily constructed for military purposes, but in the most coincidental sense had drastic effects on the Soviet Union and the world. The rail line played a part in the decision of where to locate Ukraine’s very first nuclear power plant, a place the world knows as Chernobyl (Chornobyl would be the proper Ukrainian transliteration). Since the nuclear reactor explosion in 1986, a portion of that rail line was abandoned – a story I’m hoping to flesh out over several posts in the coming weeks.

Train from Slavutych arrives at Chernihiv. Slavutych is the “replacement” city for those that worked at the Chernobyl plant, constructed after the disaster. The rail line again played a part in the location of this place.

The station that one finds in Chernihiv now was built in 1950. The previous station at that location was destroyed during World War II, or as it is known in former Soviet locales, the Great Patriotic War. Chernihiv was occupied by Nazi forces from 1941 to 1943, and the retreating Soviet army practiced a scorched Earth policy, which included the destruction of railroad infrastructure. The station was destroyed at some point in 1941, either by Nazi bombardment, or by the retreating Soviets themselves to prevent the Nazis from getting any use out of it. The station was rebuilt in 1950, using the labor of German POWs. The attractive design comes from Ukrainian Soviet architect Gennady Ivanovich Granatkin, who is responsible for the designs of several stations throughout the Soviet Union, in today’s Belarus, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine.

Old paint scheme of the station, it was repainted to a solid reddish orange around 2003. Photos circa 1970s.

Over the years, several modifications have been made to the station at Chernihiv, primarily being the scheme in which it is painted. Originally red and green, the station is now a solid reddish orange after renovations in 1999 and 2003. While sculptural elements featuring the Soviet hammer and sickle have been left intact, more current coats of arms have been added to the front and back. The city’s 1992-established coat of arms – a black eagle with a crown and cross – can be found on both sides, and the coat of arms of Ukraine is visible on the back side of the building. The station is generally regarded as one of the more beautiful stations in all of Ukraine, and is certainly one of my favorites.

Map diagram of the station in Chernihiv, showing the building’s old red and green paint scheme. The line listed above the station is the remnants of the Chernihiv – Ovruch line – trains from Chernihiv go no further west than Iolcha since the Chernobyl disaster. The 20 kilometer branch line extending from Zhukotky (on the top left of the diagram) to Zhidinichi was closed in 2006 and dismantled around 2008. View translation of Cyrillic station names.

Today one can board long-distance trains at Chernihiv for destinations like Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Minsk, and Odessa. Despite being roughly forty miles south of the border, the station serves as a border control point for trains arriving from neighboring Belarus. Two commuter operations, one to the city of Nizhin, and another to Iolcha on the former line to Ovruch, also operate from Chernihiv. Though a portion of the aforementioned line was abandoned after the Chernobyl disaster, it is still possible to take a train to the Chernobyl plant, although not directly from Chernihiv. Several daily trains operate from Slavutych to Semikhody, which is adjacent to the Chernobyl plant – though that is a story for another day.