October 15, 2024
Touching the Amur-Yakutsk Mainline.
I love railroads. And since there’s a fairly new one that starts/ends at Nizhny Bestyakh – on the opposite bank of the Lena River from Yakutsk – we just had to investigate (after arriving back in Yakutsk on our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk expedition)…
Opened in 2011, it runs a full 808km (!) in length in total – all across permafrost (how’s that even possible?!) ->
…And we even got a ride on it – in this here “general’s” wagon. Huge thanks to the guys who made it happen! ->
And here’s Nizhny Bestyakh Station:
The train timetable of the Amur-Yakutsk Mainline isn’t too busy (or photo friendly – you can’t see the towns listed), but, then – this is hardly busy Moscow ->
Well I never… This here info on the wall states there are plans to extend it to… Magadan! ->
Woah – via Oymyakon too (marked Оймякон)! ->
After a light bite at the station’s café…
…We stepped outside for a look around. First up – ice statues. Alas – already melting somewhat (given it was April 1!) ->
It was Olga’s birthday – hence the flowers and special b-day pic! ->
We head over to the platform. It turned out to be quiet; however on the tracks there was plenty going on: soon the winter road across the Lena will close due to thawing, so lots of stuff needs moving before that asap…
Here’s our ride – a switcher locomotive and sleeper car:
Inside… – I now see why it’s referred to as a General’s car ) ->
Nice. The kind of trains you could spend days and days on comfortably.
Birthday girl again ->
Ooh – more niceness:
And we’re off…
Pine-tree forest lines the track:
Here we needed to about-turn: the locomotive was uncoupled from the carriage and shunted to a carriage on the other side ->
We prepare for the coupling:
Petrovich providing coupling quality-control:
The inevitable, mandatory (Amur-Yakutsk Mainline) track-touch:
Time to head back…
Back at Nizhny Bestyakh:
I ❤️ YR [Yakutian Railway – the rail operator] ->
Spasibo!
The rest of the photos from our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk expedition are here.
