Hi and thanks a lot for your attention!

Unusual operation took place in Moscow on Friday.

Soviet steamer P36 was removed from the deadlock in the area of Bellorusskiy railway station where it stood as a monument for 29 years.



Please don't worry, this is not to scrap the loco!
Now this P36 will be restored to operational condition!

Operation took around 6 hours and was carried out in heavy snowfall.

Two powerful railway cranes (capability 250 tonnes each) where used to raise P36 (weight 121 tonnes) and its tender (weight 55 tonnes) from a plinth and to carefully place them on operational track. For that purpose catenary was temporarily removed. Totally the steamer was in the air for 10 minutes.





Full photo report (comments in Russian): http://ru-railway.livejo...tml?thread=30407273&

Now this P36 is being prepared for towing to Krasnodar region (around 1000 km from Moscow) where special facility for large steam locos restoration is located.

P36 is the last serially built steam locomotive design in Russia.
P36-0120 was manufactured in 1955.
In 1955-1968 it pulled passenger trains in Belarus.
In 1968-1984 stored in Belarus.
In 1984 Moscow railway employees and All-Russian railway supporters society saved it from cutting torch, took to Moscow and set as a monument. In those times setting as monument was the only chance to save old locos from scrapping.

Locomotive has all parts inside in very good condition (was stationed in the restricted area - that prevented vandalism).
The plan is to get this beautiful P36 operational by August 2013. Will be pulling retro-trains in Moscow region.

In Russia there are 4 P36s in operational condition.

How one of the restored P36s looks in full glory:



So this is what I call the good news - the third life of P36-0120 has begun!

Thank you Andrey, great news and great pictures.

Per.

Hi Andrey,

Thanks for posting these videos of restored Russian steam locomotives. In the first video it has a funny sound. It sounds like a cow . Wheels look really different than in other steam locomotives. It is always nice when old locomotives are restored.

We have here in Finland some big restored old steam locomotives like TR1 (heavy freight locomotive) and HR1 (heavy passenger locomotive). You must have seen TR1 in Hyvinkää Finnish Railway Museum when you have visited there.

Cheers,
Janne

Interesting to hear both the powerful "mist horn" (or "cow sound"....) as well as the rather strained whistle/horn sounds...
Love that "cow sound" punch...

Kind of sounds like an US whistle, doesn't it?

Love that "cow sound", impossible to reproduce it with that punch in models with sound decoders and small speakers...

I love those American style drivers. They look really unique in red and go very well with the green locomotive body.

One of my favorite books/films is Dr. Zhivago. I know that the railroad scenes were done in Canada

in the classic 1965 film but this Lok does remind me of the one in the film. I imagine they tried

to make it look as much as possible to a Russian Lok, red star and all. Peter

Great photos, Andrey. Thanks for sharing.