Direct train sleeping car (SVPS) built before the war. Daily life of Russian railways Numbers of sleeping cars of direct service

Era: II-III

Affiliation: SZD

Manufacturer: R. Mishin, M. Maksimov

Production start year: 2008

Model description

The model of the SVPS passenger car was first presented by Roman Mishin (Nakhabino, Moscow region) at the Lokotrans-Yug exhibition in June 2008 (Rostov-on-Don). Case material - teak veneer. Parts of "Egorov" cars produced by the company "Peresvet" were used (bogies, frame, deflectors, transition soufflés, etc.). The model is in progress. It is planned to design the car in the style of the Red Arrow train of the 1930s and operate it with the Egorov cars from Peresvet in the corresponding color.

A similar model, using parts from the Peresvet company and wooden veneer for the manufacture of the body, was made in 2009 by modeler Maxim Maximov.

Other models of SVPS cars with a lantern roof:

- from "B.V.-Zh.D." (small series);

- from "Peresvet" (small series).

Prototype description

Cars of this type were built before the revolution by order of the International Sleeping Car Society, which operated similar cars throughout Europe. In such a carriage it was possible to travel without a change through the whole of Europe, including Turkey and Russia. It was from these cars that the Trans-Siberian Express was equipped.

After the revolution, the nationalized cars were transferred to a specially created railway station in the USSR. Department of the SVPS Office. It also included a small number of similar cars built in Soviet era. SVPS cars were the most comfortable passenger cars on Soviet roads in those years (not counting a few special types of cars). As a rule, as part of fast trains connecting major cities countries (for example, "Red Arrow" - Moscow-Leningrad), included one such carriage. It was used mainly by the Soviet elite. SVPS cars remained in operation until the end of the 50s.

Initially, these carriages were varnished over the wooden lining; in recent years they were simply painted brown.

The station was shining in the blue darkness of the frosty night... From under the finished train, illuminated from above by matte electric balls, hot hissing gray steam, smelling of rubber, poured out. The international carriage stood out with its yellowish wood paneling. Inside it, in a narrow corridor under a red carpet, in the motley shine of walls upholstered in embossed leather and thick, grainy door glass, there was already a foreign country. A Pole conductor in a uniform brown jacket opened the door into a small compartment, very hot, with a tight, ready-made bed, softly lit by a table lamp under a silk red lampshade” (I. Bunin “Henry”).

Unprecedented measures to improve comfort are associated with the development in Russia of international passenger traffic and the appearance here of express trains of the International Sleeping Car Society - SVPS and service saloon cars of long body length (22–25 meters) on four or six axles. State Duma member V.V. Shulgin, who left Russia after the revolution, wrote in his “Letters to the Russian Emigration”: “Russia was far ahead of Western Europe in terms of train comfort.”

The embodiment of railway comfort in the eyes of the entire Russian society was the Siberian Express Petersburg - Irkutsk (later, under Soviet rule, until the annexation Western Belarus- train Negoreloye - Vladivostok). It was truly a miracle of its time. The express carriages had proud inscriptions: “Direct Siberian communication”, “Siberian train No. 1” (there were several sets of such trains, and each was numbered differently). This train had only class I and II cars with water heating, with electric lighting from the train's own power plant, and since 1912, each car had individual power supply driven by a generator from the car axle. Since 1896, for the first time in Russia, dining cars appeared on trains of this class - the invention of the American George Pullman, the creator of long-distance comfortable passenger service.

The Siberian Express also had a library, a piano, a living room with luxurious candelabra, curtains, tablecloths, a barometer and clock, billiards; You could order a hot bath for an additional fee and even... work out in the gym (yes, yes, there was one here!). In the carriages (also for the first time in Russia), tea was served in the compartment and bed linen was changed every three days. There were table lamps on the tables in the compartment, but the shelves themselves were already illuminated by small “spotlights” (Vladimir Nabokov calls them “tulip-shaped”). The roof of the Siberian Express carriage was covered with copper sheets, and there were lighting lanterns on top. The lower part of the international carriages, which belonged to the so-called Polonceau type, was metal, bulletproof, up to 10 millimeters thick (hence the nickname “armored carriage”), the windows were large and wide. The tones of the interior decoration are noble - dark green and blue. Cars from behind large quantity The metal in their design was not only much stronger than other cars, especially with wooden frames, but also much heavier and longer, with a large load on the track, so they could not be used on all roads. Basically, such cars were used on border and resort lines along which express trains of the International Society of Sleeping Cars ran - Vladikavkaz, China-East, St. Petersburg-Warsaw. It must be said that the Siberian Express took on almost the entire diplomatic flow of passengers, currency and mail in the Europe - Far East. It was an international train, famous throughout the world.

This is where today's SV - "sleeping car" - came from. It would seem that almost every Russian passenger car can be called a sleeper car. However, in the period from 1896 to the 1950s, such cars were not called SV, but rather SVPS - “direct sleeper car”. This is a significant difference. The term “direct communication” meant long-distance communication along one specific route without transfers along the way, which was a kind of luxury. After all, there was almost no direct communication at a distance of over 2 thousand miles: even when traveling from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok by trains of the International Society, it was necessary to change in Irkutsk to the same “Siberian train”. There were almost no long-distance direct train routes - the trains had only direct carriages. That is, if today they indicate, for example: “Fast train number 2 Moscow - Volgograd,” then before it sounded different: “Direct non-stop communication Moscow - Tsaritsyn on courier train number 2.” There were no stencils on the cars indicating the train route.

“Direct message” - these bewitching words meant a long railway route, which means, one way or another, a whole event in the fate of the passenger. “Sleeping Car” - chic, luxury, dream, chosen world. The kingdom of expensive cigars, refined manners, short but hot novels, delicacy, inaccessibility...

It must be said that before the revolution on railways In Russia, a very high, almost modern level of branded passenger service has been achieved. Of course, only rich private roads that had a large passenger flow (that is, demand for transportation) were capable of its development. One of the best is Vladikavkaz. We drove along it, as they said then, “to the mines” - that is, to mineral waters and in general to the Caucasus. The “Illustrated Practical Guide” to this road in 1915 (author - a certain Grigory Moskvich) with an image on the title page of the Pacific courier locomotive - the pride of those years - read:

"Between many major centers And in the regions of Russia and the Caucasus, in the summer, for the convenience of the traveling and medical public, direct trains are usually equipped with the best railway facilities. In addition to the absence of transfers that have long bothered sick and nervous people, these trains have a number of significant amenities: there is usually a dining car, electric or gas lighting has been introduced on most lines; Each carriage has special servants to serve passengers - the so-called conductors (a profession that had just appeared at that time - A V.); These trains, being fast in their movement, do not stop for a long time at intermediate stations; all seats in the cars are numbered, and there are almost no cases of strangers, so to speak “extra” people, getting into these trains... In class I and I cars, a set of bed linen is provided (1 rub.), and in class III on some lines (from Petrograd, etc.) for a small fee (40 kopecks) a mattress with sheets is provided for the night, the cleanliness of which is guaranteed by a seal on the bag containing them, which is opened in front of the passenger. During breakfast and lunch hours, waiters and boys from the dining car walk around the III class carriages, serving tea, coffee, breakfast and lunch to those who wish at a fairly inexpensive price.”

And such trips took place in the midst of the First World War! What enormous power the country must have had in order to allow itself to develop comfortable railway and tourist communications in such difficult times! True, from the end of November 1914, a war tax was introduced on fares in classes I, II and III - 25% of the ticket price (reserved seats were not taxed), but this is the only mention of the war in Mr. Moskvich’s entire guide.

Valentin Kataev wrote in his memoir “My Diamond Crown”:

“We will travel in this carriage,” I said and pointed with my finger at a carriage of the International Sleeping Car Society, preserved from pre-revolutionary times, with copper British lions on brown wooden paneling, waxed like parquet. The bird catcher, of course, knew about the existence of such cars - “slipping cars”, read about them in books, but he never imagined that he would ever be able to ride in such a car. He looked through the window of the carriage, saw a two-seater compartment trimmed with red polished wood on copper screws, walls covered with green velvet, a copper lampshade for a table electric light bulb, a heavy ashtray, a thick crystal decanter, a mirror, and still looked at me with disbelief. I showed him the colored bilingual International Sleeping Car Society reserved seat receipts, after which, after sadly kissing my wife and asking her to keep an eye on the birds and my son, I clumsily squeezed past the conductor in a brown uniform jacket into the carriage, where he was immediately overwhelmed by the pine smell special forest water, which was regularly sprayed onto the shining corridor of the sleeping car with a row of brightly polished copper locks and handles on the varnished, mahogany doors of the compartment. Feeling extremely embarrassed in the midst of this comfort in his home-made sweatshirt, fearing in the depths of his soul that all this might turn out to be a hoax and that we would be thrown off the train in disgrace at the nearest station, somewhere on Razdelnaya or Birzula, the bird catcher climbed onto the top bunk with the already open bed, white with immaculate slippery cool sheets, he huddled there and snorted for the first hundred kilometers, like a badger in its hole, elastically tossed by international springs.”

SVPS was the highest, but, as it turned out, not the last stage of railway comfort. At the beginning of the 21st century, Grand Express trains introduced cars with even greater comfort, as they now say - increased, with international hotel class equipment: with a large double bed, an armchair, a refrigerator, a TV and a telephone in the compartment and with a private bathroom room. With a ticket for such a carriage, a passenger can take with him a companion (or companion) for free at his discretion.

I look at the photo of the SVPS (previously, it was covered on the outside with a slat made of valuable types of wood; this slat, in fact, received the nickname “lining”; the car was varnished, the color was soft brown, according to V. Nabokov - “brown”) and I think: what does it remind me of something so ancient? Why, it is very similar to the very first first class carriages of the Aleksandrovsky plant in the 1840s, with which it all began on cast iron! The same impressiveness, great length, the same high and frequent windows, the same monumental design. Except that vestibules appeared instead of open areas (entrance), and, of course, carts of a much more advanced design.

What, it would seem, can be found special in carriage trolleys? But there are no trifles on the railway - everything is significant in its history. In creating comfort for passengers, the carriage bogies play a very important role, on which the smoothness of the ride depends. For example, one of the stages in the development of carriage bogies is associated with an entire period in the history of our state, and its most important pages. We are talking about a three-axle bogie that was equipped with “armored” cars.

Saloon cars "about six axles of the Vladikavkaz type" 25 meters long, transporting the tsar, members of the government, the generalissimo, marshals, ministers, major diplomats, senior railway officials, had a partially armored hull (weighed 20 tons more than the modern TsMV), due to What was missing from the usual four axles in the bogies was that six axles had to be used in order to place the heavy mass of the car on them. Instead of one of the vestibules, there was an observation lounge-living room in the front part of the car, furnished with luxurious furniture. Carpets, a bathroom, a kitchen, a dining room, two compartments for attendants and servants - and this very hall with luxurious clocks, chairs and tables, where meetings were held, inspections of lines or military positions, where the fate of the country was decided, the turns of its history were twisted to the sound of wheels. ... In case of danger, the windows could be closed tightly, and with bulletproof curtains. “The carriage with curtains passed,” says one poem, this meant: some important state events were to take place... The doors in the salon carriage were also bulletproof, very heavy. There were secret holes on the floor for leaving the carriage in case of danger. The salon car had all types of communication possible for its time, its own generator and electric lighting. It was a real symbol of sovereign power, worthy of a huge and powerful country.

In the 1950s, saloon cars of this type were given to major transport managers - road heads and NODs (chiefs of railway departments). They served until the 1980s and today adorn railway museums.

So, along with the evolution of the carriage, the evolution of carriage bogies also took place. In general, the development of the bogie followed the principle of increasing the smoothness of the ride in cars of all classes. Each new type of trolley became a new stage on the path of improvement passenger transportation. From shaking single-spring charabancs to the powerful three-axle bogies of the “Vladikavkaz” with triple suspension, which ensured an almost imperceptible ride. The first cart (1846) was a two-axle cart designed by the American engineer Winens, who was at the forefront of laying all the foundations of the Russian railway transport- from an ashtray in a carriage to locomotive building. It is extremely important that at the beginning of the construction of Russian railways, on the initiative of P. P. Melnikov, the orientation was taken precisely on American, and not on European, canons. The American scope turned out to be much closer to Russia's needs.

The first carriage with Winens bogies, as already mentioned, ironically turned out to be a much more promising passenger car design for Russia than subsequent European “carriages”. The bogie of this carriage was designed, although it was extremely simple, but it contained all the classical fundamentals of the design of a two-axle carriage bogie even then. Then an improved design of this bogie of the Rekhnevsky system appeared (1865), and these bogies were installed on many cars of the St. Petersburg-Moscow railway - but they did not become widespread, since under the influence of Western European “friends” a mass transition to short two- and three-axle cars began.

The next stage is the double and triple suspension trolleys of the American Pullman system and a similar trolley from the Russian-Baltic plant in Riga (1880s), which was not inferior to the Pullman in perfection. They had different devices and configurations of balancers, springs and leaf springs. The International Sleeping Car Society used only trolleys with triple spring suspension, which had the softest ride, on their cars. In general, the best type of Russian trolley was the classic Fette type trolley, which appeared in 1912, and served on passenger cars until the 1950s. It was replaced already in the 1930s by a trolley with so-called jawless axle boxes (what they are takes a long time to explain), which became the basis for the design of carriage trolleys used to this day. It must be said that in 1939 the first CMV was designed on such a bogie, but the war prevented the widespread introduction of this car into life - the mass introduction of CMV began only in the late 1940s.

Yesterday a heated battle broke out on my Facebook around this Cartier-Bresson photograph.
And in the end, under the pressure of serious arguments, I had to give up. And then the over-politicized public sometimes complains that it’s impossible to convince me. Why - it’s quite possible if you really understand the issue and have strong arguments in stock. But let's see what the argument was about.
So, K-Bresson was in the USSR in 1954 and 1972 and took this picture on one of the two trips.

Which one? The attribution on his website says that in 1954.
But! There already Immediately the localization is incorrect- Trans-Siberian Railway: the Moscow - Minvody train does not appear even close on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Therefore, it is necessary to double-check. Westerners make a ton of mistakes in attributing Soviet photographs - sometimes even funny ones. They are even in the LIFE collection, not to mention smaller collections.

So what? We need to look at the details.

My first guess was this: in 1954, this particular type of CMV (German Ammendorf) did not yet exist; it appeared in large numbers in the second half of the 60s. Before this there were similar ones, first generation, but another distinctive detail was the ventilation grille above the door. But she is not in the photo.

What guided me?
a) Album of carriages from 1993: the first series of Ammendorffs are listed there as 1963/64. Moreover, the early series, until 1967, came with a ventilation grille above the vestibule door, and they were easy to recognize, then it disappeared,
b) a booklet from the plant itself from 1972. There is no such type there either,
c) the fact that the windows in the photo did not yet have branded GDR fittings and were not all-sliding,
d) a quick check of the books by Mokrshitsky “History of the USSR Carriage Fleet” (1946) and Shadur “Development of the Domestic Carriage Fleet” (1988) showed the absence of this type until 1963.

For this case, I have a special directory on my computer, like this, everything is grouped there:

So, I'm kind of confident and defend 1972 as the correct year.
(and by the way, I wasn’t the only one who attributed the photo to his second trip)

But here, upon careful examination, it turns out that the 1993 album of carriages does not include equipment before 1960 in the list at all, and other verification books describe either the entire pre-war and pre-revolutionary (1946 edition), or only domestic (1988 edition). ) park. Foreign cars supplied to the USSR between 1947 and 1959 are missing from the array. This is the gap.

So, now look carefully at the picture. The important details here are:
1 - trolley type
2 - standard number holder
3 - separate glazing
4 - marking "SVPS"
Which argument turned out to be ironclad, out of the 4 mentioned?

It turned out that the Germans (Görlitz, Ammendorf) began supplying cars to the Union back in 1948/49.
The early series have hardly survived, I didn’t remember them visually either, although I rode a lot on old carriages with linkrust in the 1970s, during my school years. In the early 1980s, they began to be written off en masse. But those old ones were either Kalinin or Leningrad. For the life of me, I don’t remember the German ones before the “white plastic Ammendorfs”!

Okay, okay, there were Ammendorff cars before 1963. Where are the bars over the doors?
- It was introduced only in 1959. It didn’t exist before that either.
- Okay, what about all-sliding windows?
- Introduced into the design in 1956-57.
Let's check - for sure, on Gettyimages there is a photograph dating back to January 1959. Although all the old Ammendorffs that can be found on the Internet only have separate glazing.

By the way: under the car there are not just TsMV type bogies (installed before 1960), but with plain bearings, which allows us to date the car to approximately 1952–1954. And no later.
- So what? It doesn't really matter. Okay, first generation German carriage. OK. But. In 1972, the cars of the old series could run perfectly on the railway network; they were repaired and maintained. Here, for example, is a 1976 photo from “Steam Locomotive IS” (a fragment of a photo with old cars in the depot):

Is “SVPS” on the label? They are impossible in 1972.

Knockout! There is nothing to answer to this.
Indeed, the “Direct Service Sleeping Car” (DSVS) in 1972 on an existing carriage is impossible.

* * *
Cars with this marking appeared before the war, as the heirs of the International Society of Sleeping Cars. Then they began to put markings on the TsMV - on those cars of the highest categories that were included in courier and some fast trains, and were centrally assigned not to specific railways, but to the management of the SVPS in Moscow. And the rigid cars were marked with railroad markings (Lat, Omsk, SE, DVost, etc.)

After Stalin's death in 1953-61. In two waves, smaller railway administrative units (there were 56-57) merged into larger ones (there were 25 on the territory of the USSR). And the separate marking of “centralized subordination” was abolished - the cars were assigned to specific railways. So by 1972 there were no traces of the old markings left. Therefore, the photo is from 1954.

Below we will look at the labeling options.

4. Here is an ordinary simple carriage, interregional transport (1950s). Road marking - Lat (Latvian).

(photo fragment from "Steam Locomotive IS")

5. And this is 1960, Gorkovskaya railway. Look, the markings can also be distinguished - Svrd (Sverdlovskaya).
By the way, these notorious ventilation grilles above the doors are visible here.

6. 1980, filmed by a Japanese on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Marking of "Russia" cars - Moscow time. All categories.

7. 1961 Kyiv. Branded No. 1/2, the train still includes SVPS cars, even without numbers.

8. 1990. There is a general simplification here, the raised numbers have disappeared, and 8-digit numbering has been introduced with a verification digit for centralized processing.

This was an instructive debate in which the truth was born! :)

PS. Yes, they also gave me clothes as an argument against 1972.
But here it must be said that at a remote station along the way, the clothes could have been very archaic. You still need to look at the details.

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differs from an ordinary soft carriage in the design of the compartments, their equipment, finishing and design of the chassis and body. B. SVPS has special triple suspension bogies with the greatest spring flexibility. Harness V. SVPS through with a screw tie, buffers of a special design, metal underbody frame, wooden body. Every two compartments (out of 8 doubles) are equipped with a washbasin; casement doors, double compartment windows with frames of two parts, the lower half of which is lifting; The corridor windows are blind. The walls of the compartment and corridor B. SVPS are upholstered with special relief lincrusta with trim made of varnished yew and mahogany. The floors are covered with a thick layer of felt and linoleum. V. SVPS built by the USSR factories are basically similar to used cars. International Island of sleeping cars, the roofs of which were covered with a special kind of tarpaulin impregnated with asphalt varnish, and the outer walls of the body were sheathed under the windows with yew boards, and above the windows with smooth yew panels.

Meanings in other dictionaries

Car of the Sanitary Recovery Train

a class carriage equipped with stretcher-beds on Krieger machines (6-10 pieces) and supplied with a supply of medicines, dressings and sanitary household equipment to provide assistance to victims of crashes. ...

Sanitary Precinct Car

has a compartment for patients (with stretchers on Krieger machines), a compartment for medical staff, and a compartment for the conductor. V. s. u. equipped with a first aid kit and used to transport seriously ill workers and employees and members of their families to inpatient hospitals. V. s. u. They also transport infectious patients. After each transportation of an infectious patient, the carriage is disinfected. ...

Articulated car

a car in which the front, rear or both bogies are common with one or both adjacent cars. V. s. used in high-speed trains and serve as one of the means of reducing tare weight. ...