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Road of Life


Karintorf railway is one of the last narrow-gauge railways surviving in Russia. It was used for transporting peat from mining sites to the heat electropower station, and the length of the main branch was about 93 km.

Most of the narrow-gauge railways were demolished, and now only one short piece of it remains and it's used for the transport of persons from Kirovo-Chepetsk to Karintorf. For the locals it's the only way connecting "main land" and Karintorf, because the pontoon bridge through river Cheptsa was flooded and destroyed.

Everyday locomotive with 5 carriages transports passengers, and a couple of times a month a special carriage transports food for local shop and cafe. As far as there's no automobile road, police, doctors and firemen use locomotive to get from Kirovo-Chepetsk to Karintorf.

Some people call the railways "road of life". (Kirovo-Chepetsk - Karintorf, Russia, 2013)







© alexander aksakov