MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/. Back in 2010, Forbes published a rating of the world’s most interesting railroads. The top line was given to the little Kudemskaya narrow-gauge railroad near Severodvinsk (the Arkhangelsk Region). The railroad’s passengers were shocked by the news more than anybody else. The timetable was inconvenient, the final stop was an unknown settlement called Beloye Ozero (White Lake), no infrastructures whatsoever. So what is that railroad like? Slightly more than 30 kilometers of rails, turning across the taiga, traffic conflicts and the latest news. The rails run past lakes, cottages, autumn-colored trees or snow-covered branches. This world is fading away, remaining so weirdly beautiful.
One line
A regular bus runs from Severodvinsk to Vodogon Station, from where a diesel locomotive departs five times a week. Passengers come to the station well in advance - some hurry to take a guaranteed seat, others have just finished all businesses in the city. Sometimes, they have to wait for departure spending hours in the cars.
In summer, a crate is attached to the train - an open platform with benches on the sides.
"Previously, the last station was Palozero, then the residents were relocated to here - White Lake. - Larisa Lukina is carrying cat Musya. She has adopted it from a shelter. - But no one has neglected their homes. Nowadays, they go there on handcars".
She and her husband Sergey do not want to live permanently in Severodvinsk, and they come to White Lake, whenever they have a chance. They say, they would love to move there permanently, but there is no work in the village, and the train’s timetable is inconvenient to commute. Eight in the morning - a little late, back at five - on the contrary, too early. Besides, the train does not run every day. There is no any public road there either.
The locomotive stands idly, the driver heats the stove - it's cool outside. A little later, he’ll attach the cars. To kill the time on the way, passengers play cards - they even keep a secret table in one of the cars.
The train is starting. Previously, it made a stop at Kudma (a village), but in the 1990s it was closed. We watch passing colored country houses, the rails almost cross their vegetable gardens. Near the Kudma station, if you walk a few kilometers into the forest, you can see the Ambursky skete. In the mid-19th century, Old Believers lived there, mostly women.
The train moves amid trees, and suddenly a lake appears on the left. The forest on the other side reflects in the water. The locals say, the scene is incredibly beautiful in autumn, and in late spring here, on the Lake Pikhtalskoye, swans take a break.
In an hour and a half, the train arrives in White Lake. Further down, along the narrow-gauge line towards Palozero run handcars. The two villages use about 70 handcars.
Their drivers follow strict rules: in the evening everyone is driving from the city, and in the morning - in the opposite direction. There is only one line, and the width is funny - just 75 centimeters. On social networks the locals use a chat to notify others, when and where they will drive.
Larisa and Sergey
"I used to come to work in the canteen by four in the morning. You stand by the rails and do not know, how to cross them: in that direction locomotives carry empty cars - to bring them to the forest. In the another direction they pull the cars, filled with cut wood, delivering it to the city. Nowadays the road is empty," Larisa said.
She and Sergey want to develop tourism in White Lake. They have a lot of ideas - and no less questions.
"There are people, who want to come here now, but they need to have a place to stay and where to have lunch, for example. My dream is to repair an old railway car and make a cafe in it. It's also great to collect things, photos, stories of people associated with the narrow-gauge railway - to open a museum. We have many lakes, excellent fishing, a beautiful forest. Great for hiking and cycling," Sergey said.
No accommodation is available in the village. The train’s timetable wouldn’t allow returning to the city on the same day. It is easier in summer - a night accommodation could be arranged in a tent by the lake.
"Nobody in the villages lets a room for rent and wouldn’t even agree, when I ask for it on the net," Sergey narrates White Lake’s group on VKontakte. "It is not typical here".
A day-long group trip by a chartered train will cost about 15,000 rubles ($203.7).
The village has a school and a kindergarten, a heating station, a post office, a shop and an initial medical assistance facility.
"In case of an emergency, the ambulance wouldn’t come here, they wait at Vodogon. And a locomotive transports the patient and a nurse. If the condition allows, they may use a handcar".
Cat Musya studies the new home, its round eyes stare at us from another room.
Larisa says, she can cook lunches and pies for tourists. The trick is how to organize it all.
"Sergey and I dream of coming here to stay. It’s unbearable in the city. But how? We have to work on until the retirement".
The road of life
"Until 2005, all wooden buildings in Severodvinsk were built from the local logs. Now there is a reverse trend - old houses are dismantled, and the wood is used in the boiler room in White Lake. Logging has shrunk, and people have left the area. Previously, there were 90 kids in the kindergarten, now - only five. The school used to have 320 students, today they are 16," a representative of the White Lake administration, Viktor Tikhonov, said. He came to the village in 1982, used to work as a teacher.
Between mid-November and March, only 106 people live in White Lake. In summer, the population grows to 500-600.
"For us, [the railroad] is the road of life. To bear, to burry, to get to a shop, to go to a cinema," he said.
The Arkhangelsk Region still has three narrow-gauge railroads. The other two are in Verkhnyaya Toima and in the Plesetsk District.
"There are a lot of ideas, but they are difficult to implement. We have a problem with infrastructures: we have none. There is an idea to build an eight-apartment building, where one entrance would be a hotel. We’ve been thinking how to solve the catering problem. Previously, we invited organized groups to lunches at school - the price was a little over a hundred rubles ($1.3). Nowadays, we can’t take guests to school. In addition, there are two locomotives on the line, and the question arises: whether to transport a tourist group or to serve a regular trip".
The real
"Everything disappeared in an instant, how comes?" - Zoya moved to White Lake in 1955. - "I can remember how I went by that narrow-gauge rail line: the car was packed. I could stand on one foot".
"I was a nurse at the kindergarten, but then I realized my knowledge from the courses was not sufficient for good-quality work", and she left to work at the railway.
"We transported much wood. Also tried to take all the passengers onboard. Two trains worked every day". Zoya showed to us albums with pictures. Here she works in the kindergarten, here is a fishing competition, here is a dancing circle. "We had everything".
Neighbors are peeping in. They remember the Forbes rating and argue, whether White Lake should have a public road and visiting tourists.
"I wish the village lived on. Water, wood, food, pensions, to cleanup, to wash. I run a team of ten people". Tatiana, a social worker, said. "I love my job. It’s just for my character. I have five sons and already two grandchildren".
Tatiana and Zoya are hugging.
Later on, on a bike, Tatiana will catch up with us to pass hot pies from another neighbor.
Traveling from White Lake
No handcars are alike. Each one is different.
A handcar owner, Sergey, has painted it in eye-catching red color. He took us to the nearest crossing with a public road, from where we could take a taxi to Severodvinsk. Here, it is nothing special to ask somebody to give a lift to guests - nobody will refuse.
There is no hiding from the wind. We sit on a box. But all these inconveniences cannot be compared with the beauty around us - the taiga.
Along the rails are paths. Cyclists and motorcyclists. A few times, Sergey stopped to point to extraordinarily beautiful scenes: the lake, which is still cold, the river, which runs between the pine trees.
The Kudemskaya narrow-gauge railway line is almost a toy train, running along a toy line. The only transport, which connects the big and the little worlds.
The fragile true life.