Railroads in Czarist Russia

[Caleb]

What was the extent of the railway system in Russia? I know there was the Trans-Siberian Railway & a railway to the Crimea, but what was the other major extent of the railroads? I myself, live in the Midwest, in Wheaton, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, along an artery of the former Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, now owned by Union Pacific, which runs to California. Commuter trains also run from Chicago to Elburn (just today service began from Chicago to Elburn, formerly the terminus was Geneva for the Union Pacific West line route done by Metra.) Were there also any major train accidents, besides the incident at Borki with the imperial train in 1888?

[Georgiy]

According to Stephen Graham, an Englishman who spent a lot of time tramping around Russia in the last few years before the revolution, the rail system was fairly extensive and quite efficient, but best of all a very inexpensive method of getting around. He said that the development of the rail system in Russia has made it a boon for the Empire as people are able to move about very easily. He suggested the the British Empire being a maritime one should develop a shipping system like the Russian rail system that is very cheap and affordable so that the peoples of the British Empire were able to visit (and colonise) the various colonies and outposts with ease and without huge expense. His books make for interesting reading about life in late Tsarist Russia, especially about life in some of the more far-flung parts of Russia. Drawback - apart from him being enamoured of all things Russian (slightly rose-cloloured glasses now and then) some of the books are exorbitantly expensive and hard to come across.

[Caleb]

That's quite surprising about how efficient the rail system was. Besides the guage difference, did the railway system connect to other European countries like Germany, Austria-Hungary & other areas like Poland & Finland?

[Mike]

The Russian rail network (1524 mm gauge) extended into Poland and Finland. It had several junction stations with German, Austro-Hungarian, Romanian and Swedish networks, all of which were 1435 mm gauge. There was no through traffic: passengers changed trains at junction stations, and goods were reloaded.