Oranienbaum Electric Line

The idea of ​​laying a tram line was put forward in 1898 , in December 1906 the construction was entrusted to the Society of Northern Electric Railways. In 1909 , the project was transferred to the “Society of the Oranienbaum Electric Railway” (the Charter was highly approved on June 19, 1909 ^[6] ), a significant share of the shares of which belonged to Belgian shareholders. ^[7] In 1912 , the first section of the railway track was laid on the Avtovo - Strelna section. In 1913 , construction of the line began on the project of engineer S. A. Bernatovich , who won the competition. A central power station was built on the banks of the Yekateringofka River on the banks of St. Petersburg, and three traction substations were built in the village of Knyazhev (a brick-style building was preserved on Stachek Avenue near Tram Avenue ), Strelna and Martyshkin (also preserved as part of a former mechanical plant near the overpass). In Knyazhev , near Avtov , a car fleet with workshops appeared (later a tram park named after Kotlyakov, 114 Stachek Ave. ).

Participants in the construction and authors of technical improvements were well-known domestic engineers: professor of the Polytechnic Institute A.V. Wulf , future academician G.O. Graftio , professor of the Institute of Railway Engineering G.K. Merching , future professor of LETI A. A. Smurov . By the military autumn of 1914, for 38 kilometers (to Martyshkin ) a double track was laid, artificial structures were erected and a contact network was suspended from the Narva Gate to Strelna . With the outbreak of World War I, I had to abandon trains ordered abroad and use tram cars evacuated from Riga .

The first section of the road from the Knyazhevo depot to the Putilovsky plant was not opened for passenger transportation until December 1915 , and in January 1916 the trams went along the Peterhof highway to the Narva Gate . The central power station was never commissioned. The operating segment was powered from the city network, which made it technically impossible to move the tram further than Strelna. By the summer of revolutionary 1917, a section was operating from Narva Gate to Prival (fork in the Narva and Peterhof roads ), later to Strelna (length - about 25 km).

Oranienbaum Power Plant had two units of 3 thousand kW each. In 1919, under the German offensive, they were evacuated and taken to the mines of the Kizelovsky coal trust ^[8] , where in the spring of 1918 a draft of the Kizelovskaya state district power station with a capacity of 15 thousand kW ^[9] was drawn up. In the absence of electric traction, tram trains following the Oranela rails were hooked to a steam locomotive. In the 1920s, rails and sleepers from Strelna to Oranienbaum were dismantled and used in Azerbaijan ^[2] .

In 1924, traffic from Avtov to Strelna resumed, and in 1929 the routes were connected to the city tram network. During World War II , the roads from Strelna to the city were also destroyed.

In 1953, the tram line to Strelna was restored. In 1959-1963, the line was moved from Stachek Avenue. Since then, tram route No. 36 has been passing along it (and also partially other routes). There were plans to extend the line to Petrodvorets , Lomonosov and even (through the dam) to Kronstadt , for which projects were developed special speed tram .

Up to now, along the 1.5 km section between the University and Martyshkino railway platforms, five unselected different-sized reinforced concrete bridges have survived, one of which is still used for road transport (Svyazi Street) ^[10] . The largest of them rest against earthen hills of artificial origin, which appeared here even earlier in the early 1860s during the manual digging of a channel for the construction of the St. Petersburg - Oranienbaum railway.

April 6, 2019 in the building of the Knyazhevskaya substation , where the sports and leisure center operates, a small free Museum of Oranela was opened .

• In the book “The Republic of SKID” , which is largely documentary, according to Oranel, the Shkidovites go to the country house in Strelna in the summer. An important detail in the story: “At the Narva Gate, a motor car with an arc was changed to a small suburban car with a roller. There wasn’t enough space in this trailer for everyone, and some of the guys climbed onto the platforms. ” We are talking about the early 1920s , when the Oranienbaum line was still separate from the city tram network and it used a different type of motor car. Apparently, the Shkidov’s dacha itself was located in the Lviv Palace , since the tram stopped on the “ring” according to the text, the dacha was next to it, and before the Great Patriotic War the Strelna line tram ring was located behind the Strelka River, right in front of the Lviv Palace.

• A. Block in the spring and summer of 1919-1920 often, sometimes daily went by Oranel to Strelna. The last trip he, being seriously ill, made just two months before his death.

The final stop “ Narva Gate ” is the Peterhof road (first the right shoulder, then the left) - Strelna - St. Petersburg highway (in the middle) - St. Petersburg prospect (middle) - Peterhof street (right shoulder) - to Svyazi street along the railway with on the right side - moving along the reinforced concrete bridge on Svyazy Street on the left side - to Zavodskaya street along the railway on the left side - Zavodskaya street - Alexandrovskaya street (in the middle) - Ilikovsky prospect (in the middle) - downhill along Manezhnaya street (in the middle) ine) to Palace Avenue - Petersburgskaya street (in the middle) - the final stop " Privokzalnaya street " at the railway station (in place of the modern bus station).

A similar line of Oranienbaum was built in the same years from Udelnaya to 1st Pargolov with a power substation near Poklonnaya Gora . The line acted as a tram line, and during the blockade years it was used (steam-powered) in conjunction with narrow gauge railways to deliver peat to the city’s power plants. In 1982, it was extended to the ring on Zhenya Egorova Street , the existing ring in 1st Pargolov was dismantled. To date, a significant part of the line (along the Vyborg highway ) exists in the "railway" version - on a separate embankment.

• Goltsov N.N. History of Oranela - Strelna Tram Line. In documents and memoirs. - SPb. : Madam, 2006 .-- 254 p.

• GUP Elektrotrans - Oranela - the first Russian train
• Neva Magazine 2005, No. 8, Seventh Notebook, Vladimir Parakhuda, Mysterious ORAN
• St. Petersburg University Magazine ISSN 1681-1941 / No. 28-29 (3653-54), December 12, 2003 - Recreate Oranela!
• October Magazine Magazine / No. 78 (13505), April 26, 2003 - How the Oranienbaum Electric Railroad became a Tramway
• Petersburg Highways Magazine / No. 17 (6019), May 18, 2005 - Start of construction of ORANELs
• Science and Life Magazine - From St. Petersburg to Peterhof by Sea and Land
• A. I. Karhu "Origins" - From "Konka" to the train
• Oranienbaum Electric Railway