Nikolaev-Gruzovoy

The defeat of the Russian Empire in the Crimean War of 1853-1856 showed the country's economic backwardness. In the early 1860s, government circles, among the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie and landlords, discussed issues about the places for the immediate creation of a railway network in the country.

Changes in the trade and economic policy of the Russian Empire, reorientation in the field of political and trade partnerships from Germany to France led to an increase in the importance of the Black Sea ports. This significantly affected the economic development of the South of Russia, which resulted in a developed railway network.

The prospect of building head lines did not at all concern the interests of the Kherson province. The initiator of the construction of the railway south of the Odessa-Balta-Kharkov line was the landowners and merchants of the province, who introduced the railway project into the Nikolaev City Duma. This project received the support of the Governor of Nikolaev B.N. von-Glazenap.

In 1868, it was decided to send a delegation to St. Petersburg, which included merchants Bukhteev and Klatovsky. Glazenap also went with them, introducing them to the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich , who promised to take a direct part in the problems of the Nicholas representatives.

Railway construction was carried out by attracting private capital. Entrepreneurs entered into an agreement with the government for the construction and use of parts of the railway for a certain period of time. The Society of Russian Railways was ready to invest in the construction of a railway branch in Nikolaev.

The first project of railway buildings was developed by engineer Korsakov. He recommended that the station be built at the port, and the passenger station - in the commercial part of the city.

On January 25, 1872, the construction manager of the Znamensky-Nikolaev section of the Kharkov-Nikolaev railway, engineer Baron Meidel, submitted a memorandum to the Office of the Governor General regarding the construction site of the station. It was planned to draw a railway line along Zavodskaya Street, at the end of which turn right and build a station on Sands.

The Railways Society requested Governor-General N. A. Arkas , asking for permission to build railway lines, the direction of which both projects remained unchanged. Permission was obtained, and on February 28, 1872, contractors informed the Office of the Governor General of the commencement of work.

Road construction was supervised by an engineer from Westphalia. The projects were finally approved at the meetings of the City Duma and the city authorities tried to make the most of the situation to obtain additional funds from the concessionaires for the construction of access roads, paving the streets.

By the end of the 19th century , most of the streets were paved; 1226 lanterns are placed in the center. In 1897, a Belgian company built a showcase that connected Sloboda with the Naval plant (now the Black Sea Shipbuilding Plant), a port and a yacht club.

On August 20, 1873, the Znamenka-Nikolaev line was open for railway traffic. A moleben was served at the station. The first train departed from the station with flags, garlands of greenery and flowers.

In addition to passenger traffic, the main purpose of the railway connection was to transport bread, coal and ores from the places of their production to the Nikolaev commercial port. However, there were many problems that urgently needed to be solved in order to make the operation of this railway line economically efficient. According to Gregory Ge, these “problems” were the lack of any devices for storing bread cargo, loading and unloading, and horse-drawn access roads. The freight station was 2 miles from the commercial port, and the roads were not paved.

Thanks to the construction of railway lines and favorable tariffs, the number of grain producing provinces increased, grain was exported through the Black Sea ports. Parts of the Kiev, Volyn and Kursk provinces joined the Poltava and Kharkov provinces. The dynamics of grain exports was expressed in the following figures: 15.8 million pounds in 1886, 38.5 million in 1890, 76.1 million in 1895 ^[2] .

Since January 1, 1907, the Kharkov-Nikolaev Railway, merging with the Kursk-Kharkov-Sevastopol Railway , became known as the Southern Railways .

In 1881, the Kharkov-Nikolaev railway passed into the treasury. The state immediately took measures to streamline the movement of goods on the road.

In 1894 in Nikolaev two passenger trains arrived and went - in the morning and in the evening.

At the station itself Nikolaev was a depot, the building of the station and station employees, cargo closed and open platforms, warehouses for storing goods.

On the territory of the port there were warehouses and barracks of repair facilities, a port station of the Kharkov-Nikolaev railway, coal depots, the composition of the salt unloading with a grinder.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the problem of expanding the railway arose. The existence of one highway was insufficient to ensure the growing freight traffic in Nikolaev. In 1907, the construction of the Nikolaev – Guryevka – Kolosovka – Odessa and Nikolaev – Vodopoy – Snigirevka – Apostolovo – Kherson line was completed.

The rapid development of the railway network raised the issue of training qualified personnel. Engineers were trained by technological and engineering institutes and universities. Training facilities for the training of lower-level railway service technicians began to be organized in 1869.

The general management of all schools was assigned to the training department of the Ministry of Railways. For many years, the head of the training department was Privy Councilor E. S. Volkov.

At the turn of the XIX and XX centuries, the growth and industrial development of Nikolaev largely determined the activities of the railway and commercial port. Nikolaev joined the system of international trade and became an integral part of national commercial and industrial capital.

During the civil war, as well as the Great Patriotic War, the Nikolaev railway network was severely destroyed.

In 1947, the Nikolaev freight processing center reached the pre-war figure and quickly began to surpass it.

• Ponomareva, E. V. The development of railway transport in Nikolaev in the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries. // Nikolaev Bazaar. - 2010 .-- November 9.
• Stril, E. Old Railway Station of Nikolaev : rich biography and sad end // Nikolaev Bazaar. - 2013 .-- February 23.