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Exhibit description

Railway traffic organisation Victory Road. Live traffic light

Road of Victory

After the breakthrough of the Leningrad blockade on January 18 1943 it became possible to connect the city with the mainland by rail. January 19 1943 on 10 km of territory recaptured from the invaders, construction of a railway between the stations of Polyany and Shlisselburg (Road of Victory) began. The work was supervised by the head of the Directorate of Military Restoration Works No. 2 of the Leningrad Front I.G. Zubkov.

The Polyany — Shlisselburg railway, 33 km long, was built in record time — in 17 days under the most difficult conditions — and played a strategic role in the defense of Leningrad.

It had three bridges across the Neva River, 20 small bridges and pipes, three sidings, a communication line, two water supply points, and the Polyany — Mezhdurechye and Mezhdurechye — Levoberezhnaya sections were equipped with "live blocking".

Live blocking

The essence of the "live blocking" was that along the entire route, at a distance of one and a half to two kilometers from each other, special posts were installed - poles with telephone sets. And near each of them, a "traffic light" was equipped - a lantern with a kerosene lamp with red and green glass. The person who served the post had to turn the lantern one way or another towards the approaching train, and then transmit by telephone to another post that the train had passed.

Since such fighters replaced traffic lights in their functions, they were called "live traffic lights".

History

Chronology

  1. 19th century At the end of the 19th century, each train was required to be equipped with lanterns, which were installed on the locomotive and the end car (at the back and two side lanterns).
  2. 1830s Railway lanterns have been used since the late 1830s. They were intended for optical telegraph signaling, were and are used in pointers and semaphores, and are used for lighting and marking work sites on the tracks. At first, candles served as a light source, then kerosene, gas (acetylene or propane), and since 1949, electric lamps (in battery-powered signal lanterns).
  3. 1837 On October 30, 1837, the first railway in Russia between St. Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo was put into operation. To ensure traffic safety, manual signal lanterns were almost immediately used, which were supplied to "key guards". They had to light the lanterns before each train passed. The lanterns indicated that the track was clear.
  4. 1852 In 1852, the first document in Russia that defined the rules for the use of signals and signaling devices was approved: "Regulations on the signals of the St. Petersburg-Moscow Railway". According to it, signals were divided into four groups: engine driver signals, chief conductor signals, conductor signals, and road guard signals. They were given by boards and flags during the day, and by signal lanterns at night. For example, a road guard signal about a switched switch "from a straight track to an oblique one" is given by a lantern with a blue light, and to stop the train "in the middle of the track" - by a red one.
  5. 1950s Railway lanterns of the 1950s - 1970s - the latest word in the kerosene lighting industry. They have a device that closes the burner flame with an exhaust pipe directly into the weather vane, which makes them easier to use. There was no need to fight with soot, which contaminated all the insides of the lantern and signal glasses.

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