International Railroad Discussion > Kazakhstan, part 10. Stations and etc.

A few more photos of stations and other trackside scenery.

First three, little stations.

1) Small station, I think it's "Aral-something, so near the Aral Sea.

Good Cyrillic pronunciation guide here:
http://masterrussian.com/russian_alphabet.shtml

2) and 3) new small stations, on the newly constructed line on the north side of the Aral Sea from Shalkar to Beyneu.

See map here.
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?6,4472772

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4) brick and wood water tower. My phone tells me this was Kyzylorda

5) brick water tower. My phone tells me this was Chelkar

Trackside water towers are prevalent throughout the former Soviet Union. I assume they're still used for water storage. Since steam locomotives have been gone for a couple decades, there must be some other use, maybe city water systems?

6) power and shop building, also Chelkar

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Station stops were always bustling with vendors. From the timetables posted a few threads back, you can see that there were 4 or 5 stops a day that were in the 15 to 20 minute range. Plenty of time to get off the train and buy a meal.

With trains coming through once or twice an hour, 15 cars of people, selling food on the station platform keeps quite a few people employed.

Vendors, Chelkar

7) Smoked fish

8) I'm not sure what the colored liquid is on the bottles, but its probably not Pepsi. The white liquid is probably fermented mare's milk.

9) Vendor in Turkistan.

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A few more odds and ends

10) The freight cars looked quite handsome. Nice to see faded, weathered paint without any tagging.

11) Station stops in cities of any size were always busy. This was Shymkent, the biggest city between Almaty and Turkistan.

12) The new bridges over the tracks look like they're going to put up catenary to electrify the line. Does anyone recognize these track work vehicles?

Questions, comments?

Ted in OR

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White bottles are a type of yogurt. Some is very salty others are absolutely delicious. You find the different types all the way across this part of Asia, There's a brand from the DPRK that's especially good.

The last picture looks like a place where the catenary came down. Possibly after the break up and looting of the Soviet Union economic activity and rail traffic declined so much that the wiring came down to be sold as scrap. You see similar things in Moldova and Abkhazia where the wires came down and trains are diesel hauled now.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/18 06:24 by GettingShort.

Photo 6
What are the white paint/lines on the tracks?
One looks like a guard rail end.

Uncle Joe
Seffner,Fl.