International Railroad Discussion > Azerbaijan, part 2. Train 664 to Balakan

I boarded train 664 to Balakan just prior to the 8:10pm departure.

It was the same old Soviet cars as I had taken in Kazakhstan, with different paint.

No problem hanging my bicycle in the vestibule.

The ride wasn't particularly noteworthy, but it was a very nice ride. There was a half hour or so of slow traffic rolling through the yards and junctions of Baku. Then the first half of the trip was on the smooth doubletrack mainline to Georgia and the Black Sea. The last half was on a slow, jointed rail branch line. After dawn we were in vegetation and landscape that looked like where I grew up in Minnesota, a nice change from the barren deserts of KZ and the area around Baku.

1) & 2), boarding at the Baku station.

3) Train timetable (no physical or electronic copy could be found anywhere else)

Photo locations:
Baku station
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.3824992,49.8529916,386m/data=!3m1!1e3

Near Balaken
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6554733,46.4846336,165m/data=!3m1!1e3



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/18 21:20 by gobbl3gook.

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4) Corridor -- this train was the same make and model as the KZ trains. That's the samovar/teakettle at the end of the hall.

5) Socializing -- the corridor offered good socializing, just like in KZ. This was my first look at the Caucuses Mountains.

6) Foot selfie -- once again, I was well rested and refreshed at the end of the 14 hour trip trip. Completely unlike a night in coach on the Coast Starlight...

My compartmentmates were 3 businessmen in suits. They got off in Sheki. Odd, but nice, that the businessfolks would take a 12 hour overnight train ride instead of a 4 hour car or minibus ride.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/18 01:47 by gobbl3gook.

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7) Vegetation -- could have been in Minnesota. The vegetation was so close to the train that we created an ongoing cyclone as we rolled through at about 40 mph, whipping the leaves and small branches in every direction.

8) Small station -- There were a lot of these of the same style. (The tracks run 5 to 10 kilometers south of the base of the mountains, and the towns and villages are right at the base. So the stations are not in towns, but out in the middle of fields and forests). I'm not an architectural historian, but I'm guessing this station dated from the time of Khrushchev.

(Throughout my travels I would ruminate on thoughts like "This place probably looked pretty good during the time of Khrushchev" or "This place would look a lot better if Khrushchev was still alive.")

9) Sheep -- lots of sheep in the valleys of the Caucuses.

The ride was pleasant enough. 14 hours, a lot of it on slow jointed track with frequent station stops. The train cleared out pretty well at Sheki, so the last two hours I had the train to myself.

I would have preferred, of course, that it run from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm, instead of 8:00 pm to 10:00 am. But it all worked out okay, and this was one of the few AZ trains that had any daylight running at all.

I might add that the citizens of that town that begins with a "K" on the timetable might also like it better if the am/pm cycles were reversed. The train goes through westbound at 2:16 am, eastbound at 2:47 am. This makes sense if the run of the train is 24 hours, or 60 hours, because someone has to be serviced in the middle of the night. But not for a 14 hour domestic train...

Once again, a very nice ride on the rails of the former Soviet Union. If only Minnesota still had branchline passenger service like this... I recommend it to anyone who likes tea, and/or comfy travel on slow trains.

This was about Oct 17, 2017.

Questions, comments?

Ted in OR



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/18 23:19 by gobbl3gook.

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Thank you for posting you interesting photos and narratives.
We don't see much from this part of the world on Trainorders.
ALLEN