2TE10Mr-0081 last light departure from Kushoky. 30th April 2025.
We drive ahead of the empty coal train and around the dirt roads along the edges of Kushoky. We know where to go, we want to reach the slag tips before the train does. The railways running is unpredictable here, we have seen trains lay over here, trains shunt, trains run straight through without stopping. This one stops. No problem. Another passes through in the opposite direction below us, and on to Nura without stopping. Our train shuts down. Hmm...The mosquitoes play with us, the sun sinks slowly but surly. Soon the track below is eclipsed by the shadow of the heaps, we climb down. Jane contacts me, she has seen a friend in Karagandy today. When shall we be back? She is hungry. We are probably, we are also distracted. She will find something without us. The locomotives remain silent. But wait, is someone climbing aboard, whoosh, the twin units burst into life, smoke is pushed skywards. But no, wait, a wagon tapper is walking the train. The sun continues to sink, only ten minutes left, maybe less. Then the loudspeakers bark, поезд...
Yes, the train is leaving! We are gesticulated at furiously, a crewman shouts down to me, are they friendly, are they not? But we have secured a picture in fine light. Our next task is to find Jane in an unfamiliar city in the dark, an hour and a half away. I can't remember what or where Sven and myself ate.
After a layover of just over an hour and a quarter at Kushoky station, 2TE10Mr-0081 of the Tranco Nura restarts it rake of empty wagons bound for the open cast coal mine at Molodezhnyy as the sun sinks down to the horizon on the last day of April 2025.
TE10 aficionados may note the old style centre headlamp casing on this early model, which is the same as that on the DR Ludmilla.
2TE10Mr-0081 last light departure from Kushoky. 30th April 2025.
We drive ahead of the empty coal train and around the dirt roads along the edges of Kushoky. We know where to go, we want to reach the slag tips before the train does. The railways running is unpredictable here, we have seen trains lay over here, trains shunt, trains run straight through without stopping. This one stops. No problem. Another passes through in the opposite direction below us, and on to Nura without stopping. Our train shuts down. Hmm...The mosquitoes play with us, the sun sinks slowly but surly. Soon the track below is eclipsed by the shadow of the heaps, we climb down. Jane contacts me, she has seen a friend in Karagandy today. When shall we be back? She is hungry. We are probably, we are also distracted. She will find something without us. The locomotives remain silent. But wait, is someone climbing aboard, whoosh, the twin units burst into life, smoke is pushed skywards. But no, wait, a wagon tapper is walking the train. The sun continues to sink, only ten minutes left, maybe less. Then the loudspeakers bark, поезд...
Yes, the train is leaving! We are gesticulated at furiously, a crewman shouts down to me, are they friendly, are they not? But we have secured a picture in fine light. Our next task is to find Jane in an unfamiliar city in the dark, an hour and a half away. I can't remember what or where Sven and myself ate.
After a layover of just over an hour and a quarter at Kushoky station, 2TE10Mr-0081 of the Tranco Nura restarts it rake of empty wagons bound for the open cast coal mine at Molodezhnyy as the sun sinks down to the horizon on the last day of April 2025.
TE10 aficionados may note the old style centre headlamp casing on this early model, which is the same as that on the DR Ludmilla.