My friend Mike Edwards announced his intention of going on a steam driving holiday in Ukraine late in 2005. The more I thought about it, the more I became intrigued and I ended up booking myself following a late cancellation with the U.K. organisers East Europe Railtours. They had organised the visit in partnership with Dzherelo SPK in the Ukraine. The opportunity to drive Russian-designed steam locomotives on Ukraine's 5-foot gauge network seemed too good to miss.
The trip was nearly a washout for me as, exhausted by trying to complete various tasks at work before I left, I seriously overslept on the departure date. Telephone calls failed to alert me and I only got up at all because my dear friend Marion drove six miles to physically rouse me. Although it seemed hopeless to even attempt boarding the booked flight, I was driven to the airport, still in a stupor, and to my amazement was accepted on the flight. I have never been processed through an airport (with checked luggage) more quickly!
The flight took me to Schipol with a connection onwards to Kiev, where I met up with the organisers and the other participants. We spent some time at Borispol Airport, as other participants arrived on other flights. We then joined a coach for a short road tour of Kiev, disembarking at the main railway station for an overnight journey to Ivano Frankovsk.
A slight wobble: although the organiser had attempted to book a sleeping compartment for a 'lone female', the arrangements had been made on the basis of sharing with one of the male participants. It was explained to me that, in Ukraine, it is quite normal to share with a stranger of the opposite sex. However, I explained that it wasn't normal for me and I felt it was a bit late for me to change my ways. The compromise was to move me to a compartment with three Ukrainian ladies and we had an interesting evening of mis-communication. The tradition seems to be that each compartment sit around drinking, eating and talking until quite late, then the beds are deployed and everyone goes to sleep. I was with two middle-aged ladies and a teenage girl. All three were in some sort of conservation society and they'd been up to Kiev for a National Conference. The teenage girl spoke reasonable English and one of the ladies, a schoolteacher, understood English and was able to assist the girl. From time to time, Galina from the Ukrainian tour company joined us and we had a pleasant evening with wide-ranging (if rather stilted) discussions.
It was a long and fairly slow journey but early morning saw us disembarking at the busy station at Ivano-Francovsk. Ivan Franco was a poet and patriot and the communists renamed the city after him presumably as the "acceptable face of communism". A coach was waiting for us and another drive took us to the base of our operations at the town of Kolomiya, where we stayed at quite a reasonable hotel next to what I imagine may be the world's only decorated egg museum, which is built in the shape of an egg. Elaborate, decorated eggs - 'pysanky' - are a tradition in Ukraine.
We saw the following steam locos:-
Em 735-72
Er 797-86
Su 251-86
Yea 2026
b 2137
L 3535
L 5141
I got to drive the first three of these locomotives. During the trip, I was also able to visit the Motive Power Depot at Chernovtsy, look at Russian railway signalling at Mikulichin and visit two Locomotive Repair Works in Kiev. There are links to my pictures below.
I'm afraid it was some years before I added more posts describing the trip in more detail, but you can find these starting at Driving Steam in Ukraine (Part 1)
Photographs:
Ukraine Steam.
Ukraine Modern Image.
Chernovtsy Motive Power Depot, Ukraine.
Signalling at Mikulichin, Ukraine.
Kiev Locomotive Works (Passenger).
Kiev Locomotive Works (Freight).
I wasn't totally single-minded about railways on the trip - my travel photographs are at Ukraine.
[Links to pictures added 1-Jan-2013: Link to 'Driving Steam in Ukraine (Part 1)' added 7-Jan-2015]
