The BAM: Russia's Unknown Trans-Siberian Train
these carriages are carrying the mineral wealth of eastern siberia westwards towards moscow and further afield and that is made possible for one reason the bam railway in the 1970s with the soviet economy stagnating brezhnev wanted to open up the vast untapped wealth of eastern siberia to do so he had to build a railway line across that vast land it was the greatest engineering project of the 20th century it was known as the balm the baikal amorska mainline today we're going to take a journey across it join me behind me next to taisha railway station is an old tower that was built in 1906 before the soviet revolution and this is in fact the last piece of pre-revolutionary architecture we're going to see for the remainder of our trip on the barn because everything we're going to see the the infrastructure the railway stations the hotels the shops everything was built for the bomb in the 70s and the 80s before that there was nothing but forest to bring luck onto our journey we're going to rub old golden lenin's head here in thai bring me luck lenin cheers trains don't stop for long on the bomb so you have to jump on as soon as he gets here 22 carriage 22. special oh lovely old school russian train the dream over there you can see the trans-siberian main line branching away to the right it's heading south south to irkutsk south of lake bakal we're now directing off in this direction to the north of the lake and across the middle of siberia our first stop tomorrow morning will be severe by cask northern baikal that means bye-bye trans-siberian oh bye-bye trans-siberian i can't emphasize and reiterate enough just what an engineering marvel the balm railway is every mountain we pass through had to be tunneled every river we cross had to be bridged every forest had to be hacked down and tracks laid for hundreds and hundreds of miles the soviet governments had billions of rubles building the farm railway and what was supposed to enrich the soviet economy almost bankrupted it we're just passing by so many abandoned cranes and bulldozers and trucks and all this stuff that was built or brought here to build the bad railway and then soon afterwards just abandoned no longer needed wow this is going to be one of the most fascinating trips i've ever taken in the former soviet union wow on the side of people's houses in the villages are like bear skins just drying on the side of wooden houses oh and here's our cleaner wow gotta keep the band tidy we've stopped off in a town called vegeta let's buy some doshirak red if they've got some in this shop they better bloody have the bed wow what a great shop here in old vivirovka or wherever he's called we've got doshirak soviet lemonade look how cosy it looks little station building warm light inside potted plants snow on the ground like a christmas scene if only there wasn't a russian dude snoring in the opposite bank this guy's nasal cavities are a real piece of work hasn't stopped snoring since he got on the train now two o'clock in the morning i've not had a minute sleep yet oh 4 40 in the morning minus five but i'm wanting to come out here just to escape that bloody snorer let's have a look at the old railway station here in the town of what i think is called lena judging by what's written on the side of the building lena because this town obviously stands on the river leona a river that flows from lake baikal all the way up to the arctic sea and now into that ocean anyway let's see what's inside the railway station check out the snow here we have some fried pill mini a real food of the north siberian food what we gonna do about this dude in our coupe the fact that he's slightly snoring it's keeping me awake that's not a major problem the problem is when we get to subverted by cows tomorrow morning how am i going to feel if i'm shattered that's all i'm worried about anyway let's eat some peel many jump back on the train hopefully fall asleep well before we jump back on the train i thought we'll have a quick look outside the front the station and look what i've seen there's a little monument to the builders of the bam railway celebrating 45 years and here they are three of them and over here i don't know if you can see this in the dark oh it's colt there's a statue of some dude some dude who probably discovered this part of siberia for the russian imperial crown mr evanu gaokinu ivanu gaokinu there he is in full glory well that was probably the worst bloody night of my life thanks to old matey boy here snoring all night but um anyway check out the view how beautiful it is here in siberia look at it and there's the culprit who kept me up all night so i see one butcher let's go and check this town out what a night check out old soviet soviet severe bay calse railway station god i'm barely awake lads i'm barely awake where's the restroom upstairs or down here down here wow let's see what the hotel rooms look like here in savaira by carlton i've never stayed in a railway station before it might be the way forward in the future foreign okay okay in the lovely hotel room of several bay castle railway station i'm going to sleep for a few hours boys i'll um see you later probably on the shores of lake vaquel well i think we've just discovered the ultimate trans-siberian travel hack why stay in hotels when we can stay in flipping soviet railway stations for a tenor a night and what a soviet railway station is let me tell you about it look at it box all this railway station like the rest of the town here surveyed by cars was built by the leningrad com somole and it's meant to represent a big sail look at the sail and there's the mast i mean it doesn't look much like a sail to me but anyway because of lake baikal that's why they built a big kind of sailing ship and there it is guys you know in england when you buy a pair of boots or a jacket and it says you can wear it to minus five we're here in old several bay cows when you advertise a pair of shoes it says you can wear it to minus 60 degrees centigrade minus bloody 60 degrees that's what life is like on the bam wow and check out this street name i'm just loving old bam adventures check it out this road outside the railway station is called prospect 60 years of the ussr wow don't know what to say i've got that fuzzy feeling inside of me again that head in some petersburg railway station what a town is um who arrived here in the bam days when they were building the bam this town was built in the 70s so when you meet someone you can always say when did you move here because there was pretty much no one born here unless you're well i suppose religion a little bit younger than me i want to show you this sign up here that says prospect leningradski this is the main street that runs through severe bay cal so normally the main street in a russian city or a former soviet city would be called kirov or lenin communism but not here and that's because this town was built as i said before by people from leningrad all the towns along the barn were built by different nationalities there were towns built by uzbeks towns built by tajiks towns like this one built by people from leningrad and all the towns have their own individual their own individual little bit of flavor and little architectural motifs when you go to a town built by the estonians there'll be little things there that remind you of estonia this is the old shopping center of savara bay kaosk the old soviet shopping center it's probably a lot different now foreign the restaurant lending grad there's a sign up there that says restaurant men in grad hello but the lady the old babushka old publisher the babushka she said to me those closed down long ago but it used to be delicious things have changed now several bakehouse but everything used to be called leningrad restaurants streets buildings here in front of palace of culture we've got a statue that says baam dairoga road of friendship and here you've got people from the different republics you've got an obvious and obviously asian man maybe a caucasian lady and a couple of russians and that's because as i said before people came from all over the former soviet union all the republics and other communist countries east germany hungary to build the ban railway bringing all these people together bam road of friendship and it's still a friendly place let's go and check out the palace of culture called jelez nadaroznik the railway worker everything's bloody bam everything's bloody bam in this part of the world isn't it anyway let's go and see if they'll let us inside have a little look around wow look at this our beretta wow i don't think there's any country in the world that likes a palm tree quite like the russians or probably the soviets royally priests is wow check this place out the old soviet arboretum here in severe bay coast wow even got a pond well full of turtles wait foreign back on the mean streets of sevilla bakalsk right then i think it's time we um go down to lake baikal itself and check it out well guys check it out the wondrousness that is lake bay cal check it out this huge inland sea in a sense that stretches all the way down almost to mongolia check it out let's go down to the water's edge and have a closer look well apparently doing that means i'm going to live to a ripe old age even longer than i would have lived if i take an old versili's hundred-year-old elixir of life from babushka's recipes anyway this is lake baikal and what a bloody stunning place it is wow russia has just got some of the most beautiful scenery looking at the mountains wherever they are in the distance whatever range that is wow and it's so clean the water being here on the shores of bacal the greatest of the great lakes it makes all the hardships of travel on the trans-siberian worth it the snoring companions the lack of decent food the change in time zones are huge distances it's all worth it when you see a place like this is foreign is well our train further east is leaving in about 10 minutes so we've got just enough time for a little pasta meal and a glass of compote here in the railway station stolovaya and this meal because i know some of you like to know the prices of things came to a grand total of 75 rubles which is 75 pence so um yeah maybe not the greatest culinary meal but um one of the cheapest foreign i get the feeling there's going to be some kids keeping me awake at night bye-bye siberia because he's the coupe compartments on the bam are just full of miners men who have traveled from western russian towns to come here to work underground for a month or two exploiting the gold the diamonds the coal the copper the mineral wealth of the ban region the bomb however wasn't only built to exploit the riches of eastern siberia it was also built to protect the nation the soviet union in the 1960s china and the soviet union fell out which led to in 1969 a brief border war however that border war exposed how vulnerable the trans-siberian was to being cut off by an invasion from china thus cutting off the eastern seaboard and hence the soviet government decided to build a railway along which they could move troops and weapons in the event of an invasion safer from the reaches of the chinese communist army and hence they built the bomb well we've arrived for five minutes in novi this town was built 1976 by the latvian consumer and over there we've got latvian script on that tower and we've got houses that are a little bit like latvian houses with the wooden roofs the wooden balconies wow we're in a little piece of latvia here in siberia and check out behind the train the amazing geography i don't know if you can pick it up or not but the mountains in the distance look at them a huge mountain range must be 2 000 meters plus wow what a beautiful setting old novi or oyan is here is are you latvian dogs no alrighty is the enjoyment that you have on any train journey in russia depends in large part on how nice your private nietzsche are providing is the lady carriage attendant she'll give you your bedding make you cups of tea and i had the best two on the entirety of the barn because they just gave me as a present this russian railway glass and holder so from now on i'm only drinking my tea on this journey from this balm railway glass maybe some beer too at some stage foreign welcome to tinder capital of the bomb built by moscowites come on tinder railway station don't let me down well once again we've discovered that the railway station rooms are the way forward 15 quid bargain before we go exploring the town i want to show you these magnificent oil paintings that tell the story of how tinder was built check this out you can see the first people that arrived with their luggage when it was just forest and nothing else in their tents the original geologists and engineers crossing rivers with their horses and their bags wow this amazing amazing railway station you get art you get culture and a railway station look at this one these are all the bumps in their families celebrating the completion look it up there beautiful tinder let's hope so anyway let's walk up to the center and see what the muscovites managed to build here so far from home let's check our soviet library built by moscowites is is let's see what the kids of this town are reading in this children's library this one oh first love well we're in the town of tinder so i suppose um yeah it's fitting saucy little devils what i've stumbled upon the bam wall of hotties here in the town of tinder let's do some swiping well here we go then tinder in tinder now you three percent you can join in too let's see we've got wow hello elena definite swipe right what a hottie oh crikey look at these couple of alexanders crikey couple of heartbreakers in the town of tinder oh nina nina's got a sparkle in her eye look at her i've got a thing for nina swipe right right any of you ladies want to take on sergey looks like he'd be fun on a date huh oh and here we have elyessa swipe right oh yekaterina where have you been all my life swipe right well that brings our time on the bam to an end there's nothing left to do but to raise our railway cup in a toast to the builders of the baikal amur mainline because they weren't just legends they were soviet legends
2021-11-03 05:04
