Casey Jones Rail Road Unit of the ATA



Click for Factbook article

TRAINS on POSTAL STATIONERY

RUSSIA - USSR
(1917 - 1991)
Page 4

to previous page    to Country Index    to next page

(click on any image for an enlarged view in a separate window.)

Date: 1982-04-02

Air Env - 1982 - 6k red ind of no rail interest; cachet shows train station in Mineral'nyye Vody, a city of Stavropol' Kray Territory

Weather in Mineral'nyye Vody (temperatures are in Celsius)
(The literal translation of the name is Mineral Water) is in the northern foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, in the southernmost part of European Russia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The city has a population of about 87,000.

It had a basketball team named "Lokomotiv"! but apparently that no longer exists, as all players are listed as "Former Players" and clicking on "Current Roster" does nothing.

DL

 
Date: 1982-08-23 - Ukhta. Rail Transport College.

Env - 1982 - 4k red ind of no rail interest; cachet shows School of Railroad Transport in Ukhta, city of 120,000 in the Komi Republic - (map)

At (63°34'N - 53°39'E), Ukhta is about 850 miles northwest of Moscow, and just 250 miles below the Arctic Circle.

WS

 
Date: 1982-08-24

Env - 1982 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows train station in Kharkiv.

Kharkiv is in eastern Ukraine, about 250 miles east of Kyiv (Kiev), with a current population of about 1.6 million, making it the second largest city in Ukraine. (Note that the city name is Kharkiv in Ukrainian, Kharkov in Russian. My ancestry is Ukrainian, so I choose to favor that spelling.)

WS

NOTE that from this point on, through 1990, most Russian envelopes that do not have a commemorative indicium have the same definitive indicium as the item above, varying in denomination and color, but with the same design, showing mail transport vehicles, including a railway mailcar (same design as stamps Sc. 5112-5113). As there were over 5,000 envelopes issued with that indicium, a complete collection is beyond the reach of all but the most dedicated (and wealthy) collectors. On these pages I choose to show only items with a rail theme in the cachet as well.
Date: 1982-08-31

PPC - 4k ind (no rail interest) with photo on picture side of Lazarevskoe station, Sochi district

KD

 
Date: 1982-09-08

PC - 4k ind with modern train at bottom right corner; no rail interest (that I can find) in cachet

Automation '83 - International Specialization Conference (?), Moscow

WS

 
Date: 1982-09-27 - BAM. West section. Zvezdny. Niya village. Railwaymen's houses.

Env - 1983 - 4k blue ind of no rail interest; cachet with picture of apartment buildings, BAM logo

Irkutsk Oblast - housing for BAM railway workers.

WS

 
Date: 1983-02-23

Env - 1983 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows globe, train, plane, ship

Letter Week

DL

 
Date: 1983-08-26

Env - 1983 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows Post Office at Dnipropetrovsk

No train theme in the cachet, as far as I can tell, so this is one of the thousands of envelopes issued with the indicium that have no other train theme, and I'm showing it just as an example of what I will hereafter exclude.

WS

 
Date: 1983-10-24

Env - 1983 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows radio tower, tranport vehicles, including modern train

Radio Day

DL

 
Date: 1983-12-07

Env - 1983 - 4k ind with Yaroslavsky railway station in Moscow; cachet has no rail interest

Cachet shows F. O. Shekhtel' (1859-1926), Russian architect who designed Yaroslavsky railway station and many other public buildings of his period, 125th anniv of his birth

Yaroslavsky Station is the beginning of the Trans-Siberian Railway in Moscow.

DL

 
Date: 1984-01-27 - Gomel'. Railway Engineering Institute.

Env - 1983 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows Railway Engineering Institute at Gomel'

Gomel' (also called Homyel' - the Belarusians, like the Ukrainians, pronounce the Cyrillic "G" as an "H") is in Belarus, southwest of Moscow about 400 miles.

WS

 
Date: 1984-02-17

Env - 1984 - 20k blue ind with no rail interest; cachet shows photo of modern Russian high-speed electric locomotive

(for International Mail, hence the high tariff)

WS

 
Date: 1984-03-14

Env - 1984 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows emblem of UPU, with antique steam loco at bottom right

19th Congress of UPU in Hamburg.

DL

 
Date: 1984-08-03

Env - 1984 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows rail workers, tracks, train

Baikal-Amur Railroad Main Line Construction Completion!

This was a little premature, as most web pages I found say the mainline was not completed until 1989, but it was still an astonishing achievement, rendered dubious by the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union and the bankruptcy of its successor Russian Federation. Today the system is in ruin, poorly maintained and little-used, but there are efforts under way to repair and revive it.

DL

 
Date: 1984-08-28

Env - 1984 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows tracks, Komsomol Medal, "BAM", map of route

Baikal-Amur Railroad Main Line Construction Completion! (see previous item, above)

DL

 
Date: 1984-10-26

Env - 1984 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows building

Smolensk: Palace of Railroad Worker's Culture

DL

 
Date: 1984-11-05 -

Env - 1984 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows electric train in pentagon.

Kazak SSR something?

DL

 
Date: 1984-11-26

Env - 1984 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows Moscow Metro train

50th anniv of Moscow Metro - Order of Lenin

"Up to 1955 the Moscow underground was named after Lazar Kaganovich, but in that year it was renamed the V.I.Lenin Moscow Metropolitan Railway.

"The first line, the Sokolnicheskaya, was open 15 May 1935. It had 13 stations from Sokolniki to Park of Culture, with a branch line from Komintern station (today Alexandrovsky sad) to Smolenskaya on the modern Filyovskaya line. The main sight on this line was Kropotkinskaja station (until 1957 as Palace of Soviets), designed by A.Dushkin."

Above text from this site

WS

 
Date: 1984-12-07

PC - 1984 - 4k ind with Order of Lenin medal and text - 50th anniv Moscow Metro; cachet shows Moscow Metro train

50th anniv of Moscow Metro - May 15, 1985 (see item directly above) - first station opened

DL

 
Date: 1984-12-10

Env - 1984 - 20k blue ind with no rail interest; cachet shows modes of transport, including front of modern Russian locomotive

(for International Mail, hence the high tariff)

DL

 
Date: 19841224 - 60th anniversary of the newspaper "Pionerskaya Pravda".

Env - 1984 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows assorted vignettes including silhouette of electric train

VL

 
Date: 1985-01-29

Env - 1985 - 5k red ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows Moscow Metro Mayakovskaya station

"Mayakovskaya Metro station is truly considered to be the main architectural masterpiece of the Moscow's Metro. This is a station, which lays deep underground, it belongs to the first, the oldest line of the Moscow's Metro. The station was opened in 1938. The station mock-up was successfully displayed the same year at the International exhibition in New-York. Marble of two types was used to decorate the walls and columns of the station. Moreover, rodonite matches beautifully with green-black diorite and the silvery steel columns.

"The vaulting of the central hall of "Mayakovskaya" station has 33 mosaics executed to cartoons by famous Russian artist Alexander Deineka. The theme of all mosaics is called "One Day of Soviet Skies". The light character of structures emphasised by the sparkling bends of stainless steel is shaded by red and pink shades of rodonite, a fine semi- precious stone."

Text from this site - go there for pictures, and a lot more history.

DL

 
Date: 1985-02-25

Env - 1985 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows mineworker lifting flowers, red flag, ore train in background

Miners' Day

WS

 
Date: 1985-07-22

PC - 4k ind with Lenin, flag, XXVII, building (no rail interest); cachet with modern train amidst symbols of science and industry

27th something of the Communist Party (KPSS) - Course of Scientific- Technical Progress!

DL

 
Date: 1985-08-14 - 50 years of the Main Center of Trunk-road (main- line) Post Transportation.

Env - 1985 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows modes of modern transport, including train

DL

 
Date: 1985-10-xx

Env - 1985 (October) - 5k brown ind with railcar; cachet with stamps, including same design

Glory to October! (Stamp Month)

WS

 
Date: 19860129 - Train-ferry line USSR - GDR (East Germany)

Env - 1986 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows barge carrying railcars, silhouettes of railcars

VL

 
Date: 1986-03-12 - 50th anniversary of Novocherkassk electric locomotive construction plant.

Env - 1986 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows modern electric train

50th anniv of Novocherkassk electric locomotive factory, Rostov Oblast, Order of Lenin

DL

 
Date: 1986-04-22

Env - 1986 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows modern electric train against map of USSR

Railway Exhibition at Shcherbinka, near Moscow

Shcherbinka was the home of the "Order of Red Banner of Labour All- Union Rail Transport Scientific Research Institute of the Ministry of Railways", now called simply the All-Russian Railway Research Institute.

DL

 
Date: 19861212 - Kzyl-Orda. Railwaymen's amusement park.

Env - 1986 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows Park entrance

VL

 
Date: 1987-03-24

Env - 1987 - 5k red ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows modern electric train emerging from beneath newspaper

70th anniv of GUDOK, (Goodok) Russian railway newspaper (the word means "horn" or "whistle")

First published in 1917, it is still being published - subscribe here!

(Note: There was an earlier Communist Party magazine of the same name. It died around 1910.)

DL

 
Date: 19870408 - Glory to Great October! RSFSR. (Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic)

Env - 1987 - 5k red ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet includes silhouette of modern locomotive

VL

 
Date: 1987-04-14

Env - 1987 - 5k red ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows small modern train at bottom right

October 7 - Constitution Day

DL

 
Date: 1987-06-26 - Dnepropetrovsk. Electric locomotive construction plant.

Env - 1987 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows modern electric train

Dnipropetrovsk, in southeastern Ukraine, has a current population of about 1.2 million, and a small newly-built metro system

WS

 
Date: 1987-06-26

Env - 1987 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows antique and modern trains

150th anniv of domestic railroads

The first railroad in Russia was the St. Petersburg-Tsarskoe Selo Railway, whose formal opening took place on October 30, 1837.

DL

 
Date: 1987-07-21

Env - 1987 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows Yaroslavsky Train Station, Moscow, and small diesel train in logo at top left

Train Stations of Moscow - Yaroslavsky

There are nine train stations in Moscow - most are named after the regions of the lines they serve. Some say there are only eight, and omit Savyolovsky.

Here is a list of the nine:
Belorussky Station
- Serves Kalliningrad, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic and some trains to Latvia.
Kazansky Station
- Serves Central Asia, Ryzan, Ufa, Samara and Novorossiisk.
Kievsky Station
- Serves Western Ukraine and Southeastern Europe.
Kursky Station
- Serves Southern Russia, Caucasus nations, Eastern Ukraine, and Crimea.
Leningradsky Station
- Serves Estonia, Finland, St. Petersburg and northwestern Russia.
Paveletsky Station
- Serves Voronezh, Tambov, Volgograd and Astrakhan.
Rizhsky Station
- Serves some trains to Latvia.
Savyolovsky Station
- Serves Kostroma, Cherepovets and some trains to Vologda.
Yaroslavlsky Station
- Serves Siberia, the Russian Far East, Mongolia and China.

DL

 
Date: 1987-07-22 - VII Congress of Scientific and Technical societies.

Env - 1987 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows modern train in bottom left corner

DL

 
Date: 1987-07-23

Env - 1987 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows Rizhsky Train Station, Moscow, and small diesel train in logo at top left

Train Stations of Moscow - Rizhsky (Riga)

DL

 
Date: 1987-08-07

Env - 1987 - 5k red ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows Belorussky Train Station, Moscow, and small diesel train in logo at top left

Train Stations of Moscow - Belorussky

DL

 
Date: 1987-08-07

Env - 1987 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows Savyolovsky Train Station, Moscow, and small diesel train in logo at top left

Train Stations of Moscow - Savyolovsky

DL

 
Date: 1987-08-11

Env - 1987 - 5k blue ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows Train Station in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is as far East as you can get and still be in Russia, on the island of Sakhalin, which was once part of Japan.

There is a local railroad, running the entire north-south 500- mile length of the island; AND there have been proposals to build either a rail tunnel or a rail bridge to the mainland!

It is the home of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Tsunami Warning Center.

DL

 
Date: 1987-08-26

Env - 1987 - 5k red ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows Kazansky Train Station, Moscow, and small diesel train in logo at top left

Train Stations of Moscow - Kazansky

DL

 
Date: 1987-09-15

Env - 1987 - 5k red ind with transport vehicles, including railway mailcar; cachet shows Kursky Train Station, Moscow, and small diesel train in logo at top left

Train Stations of Moscow - Kursky

DL

 

to next page


All maps courtesy of the CIA World Factbook.

All text Copyright © 2003, William M. Senkus

Send feedback to the author: CLICK HERE

Revised -- 01/18/2007