The development of railway transport engineering in the Russian Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of the features on the development of railways and railway engineering in the second half of the ХІХ th century. It is well known that railway transport in European countries emerged in the eighteenth century, and the nineteenth century was a period of rapid development of raiway systems, railway technology and the creation of operation technologies. The author of the article shows that the development of railway transport engineering in the Russian Empire began in the 30s of the XIX century and went on at a rapid pace. It is clear that foreign technology was used at first, and foreign technology thought was significantly influenced by technology. As the whole policy of the tsarist government was aimed at reducing the country’s dependence on potential opponents, the idea of forming a Corps of national transport engineers was greatly supported. Among its graduates were such well-known engineers as P. P. Melnykov, M. I. Lypyn, V. P. Sobolevskyi, M. A. Beleliubskyi, D. I. Zhuravskyi and others who managed to create a national scientific school in the field of railway transport. Almost all problems were solved independently without the help of foreign specialists. Among them, according to the author, the most significant were “Track bed structure”, “The development of signalling systems, centralization and block signal system” and “The development of rolling stock”. Based on the analysis of a large number of sources, the author concludes, that in the second half of the nineteenth century the development of industry in the Russian Empire went through capitalist reforms. Expansion of domestic and foreign markets, active domestic and foreign trade led to the need to develop means of communication. The railways proved to be the most powerful and economically effective. They connected different regions, places of production and consumption, facilitating, speeding up and reducing the cost of delivery of raw materials and goods. In the 60-80’s of the XIX century there was a significant increase of the railway network. The construction was mainly carried out at the expense of private joint stock companies. During that period, foreign specialists who were not interested in the qualitative development of the Russian railway network played a major role in the construction and management of the railway tracks. With the increasing demand for this new type of transportation, there was a need for technical modernization of the entire industry.