Chapter 5. Features of the North Caucasus Railway, determined by the territorial and sectoral structure of the economy of the North Caucasus economic region
The North Caucasus Road is located on the territory from the Azov to the Black Sea in the west and the Caspian in the east, from the East Don Ridge in the north to the Caucasus Range in the south. The area of gravity of the road almost completely coincides with the North Caucasus economic region. The road is located within the North Caucasus, and only slightly the area of gravity of the road includes a small part of the Volgograd and Astrakhan regions, as well as the Kalmyk Republic.
The North Caucasian Railway (see road map) borders: in the north - with the South-East (Chertkovo station), in the north-east with Privolzhskaya (Morozovskaya, Kotelnikovo, Oleynikovo stations), in the south with the railways of the Transcaucasian countries (Samur stations , Veseloye), in the west with the roads of Ukraine (at the stations: Kavkaz, Uspenskaya, Zacordonny, Pleshakovo, Gukovo, Olkhovaya).
Road map
The main railway line stretches from northwest to southeast: Millerovo - Rostov-on-Don - Tikhoretskaya - Caucasian - Armavir - Prokhladnaya - Gudermes - Makhachkala - Derbent. This is a double-track electrified highway.
In Tikhoretskaya it is crossed by the line Novorossiysk - Krasnodar - Tikhoretskaya - Kuberle - Kotelnikovo and further to Volgograd, which connects the Volga region with Novorossiysk. The railway line Martsevo - Rostov-Armavir - Tuapse - Sochi is part of the main resort highway of the country. Access to the Lower Volga and further to the east is provided by two sections: Tikhoretskaya - Salsk - Kotelnikovo and further to Volgograd and Kizlyar - Oleynikovo.
The most developed railway network is in the Republic of Adygea, Krasnodar Territory, and Rostov Region. In the Rostov region, the road serves the eastern wing of Donbass with its developed coal industry and mechanical engineering. In the Republic of Adygea, the density of the railway network is associated not only with developed industry, but also with a high population density. In the Krasnodar Territory, the road provides interaction with sea and river transport.
Further development of the North Caucasus Road is hampered by the Greater Caucasus Mountains. In some places, building a road is simply impossible, but even where it is possible, the mountains “force” the routes to be significantly lengthened due to the large number of curved sections that go around the mountain spurs and cross the valleys of turbulent mountain rivers.
Over 30 thousand heavy trains per year are carried out on the North Caucasus Railway. Most of them are formed on the Likhovsky, Krasnodar and Makhachkala branches of the road.
Currently, a project is being implemented on the North Caucasus Road to modernize the route from Siberia to the Black Sea ports of Novorossiysk and Tuapse: the Salsk-Kotelnikovo line has been electrified, the Gukovo-Zamchalovo line with access to Ukraine and Likhaya-Morozovskaya are being electrified.
The total length of all tracks of the North Caucasus Road (more than 6 thousand km) is approximately 7% of the network. This is a well-equipped highway, with all main directions (948 km) electrified. More than 84% of the road's freight turnover is carried out by electric traction.
The road is equipped with digital communications (fiber optic lines), on the basis of which new information technologies are now being successfully implemented. A regional transportation management center has been created in Rostov, and the road's information and computing complex is being modernized. The locomotive industry is developing, which includes 14 main, 2 motor-car and 7 turnaround depots, as well as the carriage industry, which includes 11 carriage depots, 27 car maintenance points.
The road's freight turnover is 69 billion t-km (2005), which is 4% of the network. This share is significantly less than the share in the network (see Appendices 1, 2, 3), so the road traffic density is quite low and is only half of the network average.
The arrival of cargo here is 2 times more than the departure. This means that the road has a passive transport balance and a large share of local traffic. The share of cargo transported here is higher than the share of cargo turnover. This indicates the presence of transit cargo, which is exported not so much to other regions of the country, but abroad through the seaports of the region.
The main goods exported on the road are construction materials, fluxes, animal feed and non-ferrous metal ores. Oil cargo, coal, grain, cement, chemical fertilizers, and ferrous metals also have a large share in cargo shipments.
The main cargoes arriving on the road are oil cargo, construction materials, ferrous metals, coal, grain, products of manufacturing industries (including mechanical engineering), chemical fertilizers, cement, and timber cargo.
The North Caucasus Railway transports more fluxes than other branch roads of Russian Railways (28% of the network) and a large amount of construction materials. These goods are produced within the region and transported both within the region and for export to other regions of the country and abroad.
Grain and ground products are produced in large quantities within the region. The North Caucasus is the breadbasket of our country. The road transports 17% of all grain cargo in the network, this is the largest share of all branch roads of Russian Railways.
The stations serving elevators in the area are Salsk and Stavropol. The North Caucasus Road also serves the region's agriculture. For example, the Salsky section of the road (Tikhoretskaya - Salsk - Kotelnikovo) passes through the territory of rural areas of the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, Rostov Region, for which the railway provides transportation of mineral fertilizers, fuels and lubricants, various agricultural machinery, grain and vegetable crops.
Coal is mined in the eastern wing of the Donetsk coal basin and is used mainly within the region. However, coal from Kuzbass and the Pechora coal basin arrives here in transit, which is used both within the region and sent for export. The excess of arrival over departure of coal cargo on the road is approximately 1.5 times.
The largest cargo-generating points on the road are the coal loading stations of the Rostov region Zverevo, Gornaya, Yubileinaya, etc.
Oil cargoes are generated both within the North Caucasus region (oil production and refining) and are imported from the Volga region and Western Siberia via the pipeline system. They are used within the region and sent in transit for export through the Black Sea ports.
Points for draining oil from pipelines onto railways and stations serving oil refineries are Krasnodar and Novorossiysk.
Ferrous metals and timber are the goods that are mainly imported into the region. The arrival of ferrous metals on the road is 10 times higher than their departure, and timber cargo is 26 times higher. But these goods are not only used in the region, but are also transported abroad in transit.
The main junction stations of the region are: Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog, Likhaya, Tikhoretskaya, Kavkazskaya, Mineralnye Vody, Krasnodar; Tuapse, Novorossiysk and others.
The southern seaports of Novorossiysk and Tuapse occupy a special place among the transport hubs of the North Caucasus region.
Novorossiysk is the largest transport hub in southern Russia. The main flow of the country's export cargo passes through it, so the radical reconstruction of the Novorossiysk railway junction is the most important national task. Here, on the basis of modern technologies, a logistics center is being created that resolves issues of receiving and sending trains to the port from all railway stations in the country. There is a powerful oil terminal here, where a lot of general cargo is sent.
The second largest and most important seaport is Tuapse. The capacity for transshipment of general and oil cargo is being increased here, so the railway is carrying out major work to develop the Tuapse port station.
The passenger turnover of the road is almost 12 billion pass-km per year. In 2005, 44 million passengers traveled on the road. It ranks 3rd in the country in terms of the number of long-distance passengers.
Passenger transportation is one of the main areas of operation of the road. For many years, the highway has traditionally occupied one of the leading places in the total volume of passenger traffic in the country and is characterized by intense passenger traffic. This is primarily due to the specialization of the area in the resort industry. Passenger flows converge in Rostov-on-Don, heading to the resorts of the Mineralovodskaya group and to the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. The Rostov - Armavir - Mineralnye Vody and Rostov - Novorossiysk lines are among the most important highways carrying out passenger transportation.
6 branded passenger trains are being formed on the North Caucasus Railway. On the Belorechenskaya - Tuapse - Adler line, a high-speed luxury electric train ED 4 M runs. It carries more than 4 thousand passengers in 1 month.
The railway interacts closely with other modes of transport.
Thus, the area of gravity of the road is crossed by many rivers flowing into the Azov and Caspian Seas. The Don and Kuban are of transport importance.
The length of the navigable part of the Don is 1600 km, which allows it to be used for economic purposes in the region. Its transport importance especially increased after the construction of the Volga-Don Canal and the formation of the Tsimlyansk Reservoir, which connected the Volga region with the sea. 70% of the Don's cargo turnover is bread and coal. In addition, timber, oil, building materials, coal and other cargo are transported along the Don. Within the boundaries of the road, namely, the area of its gravity, the major ports on the Don are Rostov and Tsimlyanskaya. Of no small importance is the interaction of the railway with the river ports of Azov, Volgodonsk, and Ust-Donetsk.
The coastal position of the road makes the interaction of the North Caucasus Road with maritime transport important. On the road, port stations and railway approaches to seaports are being actively developed. This is due to the fact that recently the volume of export-import transportation in mixed rail-water transport has increased significantly.
The road interacts with such ports as Novorossiysk, Tuapse, Temryuk, Kavkaz, Azov, Makhachkala, Yeisk. The main cargoes departing from these ports are: cement, oil, grain (Novorossiysk, Tuapse), coal, metal (Rostov, Taganrog). A significant flow of passengers passes through seaports.
In the near future, a new port will be built in the area of Cape Zhelezny Rog on the Taman Peninsula as part of specialized complexes for transshipment of ammonia, oil and petroleum products. The capacity of the new port by 2015 will be more than 30 million tons of cargo.
Pipeline transport is of great importance. Oil from oil fields flows to oil refineries. The largest oil pipelines in the region are: Grozny - Tuapse; Makhachkala - Grozny; Maykop - Krasnodar; Tikhoretskaya - Novorossiysk - Tuapse. Gas pipelines were built on the basis of the richest North Caucasian fields to supply gas to other regions of the country. The largest of them: Stavropol - Moscow; Krasnodar - Novorossiysk; Stavropol - Nevinnomysk - Mineralnye Vody - Grozny.
The area of gravity of the road is also crossed by a number of highways. The important role of road transport here is determined by many factors: the resort specialization of the area, the high degree of intensity of agriculture. The area is crossed by such major highways as Rostov-on-Don - Mineralnye Vody - Vladikavkaz, Rostov-on-Don - Krasnodar - Tuapse - Sochi. Three pass roads were built across the Caucasus Range: Vladikavkaz - Tbilisi, Alagir - Kutaisi, Cherkessk - Sukhumi. These roads provide international import-export connections with Georgia and other countries of the Transcaucasus.
The role of road transport is also great in servicing the railway for the delivery of goods to direct recipients.
The air routes Moscow - Rostov - Krasnodar - Adler lie over the area of gravity of the road; Rostov - Mineralnye Vody - Grozny - Makhachkala, etc.
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NORTH CAUCASIAN RAILWAY - part of the Russian Railways and runs through the territory from the Azov to the Black Sea in the west and the Caspian Sea in the east, from the East Don Ridge in the north to the Caucasus Range in the south. Road department in Rostov-on-Don. The road includes branches: Rostov, Krasnodar, Mineralovodsk, Makhachkala, Likhovskoe. The operational length of the road (01/01/2001) is 6427 km. The road serves the Rostov region, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, Dagestan, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Karachay-Cherkessia, Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, and connects them with the Northern, Central and Volga regions of Russia, the Baltic countries, Belarus, Ukraine, and Transcaucasia. Through large ports along the road, the North Caucasus communicates with the southern regions of the country and the countries of the Mediterranean basin, and through the Volga-Don shipping canal with the regions of the Volga region and the Center. The road interacts with the maritime transport of the Azov-Black Sea basin through the ports of Taganrog, Yeisk, Novorossiysk and Tuapse, and with the Caspian basin through the port of Makhachkala; with river transport along the Don and Seversky Donets - through the ports of Azov, Volgodonsky, Rostov, Ust-Donetsk, along the river. Kuban - with the ports of Krasnodar and Temryuk.
Road map
The road serves 2 thousand enterprise access roads. About 50 million tons of various cargoes are transported annually, approx. 54 million passengers. Freight turnover (B000) amounted to 48.2 million tariff t-km. The structure of cargo sent: construction cargo (30%), coal (15.8%), oil and petroleum products (9.2%), grain (6.5%). Transported approx. 40 million commuter passengers and 14 million long-distance passengers (1999).
Construction of railway in the North Caucasus began with the construction of the Shakhtnaya-Aksai (1861), Zverevo-Shakhtnaya (1871), Aksai-Rostov (1875) lines. In 1872-1875. The Rostov-Vladikavkaz line was built. By October 1917, the total length of the road was 5,000 versts. During the Civil War and military intervention, the railways were destroyed. tracks, stations and other railways. objects that were not only restored after the war, but also significantly reconstructed. In 1922, the road received the name of the North Caucasus Railway.
During the Great Patriotic War on the railway. military echelons with weapons, ammunition, and food were formed; New sections continued to be built. The post-war years are characterized by a gradual increase in the technological potential of the road and the beginning of electrification of the road. in the 50-60s. sections with electric traction were built: Mineralnye Vody - Kislovodsk, and Belorechenskaya - Kurinsky (1957) and further to Tuapse through Sochi (1958). A line to the Volga-Don Canal and the Tsimlyansk Sea from Kuberle station was built. An important stage in the development of the road was the construction of the lines Divnoye - Elista (1969), Zverevo - Krasnodonskaya (1971), Anapa - Yurovsky (1977), Krasnodar - Tuapse (1978), bypassing the Rostov transport hub and creating a number large freight stations, incl. Rostov-Zapadny (Kazachya station) and station. Red Garden (1983-1985).
In the late 80s - early 90s. the directions Blagodatnoye - Budennovsk, Peschanozhopskaya - Red Guard were developed. The road passed through the dereg on a double-track bridge on the Gudermes - Chervlyonaya section (1989). The Timashevskaya - Protozha line was electrified; Electrical centralization was introduced on the Tsimlyanskaya - Kuberle section. The western bypass of the Bataysk station (1990) and the eastern bypass of the Likhaya station (1991) were built.
The road has high technical equipment: automated systems are widely used in managing the transportation process (stations of Bataysk, Krasnodar, Rostov-Tovarny, Tikhoretskaya, etc.); The Express-2 system operates in passenger transportation. Dispatch centralization systems use microprocessor technology.
Serious changes occurred on the road in the 90s. with the decision to create the Southern Regional Control Center (SRCC). The main linear link in operational work was the support stations: in 2001, there were 34 support stations on the road. Concentrated management has improved operational and cargo handling performance. Machines and mechanisms began to be used more fully; Fiber-optic communication lines are being created: the Chertkovo-Rostov-Novorossiysk-Adler line will make it possible to create a road digital communication network.
On the road, the problem of increasing the permissible speeds of passenger trains to 120-140 km/h on the Moscow-Rostov-Adler, Moscow-Mineralnye Vody-Kislovodsk routes is being solved. The rehabilitation of the track, which is carried out with the use of new track machines RM-76, ShchOM6B, SCh-600, VPR-09-32, required large expenses. New generation machines work in conjunction with a dynamic track stabilizer and ballast planner.
The next stage in the development of the road was the construction of the Kizlyar-Karlan-Yurt line (1999); reconstruction and development of port stations (Novorossiysk, Temryuk, Tuapse), reconstruction of railway stations (Sochi, Krasnodar).
In 1998-2000 on the Krasnodar-Tikhoretskaya, Tikhoretskaya-Salsk and Salsk-Kotelnikovo sections, movement was carried out by electric traction. Since November 2000, the operation of locomotives on extended arms began on the road: Novorossiysk-Penza, Kochetovka-Nikolskoye. The technology of passenger service is being improved: a directorate for servicing passengers in long-distance transport “Sevkaveexpress” (which includes the carriage depots of Rostov, Adler, Novorossiysk), as well as “Donexpress”, “Kubanexpress” and “Kavkazexpress” has been created. The road initiated the organization of high-speed passenger trains on long-distance, local and suburban routes. A Road Center for branded transport services has been created, which monitors the execution of orders, planning cargo transportation, marketing and advertising services, information and technical support for clients, tariff policy and work with forwarders, operational management of a container fleet and management of container transportation. Three regional agencies of corporate transport services have been created: Makhachkala, Krasnodar and Mineralovodsk.
From the beginning of its existence, progressive experiences and methods of work arose on the road; on the railway networks are known: driver P.F. Krivonos - initiator of economical fuel consumption, dispatcher of the SV. Kutafin is the organizer of the movement of prefabricated trains. These endeavors are continued by entire teams: Art. Bataysk is the organizer of a complex adaptable automation system for administrative and economic activities (in 1999-2000, the station was the winner of the industry competition of the Ministry of Railways and the Central Committee of the trade union), the Timashevskaya locomotive depot is the basic enterprise of the road for the implementation of technical diagnostics tools for locomotives; resource-saving technologies are being introduced on the road, etc.
The road was awarded the Order of Lenin (1984) and other awards.
The volume of loading on the North Caucasus Railway (NCR) for 9 months of 2017 amounted to 52.2 million tons, which is 12.1% more than the same period last year. In January - September of this year, the loading of ferrous metals increased significantly - up to 1.3 million tons (73.6%) and coal - up to 8.1 million tons (41.5%). The volume of loading of grain (29.1%), oil and petroleum products (20.4%) also increased. According to the company, in September 2017, loading on the North Caucasus Railway amounted to 6.5 million tons, which is 17.6% higher than the same period last year. The total freight turnover of North Caucasus Railways for 9 months of 2017 amounted to 80.5 billion ton-km.
In January-September 2017, the number of passengers transported by the North Caucasus Railway decreased by 11.3%, the company’s press center reported. The most noticeable drop was in the volume of suburban transportation, in which the number of passengers decreased by 15%," the report said. In total, over 28 million people used the services of North Caucasus Railway during the specified period, of which 3.7 million passengers were transported in September. It is noted that passenger turnover for the specified period decreased by 7.7%.
Since December 2017, long-distance passenger trains have been operating on the new Zhuravka - Millerovo railway line. With the introduction of the new train schedule for 2017/2018, over 120 passenger and up to 30 freight trains began running on this section every day. The Zhuravka-Millerovo highway, 137 km long, became part of the high-speed railway connecting Central Russia with the Black Sea coast. According to the project, the maximum speed of passenger trains will be 140 km/h, freight trains - up to 90 km/h. The new railway passes through the territory of the Voronezh and Rostov regions. The goal of the project is to develop railway infrastructure in the direction Center - South, increase its capacity, ensure transport safety of freight and passenger traffic, bypassing the territory of Ukraine.
The North Caucasian Railway is implementing the program “Comprehensive reconstruction of the section Kotelnikovo - Tikhoretskaya - Korenovsk - Timashevskaya - Krymskaya with a bypass of the Krasnodar junction” and “Comprehensive reconstruction of the section 9 km - Yurovsky - Anapa - Temryuk - Caucasus”, designed to expand the capacity of the Volgograd - Caucasus highway. ports of the Taman Peninsula. To do this, the following work is performed:
- Construction of the second track on the Kotelnikovo - Salsk - Tikhoretskaya line;
- Construction of the second track on the Timashevskaya - Krymskaya line;
- Reconstruction and construction of the second track on the line 9 km - Yurovsky;
- Construction of approaches and a railway bridge across the Kerch Strait.
- Electrification of the section Station 9 km - Anapa.
On February 6, 2019, freight train traffic to the ports of the Azov-Black Sea basin was opened, bypassing Krasnodar on the new 65-kilometer section Kozyrki - Grechanaya with two freight stations Kirpili and Beisuzhek.
The North Caucasian Railway stretches from the Azov and Black Seas in the west to the Caspian Sea in the east, from the East Don Ridge in the north to the Caucasus Range in the south.
On March 1, 1860, the ataman of the Don Army, Mikhail Grigorievich Khomutov, addressed the Minister of War with a report on the need to build a railway from the Grushevsky mines to the pier at the village of Melekhovskaya. The construction of the railway in the Don territories was supposed to contribute to the trade and industrial development of the region. In the second half of the 19th century, rich deposits of coal were discovered in the area adjacent to the Don, in the area of the Grushevka River. The consumers of this coal - large industrial enterprises - needed the raw material to be delivered reliably and quickly.
In May 1860, Emperor Alexander II gave his permission, and seven months later, on December 18, he approved the “Regulations on the Committee for the construction of the Grushevsko-Donskaya railway and a pier on the Don River.”
On April 2, 1861, two miles from Novocherkassk, at the Tangash beam, a solemn ceremony was held to mark the start of construction work on the Grushevsko-Donskaya railway. “This holiday, as expected, attracted a large audience. After the prayer service, the ataman, as a representative of the Don Army, placing the first block of earth on a wheelbarrow, walked with it for some distance, followed by the chief of staff - a member of the railway committee and, finally, a builder roads with other engineers. The celebration ended with lunch for workers and guests" (Don Military Gazette, April 4, 1861)
In 1861, the final choice of the direction of the railway was made: it was supposed to run from the Grushevsky mines not towards the Melekhovskaya village, as originally planned, but to the Aksai village. The work was supervised by a railway engineer, Lieutenant Colonel Valerian Aleksandrovich Panaev, who was familiar with many famous Russian writers, in particular, he was friends with N.A. Nekrasov.
About 3,000 workers from among the peasants of the Kharkov and Kursk provinces worked on the construction. Sleepers and timber were purchased in Russia, metal bridge structures, steam engines, hydraulic cranes, turntables, mechanical equipment for repair shops, locomotives and wagons - in Belgium, from where they were delivered by steamships from Antwerp to the Taganrog roadstead.
On December 29, 1863, a railway line with a length of 66 versts (70 km), from Grushevka (Shakhty) through Maksimovka (Kamenolomni) and Novocherkassk to the village of Aksayskaya, with a branch to the coal mines and a pier, went into operation.
On January 7, 1869, the Viceroy of the Caucasus, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, presented the emperor with a note on the need to connect the Caucasus by railway with the general network of the empire in the direction from Rostov-on-Don to Vladikavkaz with a branch to the Black Sea. The Committee of Ministers supported the opinion of the governor, and on January 2, 1870, the highest order followed “to include the line from Rostov to Vladikavkaz in the network of major railways and begin its construction no later than 1872.”
Contractor S.S. Polyakov was instructed to survey the route of the future road. The Railway Committee, having considered the results of the survey, determined the general direction of the line. Of the four proposed, the option of laying a line through the Romanovsky post (Kropotkin), Nevinnomysskaya, 20 versts south of Pyatigorsk, along the valleys of the Kuban, Kuma, Terek, was accepted and approved by the emperor on March 7, 1872. The chosen route ran along a steppe hilly plain, rising noticeably to the south, and crossed the lands of the Ekaterinoslav and Stavropol provinces, the Don, Kuban and Terek regions.
The concession for the construction of the road was received by the collegiate assessor Baron Rudolf Vasilyevich Steingel, little known among railway entrepreneurs, who then served on the Tsarskoye Selo railway. Under the terms of the concession, the founder undertook the obligation to create a joint-stock company of the Rostov-Vladikavkaz Railway within three months for the construction of the Rostov-Vladikavkaz railway line and its subsequent operation within three years.
An eight-verst earthen dam and a stone floodplain bridge 250 fathoms (533.4 m) long were erected between Rostov and Bataysk. In total, more than a dozen large and medium-sized bridges and over 200 small bridges and culverts were built.
The Rostov-Vladikavkaz railway, 652 versts (695 km) long, with all engineering and civil structures, was built in three years - as planned. The official opening of train traffic took place on July 2, 1875. Vladimir Mikhailovich Verkhovsky became the first manager of the Rostov-Vladikavkaz Railway, in December 1879 he was replaced by I.D. Inozemtsev.
In July 1883, the board of the Rostov-Vladikavkaz Railway Society sent a petition to the Committee of Ministers to grant a concession for the construction of a line from Tikhoretskaya to Novorossiysk.
On November 9, 1883, permission was received, and on December 25, 1884, the road was renamed Vladikavkaz.
Construction began in April 1885. Three and a half years were allotted for the construction of the entire line from Tikhoretskaya to Novorossiysk, 258 miles long. On the Novorossiysk branch, the work was led by railway engineer Mikhail Stanislavovich Kerbedz.
The rails were produced at the Putilov plant in St. Petersburg and at the ironworks in Yuzovka (Donetsk). From St. Petersburg, the rails were transported by steamship to Rostov and Novorossiysk, then by rail to the laying site. Oak sleepers were harvested from nearby forests.
The first section from Tikhoretskaya to Ekaterinodar was opened to traffic in July 1887. On the second, more complex section from Ekaterinodar to Novorossiysk, two mountain tunnels were built: a small one, 180 fathoms long, and a large one, 650.9 fathoms long. The Novorossiysk branch was built as a single track, the tunnels were designed on two tracks at once, although initially only one track was laid. The excavation of rocks in the tunnels was carried out through explosions simultaneously from two portals.
The vault of the large tunnel was initially supposed to be made of brick. For this purpose, two brick factories were built, but a deposit of stone slabs was discovered nearby, so they abandoned the brickwork and switched to stone, which is stronger and more durable.
The opening ceremony of the newly built railway line took place in Novorossiysk on June 25, 1888, with a large crowd of townspeople, in the presence of the Minister of Railways K.N. Posyet, the commander of the Caucasian Military District A.M. Dondukov-Korsakov, the ataman of the Kuban Cossack army G.A. Leonov, Chairman of the Board of the Vladikavkaz Railway Company R.V. Steingel.
On May 24, 1891, the Vladikavkaz Railway Society received permission to build the Petrovskaya Line - from Beslan station, near Vladikavkaz, through Grozny to Petrovsk (Makhachkala). This line, 250 miles long, was put into permanent operation on January 1, 1894. Simultaneously with the Petrovskaya line, the Mineralovodskaya branch, 60 versts long, was built, connecting the resorts of Kislovodsk, Essentuki and Pyatigorsk with the main line of the Vladikavkaz road. With the arrival of the railway to Kislovodsk in 1894, intensive development of Caucasian resorts began. In 1895, near the Kislovodsk station, a beautiful Kurhaus building (room for concerts, meetings, etc.) with a spacious restaurant and theater was built. Opera and dramatic performances were staged here, concert performances were organized with the participation of famous actors: Chaliapin, Sobinov, Varlamov, Davydov, Didur, Plevitskaya, Preobrazhenskaya and many others. The number of visitors increased. In 1912, a second track was laid on the Mineralovodskaya branch.
In the early 1890s, the Stavropol City Duma repeatedly contacted the government with a proposal to build a railway line from Kavkazskaya station to Stavropol. Permission for construction, which was to be carried out by the Vladikavkaz Railway Society, was received on May 9, 1893. The work was supervised by M. Kerbedz .
He managed to successfully solve the difficult task of constructing high embankments, deep excavations, a considerable number of bridges, culverts and drainage devices on a short section of the route, reliably ensuring the safety of train traffic. The road came into operation in 1897.
The Russian-Japanese War that began in 1904 and the revolution of 1905 led to the fact that the construction of new lines was suspended for a long time. During the period from 1901 to 1913, a branch line from Bataysk to Azov, 28 miles long, was built and put into operation in 1911.
The Rostov-Vladikavkaz section, built in 1875, had a low throughput capacity, and therefore, with the increase in traffic volumes, especially after the launch of the Novorossiysk line and access to the Volga and the Caspian Sea, its radical reconstruction was required. Wooden structures were replaced with stone ones, junctions and large freight stations were rebuilt with the laying of additional tracks.
The bridge across the Don, built in 1875, could not cope with the growing freight traffic. Therefore, in 1912-1917, a new three-span and two-track bridge with a vertically rising truss was erected, designed by Professor S. Belzetsky with the participation of the largest bridge-building scientist Professor N. Belelyubsky and Professor G. Perederia. It was the first vertical lift bridge in Russia. The lifting part was designed by the American engineer Gunther. All metal structures were manufactured in Russia at the Maltsevsky plant.
With the coverage of more and more territories by the railway network, intensive growth of cities began: Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog, Novorossiysk, Vladikavkaz, Ekaterinodar, Armavir.
In 1908, a joint-stock company of engineer Pertsev was created, which received permission to build the Armavir-Tuapse road, and in 1912 - the Armavir - Stavropol - Petrovskoye road with branches to Divnoye and Blagodatnoye. The Armavir - Tuapse section was completed and put into operation in 1913, and traffic on the Georgievsk - St. Cross road began in 1914.
By the beginning of the 20th century. on the Vladikavkaz road there were 18 workshops, the largest of which were the depots and workshops of Rostov and Bataysk, Tikhoretsk, Novorossiysk, Caucasian, Grozny, Mineralvodchesk. In 1904, the Vladikavkaz Railway company had over 28 thousand workers and employees. It was engaged in oil production and refining and owned the entire infrastructure of the Novorossiysk port.
During the civil war, the railway tracks of the Vladikavkaz road were destroyed. The restoration and reconstruction process took almost 10 years. Since 1929, construction of new sites in the North Caucasus began (Tuapse - Sochi, Sochi - Adler, Maykop - Khadzhokh, etc.)
In the 1970s and 1980s, active construction was carried out on the road, in particular, the following lines were built: Zverevo - Krasnodonskaya (1971), Anapa - Yurovsky (1977), Blagodarnoye - Budenovsk (1987), Peschanokopskaya - Red Guard (1989).
The successor to the Grushevsko-Donskaya, and subsequently the Vladikavkaz, the North Caucasus Railway connects the region with the center of Russia, the Urals, Siberia, the Far East, the Commonwealth and Baltic states. The management of the North Caucasus Railway is located in Rostov-on-Don.
