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Riga and the Latvian Railway Museum
Author: John Oxlade, Salfords, Surrey, United Kingdom (email: )
In January 2004 I visited Riga on a short-break. Whilst there I did a little railfanning, but as I was unable to make myself understood at the station I chose not to risk taking photographs there - especially as there were several policemen present. I don't actually know if they are suspicious of photographers but I chose not to risk it. I saw the express to Moscow leave punctually at 16:15 but other than that, station activity was restricted to EMUs whilst I was there. I thought it was pretty safe taking pictures of the bridge over the Daugava river and also at the Latvian Railway Museum, so here are some views of my visit:
CENTRALA STACIJA (central station) is a rather uninspiring building really and inside looks much the same as most other modern stations. |
Upon leaving the station heading west, trains must cross the Daugava River on a bridge approx. 500m long. You can see people ice fishing as the river was completely frozen over.
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The Latvian Railway History Museum is only quite small and they have plenty of room for expansion. Most of the stock is kept outside, which long-term may not do it a great deal of good. |
52 036, built by Henschel in 1942. The Soviet Union obtained 2700 as reparations after World War II. Re-classified as class TE and re-gauged to 5' (1524mm) they were used in Latvia up until 1985. |
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TE3-7193. 5' (1524mm) gauge twin-unit diesel. This example was built in Lugansk in 1971, to a design from 1953. The main diesel freight loco in the former Soviet Union in the 1960s, this design was built over a 20 year period. They operated in Latvia between 1967 and 1991. |
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Inside the museum there is an H0-scale model railway based on real Latvian stations ... |
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... a number of inspection trolleys ... |
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... a 600mm gauge snowplough ... |
... and a beheaded cab from a diesel loco. |
[ last updated 22nd January 2004 ]