[club1543502|Monument on the Rails].3 photos

Yesterday, on the premises of the “Zhovten” electric locomotive depot, another monument was officially unveiled in a solemn ceremony. The steam locomotive EU 677—49 completed its final, peaceful journey and now occupies a honorable place on its pedestal—on ordinary railway tracks. Admittedly, not every locomotive is granted such recognition. This one truly deserved it. Its heroic history began in July 1942 at the Ozerelie station in the Moscow region. It was here that the 10th Steam Locomotive Column of the Special Reserve of the People’s Commisariat of Communications was organized, consisting of railway workers from the Southern Railway line. The EU 677—49 was one of the few locomotives that, despite being damaged by enemy air raids, continued to serve with dedication. Stalingrad, Orel, Rostov, Kursk, Belgorod, Kharkiv, Kiev, Breslau-on-the-Oder (now Wrocław), Berlin—such was the battlefront of the 10th Steam Locomotive Column. The engineers Alexander Grigoryevich Yakovlev and Ivan Ivanovich Bobryshev, who operated the locomotive EU 677—49, also played a crucial role on this journey. From then on, this locomotive became a monument to the heroic deeds of the Southern Railway workers during the Great Patriotic War. At the ceremony, officials from the former 10th and 34th Steam Locomotive Columns, including F. Y. Estis and S. F. Vasilyenko, engineer I. I. Bobryshev, South Railway Director M. S. Konarev, Secretary of the Lenin District Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party O. V. Skiba, and Deputy Minister of the USSR Ministry of Communications P. K. Lemeshchuk, delivered speeches. The pioneers and students of the 23rd Railway School also warmly congratulated the veterans of the Southern Railway’s steam locomotive columns on this celebration of Great Victory. G. MYKHAILOV, “Evening Kharkov” newspaper, May 6, 1975. (gortransport.kharkov.ua/news/17721/) vk.com/soviet_kharkov #Kharkov #Kharkov #History