Ukrainian Railway Ladies

I happened on this piece in the Guardian this week (it was the double-page photographic feature spread on Friday Mar 27).
It's pictures of various female railway controllers at work in Ukraine.
I noticed plenty of them (not all female) on a recent trip to Ukraine, and they are common also in Romania and probably other parts of the railway network in eastern Europe.
The controllers stand to attention with a flag or baton with the passage of every train, seemingly even on double track electrified lines with centralised signalling.

The pictures tell a story of a way of work that seems anachronistic to western eyes, although it is probably also used in rural areas of Portugal and Italy.
The pictures capture a piece of real life on the railway, with the staff doing all they can to inject personality and character into the job and the surroundings where they work.

I commented on the presence of the "controllers" a couple of years ago after my trip through Ukraine, and wondered why they were needed in an era of automation of things like signalling and level crossings.
The answer that came back seemed to be that they were an extra pair of eyes on the network and were essentially part of the railway security setup.
Wheeltapping is another lost task which is still prevalent in eastern Europe.

The pictures are really rather nice, and capture a lot of character about the railway in Ukraine.
There are actually published under an "art and design" heading rather than transport!

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2020/mar/27/ukraines-railroad-ladies-in-pictures

Once you cross the border of ex USSR, it's like another planet...

I noticed that on the trans siberian railway, all major viaducts, bridges, and tunnels still seem to be guarded by the army. With usually a guard's hut at each end, permanently manned.

And most of those viaducts, bridges, and tunnels have been built separately for each track, so that a single bomb hit cannot close both tracks at the same time...

This sort of still happens in Central Europe.

In Czechia it's pretty common for stationmasters to come outside and watch every passing train, same seen in Hungary. Some also control crossings at smaller stations with a similar principle.

Not quite as regimented as standing to attention with a baton/flag away from stations, but a similar sentiment.

rg177 said:

This sort of still happens in Central Europe.

In Czechia it's pretty common for stationmasters to come outside and watch every passing train, same seen in Hungary. Some also control crossings at smaller stations with a similar principle.

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And time was IIRC also in Germany and Austria - because they were the people ultimately responsible for the trains, rather than UK-style signallers. Not sure about "Latin" Europe.

I noticed this on my trip to Ukraine this January, but my interpretation at the time was that the baton was a form of signalling token and they were showing it to the driver. Apparently not! Just tradition!

Although I would point out that it wasn't a purely female task.

MarcVD said:

Once you cross the border of ex USSR, it's like another planet...

I noticed that on the trans siberian railway, all major viaducts, bridges, and tunnels still seem to be guarded by the army. With usually a guard's hut at each end, permanently manned.

And most of those viaducts, bridges, and tunnels have been built separately for each track, so that a single bomb hit cannot close both tracks at the same time...

Click to expand...

Tunnels on the Italian-Franco border were being guarded by the army when I last passed through, to deter migrants walking through I assume.

30907 said:

And time was IIRC also in Germany and Austria - because they were the people ultimately responsible for the trains, rather than UK-style signallers. Not sure about "Latin" Europe.

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Remember it in Sardinia in the 90's.

Thanks for that link, I had missed it.
The third picture "Tetyana Grygorivna Dobronozhenko, 208km crossing, Smila station, Odessa Railroad" reminds me of the film "Closely observed trains," referred to on here within the last year. It's an excellent watch, and to this day I can't see someone breathe on an office stamp before using it (not that I have seen one in the flesh - what an appropriate phrase! - for a decade!) without a smile!

It's part of the signalling system. The staff concerned are commonly known as red caps as they usually wear a red hat. Their presence with baton/flag etc is actually the authority to proceed through the section, they control any associated points etc at their station. There's a bit more to it than that but that is the basic premise.

Most of the pictures made outside are showing level crossings and the ladies are crossing keepers, that are required to come out while train is passing, to observe safe passage .
Couple of the pictures made “inside” are shoving , telephones with no dials. These were to receive / made a call from / to a signaller only ( requiring closing of the crossing , confirming that is closed etc).

As for “red hats” these were part of garment for the workers responsible for train movements like : signallers , subsidiary signallers ( to long to write who they were ), platform signallers ( UK’s platform dispatchers), crossing keepers .
Orange flag was to give hand signals, if required, to a driver , shunter ( day time) .

MarcVD said:

I noticed that on the trans siberian railway, .... most of those viaducts, bridges, and tunnels have been built separately for each track, so that a single bomb hit cannot close both tracks at the same time...

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Or is it because they were originally built for a single track and doubled later?

Lucan said:

Or is it because they were originally built for a single track and doubled later?

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Correct, it was originally single track.

Lucan said:

Or is it because they were originally built for a single track and doubled later?

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Sure. But if what you want to do is just add track capacity, you don't usually build bridges and tunnels 50 meters apart.

Just wondering:

950 km crossing, Blyznyuky - Dubovo distance, Donetsk railroad

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What does distance mean here? Is this to be interpreted as "crossing at 950 km measured starting from Blyznyuky towards Dubovo"?

Blyznyuky and Dubovo (Ukrainian Dubove) are adjacent stations so it is the stretch of track between them, on which Google Maps does show a level crossing. Kilometers are probably measured from Moscow.