Through the curtain - the cold war years

[ChiefPlanner]

I've read that many East Germans did exactly that, scrapping their Trabis and Wartburgs and buying used cars from West Germany that dealers dumped on the East because they had failed the TÜV inspection. Then the TÜV test was introduced in the former DDR and they found out that their lovely new cars were junk.

Public transport patronage was high because fewer people owned cars.

It was also incredibly cheap - 20 Pfennings for a single journey in East Berlin on tram / U or S Bahn. Grey recycled paper for tickets , gun metal puncher to validate them at station entrances.

Posters inside advertising the great efforts of coal miners to keep the economy going etc. Little hard advertising of consumer goods cos there were not too many of them to purchase.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

On my first trip into the DDR in 1977 I ended up in Jena, home of Carl Zeiss optics.
I had reckoned on buying a pair of their excellent binoculars, and cheaper than in the UK.
But the few that were available were actually a lot more expensive than at home, the official exchange rate of 1 Ostmark = 1 DM not helping.
But I did get some decent LPs and some excellent hardbound musical scores (Messiah, Creation etc) which were very reasonable.
The DR service from Weimar also turned out to be the last time I travelled on a steam train in normal public service.
Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale (Wintermärchen) was on at the theatre in Weimar - there's a statue of him in the park there, the only one in Germany.

 

[MarcVD]

It's a two hour faff, but it does allow time for passport and customs checks.

No. I went through that two times. Passports and custom checks are donne while the train stays in the station, and only after it is taken to the hangar where bogies and couplers swap takes place. You could not do such checks with the cars uncoupled and jacked up two meters above ground, how would control personnel circulate around ?

 

[Bletchleyite]

No. I went through that two times. Passports and custom checks are donne while the train stays in the station, and only after it is taken to the hangar where bogies and couplers swap takes place. You could not do such checks with the cars uncoupled and jacked up two meters above ground, how would control personnel circulate around ?

FWIW I've done the Bucharest-Chisinau sleeper, and they jack the whole (relatively short, 4 coach I think?) train up in one go without separating the coaches. But they did indeed do the passports at the stations either side.

 

[MarcVD]

FWIW I've done the Bucharest-Chisinau sleeper, and they jack the whole (relatively short, 4 coach I think?) train up in one go without separating the coaches. But they did indeed do the passports at the stations either side.

How could you exchange the couplers if the cars remain connected together ?

 

[duesselmartin]

Brest is in Belarus. Same principle there and at Čop.

You are right of course. It is Belarus.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

How could you exchange the couplers if the cars remain connected together ?

As long as the four cars stay together when they are in Romania, they only need to change the couplers at each end of the formation.

 

[mailbyrail]

I remember travelling to Vilnius in the USSR by train from Poland in 1989. It was just as serious a border crossing with armed guards and high security as travelling by train across the Iron Curtain from West to East.

I flew to Warsaw, thinking I would be able to buy a ticket for the train onwards. I already had my USSR visa and Intourist hotel booking valid by the border crossing at Grodno as used by the daily train to Leningrad. I hadn't realised that tickets for the train were sold out well in advance and began panicking about how I could make the journey. One of the very few times I ever experienced a Polish person volunteer information without being asked was when the doorkeeper to the international ticket counter said 'but there is another train', after my fruitless attempts to buy a ticket at the counter in both English and German. Armed with this information, I was able to discover a handwritten slip of paper at the foot of only one of the information boards confirming the existence of a local train from Warsaw to Grodno, across the border in the USSR on dual gauge track. I purchased a cheap through ticket from Warsaw to Vilnius using Polish currency with no difficulty. The train left Warsaw about one hour after the through international train.
I joined the local train which emptied out as it moved Eastwards, until by the time we reached Bialystock there was almost nobody on board. The train headed off towards the Polish/USSR border and Polish border guards came through the train to check my papers. They took my double transit visa papers which was a bit concerning as to how I would be able to return home but offered no explanation as they spoke only Polish. The USSR border guards followed them through the moving train and processed my papers whilst the train was underway. I was one of very few passengers on board, besides being the only non-local passenger. Customs and visa checks were polite but very thorough. Panels were removed in the coaches to check for smuggled items. Armed guards were riding outside the carriages on the steps of the train wearing goggles to protect their eyes as we moved along at speed with watch towers along the border fence. The train pulled into Grodno station and I was one of the few passengers to get off. No sign of a train to Vilnius but the International train which had left Warsaw an hour or so before us was due to leave an hour or so later as it had been stopped at the border changing bogies. I had no idea if I would be able to catch it, or have to find a local service which may, or may not, operate on the line.
I was able to freely walk around Grodno with no idea what the city had to offer, and no roubles in my pocket, making sure only that I was back at the station in good time for the onward train which had left Warsaw before me but was now running on broad gauge rails.
When I arrived at the station, there was the train - all 18 coaches of it. My next problem was where I should sit, added to the worry as to whether my cheap handwritten ticket was even valid on the international train which could not accommodate me in Warsaw.
I decided to get into the last coach of the train as close to departure time as possible thinking the worst that could happen was that they would make me leave the train at the first stop, which was Vilnius, just where I wanted to be.
The female coach attendant came through the train checking tickets and checked mine without comment, moving on through the open coach. She seemed to get into a heated discussion with another passenger further along the coach and then broke off the check to return to me. She demanded my ticket again and took it away, much to my concern. The ensuing conversation further along the train then seemed to be along the lines of reprimanding the passenger who had been the centre of the discussion and showing him my ticket with a conversation which seemed to be along the lines of 'this is the ticket which you should have'. She returned to me with my ticket, smiles and grateful thanks. I had no idea what was going on and had originally expected it would have been me who had the ticket problems!
I was met in Vilnius station by my Lithuanian friends who took me to my hotel to check in and they carried out the formalities of hotel registration for me as I speak neither Russian nor Lithuanian. There seemed to be some concern over the transaction and I enquired what was the problem. I was told that the hotel had been told that I was not coming because I was not on the train when it crossed the border. I had done everything by the book and there were no problems, but big brother truly was watching very closely.

 

[Bald Rick]

I remember travelling to Vilnius in the USSR by train from Poland in 1989. It was just as serious a border crossing with armed guards and high security as travelling by train across the Iron Curtain from West to East.

I flew to Warsaw, thinking I would be able to buy a ticket for the train onwards. I already had my USSR visa and Intourist hotel booking valid by the border crossing at Grodno as used by the daily train to Leningrad. I hadn't realised that tickets for the train were sold out well in advance and began panicking about how I could make the journey. One of the very few times I ever experienced a Polish person volunteer information without being asked was when the doorkeeper to the international ticket counter said 'but there is another train', after my fruitless attempts to buy a ticket at the counter in both English and German. Armed with this information, I was able to discover a handwritten slip of paper at the foot of only one of the information boards confirming the existence of a local train from Warsaw to Grodno, across the border in the USSR on dual gauge track. I purchased a cheap through ticket from Warsaw to Vilnius using Polish currency with no difficulty. The train left Warsaw about one hour after the through international train.
I joined the local train which emptied out as it moved Eastwards, until by the time we reached Bialystock there was almost nobody on board. The train headed off towards the Polish/USSR border and Polish border guards came through the train to check my papers. They took my double transit visa papers which was a bit concerning as to how I would be able to return home but offered no explanation as they spoke only Polish. The USSR border guards followed them through the moving train and processed my papers whilst the train was underway. I was one of very few passengers on board, besides being the only non-local passenger. Customs and visa checks were polite but very thorough. Panels were removed in the coaches to check for smuggled items. Armed guards were riding outside the carriages on the steps of the train wearing goggles to protect their eyes as we moved along at speed with watch towers along the border fence. The train pulled into Grodno station and I was one of the few passengers to get off. No sign of a train to Vilnius but the International train which had left Warsaw an hour or so before us was due to leave an hour or so later as it had been stopped at the border changing bogies. I had no idea if I would be able to catch it, or have to find a local service which may, or may not, operate on the line.
I was able to freely walk around Grodno with no idea what the city had to offer, and no roubles in my pocket, making sure only that I was back at the station in good time for the onward train which had left Warsaw before me but was now running on broad gauge rails.
When I arrived at the station, there was the train - all 18 coaches of it. My next problem was where I should sit, added to the worry as to whether my cheap handwritten ticket was even valid on the international train which could not accommodate me in Warsaw.
I decided to get into the last coach of the train as close to departure time as possible thinking the worst that could happen was that they would make me leave the train at the first stop, which was Vilnius, just where I wanted to be.
The female coach attendant came through the train checking tickets and checked mine without comment, moving on through the open coach. She seemed to get into a heated discussion with another passenger further along the coach and then broke off the check to return to me. She demanded my ticket again and took it away, much to my concern. The ensuing conversation further along the train then seemed to be along the lines of reprimanding the passenger who had been the centre of the discussion and showing him my ticket with a conversation which seemed to be along the lines of 'this is the ticket which you should have'. She returned to me with my ticket, smiles and grateful thanks. I had no idea what was going on and had originally expected it would have been me who had the ticket problems!
I was met in Vilnius station by my Lithuanian friends who took me to my hotel to check in and they carried out the formalities of hotel registration for me as I speak neither Russian nor Lithuanian. There seemed to be some concern over the transaction and I enquired what was the problem. I was told that the hotel had been told that I was not coming because I was not on the train when it crossed the border. I had done everything by the book and there were no problems, but big brother truly was watching very closely.

Fascinating tale, thank you! It seems so very strange how we can now move around much more freely (viruses permitting).

 

[gordonthemoron]

10 years ago I worked in Munich and one of my colleagues was born in Jena, DDR. Back in the day her dad had a Trabant and she said that when travelling in it on the Autobahn, it felt like the car was falling to bits

 

[Jamesrob637]

10 years ago I worked in Munich and one of my colleagues was born in Jena, DDR. Back in the day her dad had a Trabant and she said that when travelling in it on the Autobahn, it felt like the car was falling to bits

That's why the Autobahn has a hard shoulder (Stillstandspur as you probably know having worked in MUC)

 

[jamesontheroad]

I remember travelling to Vilnius in the USSR by train from Poland in 1989. It was just as serious a border crossing with armed guards and high security as travelling by train across the Iron Curtain from West to East.

I flew to Warsaw, thinking I would be able to buy a ticket for the train onwards. I already had my USSR visa and Intourist hotel booking valid by the border crossing at Grodno as used by the daily train to Leningrad. I hadn't realised that tickets for the train were sold out well in advance and began panicking about how I could make the journey. One of the very few times I ever experienced a Polish person volunteer information without being asked was when the doorkeeper to the international ticket counter said 'but there is another train', after my fruitless attempts to buy a ticket at the counter in both English and German. Armed with this information, I was able to discover a handwritten slip of paper at the foot of only one of the information boards confirming the existence of a local train from Warsaw to Grodno, across the border in the USSR on dual gauge track. I purchased a cheap through ticket from Warsaw to Vilnius using Polish currency with no difficulty. The train left Warsaw about one hour after the through international train.
I joined the local train which emptied out as it moved Eastwards, until by the time we reached Bialystock there was almost nobody on board. The train headed off towards the Polish/USSR border and Polish border guards came through the train to check my papers. They took my double transit visa papers which was a bit concerning as to how I would be able to return home but offered no explanation as they spoke only Polish. The USSR border guards followed them through the moving train and processed my papers whilst the train was underway. I was one of very few passengers on board, besides being the only non-local passenger. Customs and visa checks were polite but very thorough. Panels were removed in the coaches to check for smuggled items. Armed guards were riding outside the carriages on the steps of the train wearing goggles to protect their eyes as we moved along at speed with watch towers along the border fence. The train pulled into Grodno station and I was one of the few passengers to get off. No sign of a train to Vilnius but the International train which had left Warsaw an hour or so before us was due to leave an hour or so later as it had been stopped at the border changing bogies. I had no idea if I would be able to catch it, or have to find a local service which may, or may not, operate on the line.
I was able to freely walk around Grodno with no idea what the city had to offer, and no roubles in my pocket, making sure only that I was back at the station in good time for the onward train which had left Warsaw before me but was now running on broad gauge rails.
When I arrived at the station, there was the train - all 18 coaches of it. My next problem was where I should sit, added to the worry as to whether my cheap handwritten ticket was even valid on the international train which could not accommodate me in Warsaw.
I decided to get into the last coach of the train as close to departure time as possible thinking the worst that could happen was that they would make me leave the train at the first stop, which was Vilnius, just where I wanted to be.
The female coach attendant came through the train checking tickets and checked mine without comment, moving on through the open coach. She seemed to get into a heated discussion with another passenger further along the coach and then broke off the check to return to me. She demanded my ticket again and took it away, much to my concern. The ensuing conversation further along the train then seemed to be along the lines of reprimanding the passenger who had been the centre of the discussion and showing him my ticket with a conversation which seemed to be along the lines of 'this is the ticket which you should have'. She returned to me with my ticket, smiles and grateful thanks. I had no idea what was going on and had originally expected it would have been me who had the ticket problems!
I was met in Vilnius station by my Lithuanian friends who took me to my hotel to check in and they carried out the formalities of hotel registration for me as I speak neither Russian nor Lithuanian. There seemed to be some concern over the transaction and I enquired what was the problem. I was told that the hotel had been told that I was not coming because I was not on the train when it crossed the border. I had done everything by the book and there were no problems, but big brother truly was watching very closely.

Incredible story, thanks for sharing. Those experiences can seem very sketchy at the time, but when you look back on them you realise how - in the stress of the moment - we underestimate the innate kindness and sympathy of human folk.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I remember travelling to Vilnius in the USSR by train from Poland in 1989. It was just as serious a border crossing with armed guards and high security as travelling by train across the Iron Curtain from West to East.

Great story.
It's galling that today you can't do that journey at all, except with an awkward detour via Kaunas or Minsk.
PKP can still get you to Grodno (Hrodna) in Belarus but the route onwards into Lithuania for Vilnius is closed.
The Warsaw-Leningrad Express is no more.
One day Rail Baltica will solve the problem of borders, but some are harder to cross today (in the sense of having any cross-border trains to use) than they were before the wall came down.

 

[mailbyrail]

Glad you enjoyed the saga - the return was equally unusual, but less problematic.

Given the problems acquiring my train ticket outwards, my first task the next day was to obtain my ticket for the return on through train from Leningrad. With the help of my local friends this was fairly straightforward - but I would have had no idea which ticket counter could make the transaction nor at what times. When it came to the time for return, I joined the train in Vilnius without incident, but when we then stopped in Grodno, it was chaotic.

The platform was solid with Poles returning home with piles of luggage stacked high. It seemed everybody had at least one fridge and one tv along with as many other bags as the children, grandmothers, friends and family could carry. At least with a compulsory seat reservation I already had my seat, but movement was pretty much impossible with luggage piled everywhere.

First to come through the train were the Soviet customs and border guards. They checked my limited luggage thoroughly, asked me to turn out my pockets, making sure I did not have even one kopek. I did have a letter in Russian from one of my friends to a mutual friend in England. Customs saw the letter and took it from me and went away with it. They did return a fair while later with it, having read it and whatever else they did. The border guards were relatively straightforward as I had all the necessary registration stamps.

Next through the train were the Polish team. Simply the outward stamp in my passport on my double transit visa was enough, much to my relief. I had nothing to declare to the customs officers who weren't very interested anyway. It was their Polish citizens colleagues they were interested in with their tvs, fridges, cameras and other consumer goods. Each Pole seemed to have exactly the right amount of zloties in their hands to pay the correct duty and each customs official had a pad of invoices, all completed by hand before the check even started. Unlike almost all communist paperwork I've come across before or since, this was actually straightforward and quick with everything prepared and ready with no cross-checking.

It turned out that cross-border 'businessmen' were travelling back and forth daily buying up as many consumer goods as possible in the USSR where they were easily available, selling them on in military-rule Poland under General Jaruzelski where life was pretty grim. It was the reason why PKP had decided to run the additional train, although why it was empty on my way outward I don't know. Probably nobody knew of its existence based on my experience and they simply booked up all the tickets available on the international train.

 

[citycat]

Reading the above makes me feel a bit guilty. On my childhood visits to Warsaw, my aunts would aways provide a boiled egg for breakfast. However, being a fussy child, I would only eat the yellow yolk of the egg and not the white bit, despite encouragement of my relatives.

Thinking back now, eggs were probably quite hard to come by and they were probably dismayed by how I was wasting a precious commodity by not fully eating it.

I’m sorry aunts and cousins. I didn’t realise!

 

[mailbyrail]

Yes, food in Warsaw was pretty poor unless you had contacts in the countryside. Bread was cheap and plentiful, but that was about it. All the good quality food was for export. I visited Auschwitz a few years earlier and as a western tourist changing the compulsory amount of hard currency, restaurant prices weren't a problem. I chose the most expensive meal with meat - getting a small piece of liver, mashed potato and cabbage.

 

[181]

I remember travelling to Vilnius in the USSR by train from Poland in 1989. It was just as serious a border crossing with armed guards and high security as travelling by train across the Iron Curtain from West to East....

Fascinating tale, thank you! It seems so very strange how we can now move around much more freely (viruses permitting).

Great story.
It's galling that today you can't do that journey at all, except with an awkward detour via Kaunas or Minsk.
PKP can still get you to Grodno (Hrodna) in Belarus but the route onwards into Lithuania for Vilnius is closed.
The Warsaw-Leningrad Express is no more.
One day Rail Baltica will solve the problem of borders, but some are harder to cross today (in the sense of having any cross-border trains to use) than they were before the wall came down.

And getting in and out of Belarus and Russia is, despite a reasonable number of trains on some routes, still quite a hassle with regard to visas etc. -- see seat61. Apparently foreigners can't get on a train in Belarus and travel to Russia (although passing through Belarus en route from somewhere else is usually OK), the excuse as I understand it being that as it's an open border for local citizens there are no official entry points. If there was still a Warsaw-Vilnius train via the direct route across the corner of Belarus, the £60 cost of a Belarussian transit visa would work out at about 1.50 per mile travelled through the country. My impression is that border bureaucracy is a long-standing Russian thing that long predates Communism as well as having outlasted it, although I'm not an expert on the subject

(As a tangent to the Iron Curtain theme, here (click and hold to enlarge) you can see the Warsaw-Vilnius timetable from a time when there was no border between the two cities, although the Lithuanians presumably thought that there should be.)

 

[sarahj]

I've done a few of the crossings, and will write about them later, but to give folks a idea, check out on you tube the great railway journeys of the world, Changing Trains. It's split into 4 parts and the final section shows the Chopin Express in Vienna, the Orient Express and then a trip to Budapest with actual film of the border checks. Plus some MAV steam and the childrens railway. Filmed around 1980.

I went to Budapest in the summer of 89 when Interailing. It was a pain to obtain the visa's. MAV had signed up to Inter rail not long before. Trains ran sealed from the Border to Budapest and VV with checks mainly done during the trip. Of course within 3 months it was almost all over and my parents who visited the following year did not have to bother with the visa's. But prices had already shot up. 3p for ice cream. 3 course meal with beer in a 4 star hotel for two £10, and the joys of mango ade