NOTES SHORTCOMINGS IN RAIL OPERATIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600390175-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 175
• Publication Date: April 27, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

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INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
CLASSIFICATION SECRET "Ont l
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Transportation - Railroads
HOW
PUBLISHED Daily, thrice-weekly newspapers
WHERE USSR
PUBLISHED
DATE
PUBLISHED 6 Sep 1950 - 28 Jan 1951
LANGUAGE
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MINInD NT rLAW IiiiMOUmolll 0-TA NIf PODS I! PIOIIIiiiio. IN ""
DATE OF
INFORMATION
DATE DIST. a7 Apr 1951
NO. OF PAGES 4
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
NOTES SHORTCOMINGS IN RAIL OPERATIONS
LEADERS, LAGGARDS IN TURNAROUND TIME LISTED -- Moscow, Gulick, 5 Jan 51
Railroad systems achieving the best results with the assignments for
freight-car turnaround time in December :ere the Perm', Stalin, Southeastern,
Pechora, Western, Belorussian, Latvian, Vinnitsa, South Donets, Moscow-Ryazan',
Kalinin, L'vov, Ufa, a:-d Kishinev systems.
The following systems lagged behind the others in regard to execution of
the freight-car turnaround time assignment: Tashkent, Transcaucasus, Turkestan-
Siberia, Karaganda, Moscow Inner Belt Line, Ordzhonikidze, Brest-Litovsk, Oren-
burg, Ryazan'-Ural, Moscow-Kursk, Kirov, Odessa, Southern, and Lithuanian sys-
tems.
MINISTRY CALLS FOR IMPROVEMENTS -- Moscow, Gudok, 14 Jan 51
On 30 December, the Ministry of Transportation issued an order concerning
measures for assuring the completion of the first-quarter 1951 plan for carry-
ing, including steps for eliminating the excess of local freight and for accel-
erating unloading. However, at many points the order has not been carried out,
and as a result unloadings have dropped during the first days of the new year on
many railroad systems.
WEATHER HAMPERS CHELYABINSK -- Moscow, Gudok, 8 Dec 50
Snowstorms hit the South Ural Railroad System at the beginning of November,
and cold weather set in afterward.
In the Chelyabinsk railroad center, two snow-removal machines got out of
order in the snowstorms, and station tracks had to be cleaned by hand. Train
formation and hump operations were disorganized. A large. number of cars piled
up and receiving of trains from all points was disrupted. In general, it was a
repetition of what occurred last winter.
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The use of hot journal lubricants for cars going off the humps was poorly
organized, as was the supplying of sand to locomotives.
The whole sector from Chelyabinsk to Uktus is loaded with local freight,
and many stations on this sector have only one track free for through traffic.
On the system as a whole, the necessary attention is not given to the even
distribution of local freight among the divisions so as not to create impedi-
ments for through freight.
During 1950, the Brest-Litovsk System handled more than 1,800 above-norm-
weight trains.
During 1950, the Perm' System handled 11,204 above-norm-weight trains and
carried 3.7 million tons of freight above the norm. Steam locomotive engineers
s;~red 10,805 tons of coal and electric locomotive engineers saved 965,000 kilo-
watt-hours of electric power.
By retucing inefficient haute, the Caucasus Railroad 0'. , daring 9 m nths
of 1950, saved more than 10,000 cars and a total of 14.5 million ton-kilometers,
thereby effecting a saving of about one million rubles. The carrying of forest
products from the Novorossiysk station to the areas of the Azerbaydzhan Railroad
System was reduced by more than 500,000 ton-kilometers by carrying the products
by sea with transshipment at the ports of Tuapse, Poti, and Batumi.
However, all the inefficient hauls on the systems, of the okrug have not
been eliminated, particularly in regard to the nonrevenue carrying of mineral
construction materials by the Ministry of Transportation itself.
NORTH DONETS COAL SHIPPING,DISORGANIZED -- Moscow, Gudok, 14 Jan 51
Coal amounts to about 70 percent of the total freight carried by the North
Donets Railroad System, but because there exist in the Donets Basin three inde-
pendent "Uglesbyt" (Coal Sales) administrations, the Voroshilovgrad, Rostov, and
Stalino administrations, the system is experiencing difficulties in planning and
regulating the flow of coal.
Each of these administrations plan the carrying of coal for a series of sta-
tions of the North Donets, South Donets, North Caucasus, and Stalingrad railroad
systems, depending,on in what oblast the loading station is located. At the same
time, all three administrations worry only about the quantitative fulfillment of
their assignments, and ignore the efficiency of the carrying, as can be shown by
the following examples.
The stations of Krasnoarmeyskoye, Bel'giyskiy, and Grodovka are located on
the borders of Stalin and Dnepropetrovsk oblasts. The Stalino administration
plans the carrying of gas coal from these stations of the South Donets System
to Popasnaya, Artemovak, and Voroshilovgrad. It was planned to ship to 25,000
tons per month to the latter stations and to other points on the North Donets
System. At the same time, the Voroshilovgrad administration planned to send gas
coals from the Bezhanovke station of the North Donets System in the other di-
rection to Yenakiyevo, Amvrosiyevka, Trituznaya, Pravda, Novorossiysk, and Zhda-
nov. Thirteen thousand tons per month were to be carried in this direction.
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The Voroshilovgrad administration sends PZh coal from the Irino and Or-
lovska;a stations of tha North Donets System (Voroshilograd Oblast) and from
the Izvarino and Verkhneduvannaya (Rostov Oblast) stations to the south Do-
nets, Stalin, Odessa, Kishinev, and Kovel' systems. The Stalino administra-
tion plans the shipment of coal of the same type from the stations of Stalino,
Rutchenkovo, and others of the South Donets System in the opposite direction
to Gosudarev Bayiak of the North Donets Railroad System and also to the Yaro-
slavl' and Moscow-Donbass systems.
The existence on the North Donets System of three "Uglest.t" administra-
tions and the lack of a single centralized system for coal distribution by
destination points has led to the dispersion of freight flows and has reduced
the possibility of organizing coal carrying in long-haul trains. Ai.thracite
is loaded in 22 stations of the North Donets System. The Voroshilovgrad and
Stalino administrations plan to ship anthracite to the Stalin System from al-
most all of these stations and to the Southern System from 16 coal-loading sta-
tions. Coal is shipped to Poltava from six stations, to Kharkov from seven,
etc. The Stalin, administration plans to ship anthracite from the Rassypnaya
station to 143 points, and from Mochalinskiy, to 87 points. With the organiza-
tion of a single "Uglesbyt" administration in the Donets Basin, it would be
possible to :organize up to 70 percent of all the cars loaded into long-haul
trains.
POOR MAINTENANCE CAUSES RAIL FAILURES -- Moscow, Gudok, 28 Jan 51
On some railroad systems there nave recently been cases of rail failure,
the chief reason being unsatisfactory running track maintenance under winter
conditions. The properties of frozen ballast have not been taken into account,
nor has the increased sensitivity of the rails to shocks when cold. Also, on
the Sinarsk subsection of the South Ural System there have been frequent cases
of rails breaking around bolt holes because insufficient attention has been
given to rail joints. It is time to increase the attention given to rail joints
and to expand the use of defect-detecting,instruments.
In the areas traversed by the Odessa Railroad System there are huge re-
sources of Ukrainian lignite of the Aleksandrovskiy, Bogachevskiy, and other
deposits. The extensive utilization of this fuel in locomotives conserves
high-quality clinkering coals which have to be brought in. Also, the addition
of lignite in fuel mixtures permits the most effective utilization of anthracite
and lean coals, which, while having a high calorific value, also have a clinker
which fuses easily and forms on the firegrates a solid crust impervious to air.
Lignite promotes the disintegration of the clinker, making it porous.
On the Odessa Railroad System as a whole, the use of lignite until a little
while ago was still most insignificant. Last month, however, the proportion of
lignite in the total fuel expenditure of the system was 18 percent, and the
utilization of lignite can be increased with success to 50 percent of the total
fuel expenditure of the system. That the supplying of locomotives wt.th local
fuel is poorly organized is the fault of the fuel department of the railroad sys-
tem and also of the fuel department of the Southwestern Okrug. Lignite can be
used successfully not only by locomotives of all of the Odessa System, but also
on the neighboring Southwestern, Vinnitsa, and Kishinev systems. It is clear
that the effective use of lignite is possible only in locomotives whose combus-
tion apparatus is faultless. Also, several. technical changes in the locomotive
are necessary, including lengthening of the firebox dome by one brick.
It has been determined by practice that the most profitable fuel mixture
contains 50 percent lignite.
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The'Prosecutor's Office of the Azerbaydzhan Railroad System has indicted
a number of persons guilty of continual delaying of loaded freight cars in
railroad stations. For holiiing up 296 cars for a total of more than 8,000
hours, one man has been sentenced to 1 year's loss of freedom.
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