Life at the end of the tracks

Life at the end of the tracks

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In a remote corner of the Russian Urals region of Sverdlovsk, tiny villages are shadows of their former selves. For the few local residents, a narrow-gauge railway is their lifeline.

Boarding a 50-year-old diesel train on this line is like going back in time.

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The forestry industry here suffered when the former Soviet Union imploded and people moved away in search of work in the steelmaking city of Yekaterinburg and beyond.

About 600 people lived in Kalach about 30 years ago.

"Those were the days," said Alexander, who used to work in the forestry business.

He recalls the trains that used to take timber from the forests to the railhead in the town of Alapayevsk.

. Kalach, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

The tracks end at Kalach, home to just a dozen people, all of them adults.

In Kalach there are no telephones and no mobile reception. Electricity has only been supplied for a few hours in the evening for about the past decade.

. Kalach, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

Still, that has improved the quality of life for Sergei, 62.

"It used to get pretty boring," says Sergei, who cares for his mother, 86, the village’s oldest resident. "I'd be going to bed at 8pm, tossing and turning."

Most of the residents of Kalach, the youngest of whom is aged 34, are self-sufficient. Bread arrives by train. The cows have now gone, replaced by sheep.

"We grow our own food," adds Sergei, speaking in a room with traditional religious icons hanging on the wall. "Potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers. What else do we need?"

All of a sudden he jumps up, leaves the room and brings back an accordion, playing a tune his father taught him. That kind of spontaneous hospitality was typical of the people I met along the railway.

. Sankin, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev
Alexey Jakushin and his family live in Sankin.

An estimated 90 percent of Sverdlovsk region's population of 4.5 million live in its cities. Life in remote rural areas means making the best of things.

. Muratkovo, Russia. Reuters
The village Muratkovo has no school so children travel to a neighbouring village.

The isolation of these communities makes healthcare a difficulty. One resident gave birth to her son Yegor, now 6, in the train on the way to hospital in Alapayevsk.

It takes about eight hours to travel the full 150 km of the line. En route is the town of Sankin, population 600, where Kalach residents get their post delivered and, for some, collect their state pensions once a month. Clothes sellers arrive in town that day.

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Slideshow

Railway tracks are covered in snow near Sankin.
. Sankin, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

Railway tracks are covered in snow near Sankin.

A woman, who lives in the village Muratkovo, speaks to the train driver who is taking her daughter to school in Sankin.
. Muratkovo, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

A woman, who lives in the village Muratkovo, speaks to the train driver who is taking her daughter to school in Sankin.

An engine driver is seen in a train in the village of Ugolnaya.
. Ugolnaya, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

An engine driver is seen in a train in the village of Ugolnaya.

Alexander Kuznetsov, 53, drives a train in the village of Strokinka.
. Strokinka, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

Alexander Kuznetsov, 53, drives a train in the village of Strokinka.

People ride inside a train from Ugolnaya to Elnichnaya. A ticket costs about $3. The trip, with a transfer in the village Sankin, takes eight hours.
. Ugolnaya, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

People ride inside a train from Ugolnaya to Elnichnaya. A ticket costs about $3. The trip, with a transfer in the village Sankin, takes eight hours.

A man sleeps inside a train travelling to Sankin.
. Sverdlovsk Region, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

A man sleeps inside a train travelling to Sankin.

Local resident Grandma Shura carries buckets of water home. With no tapped water, Sankin's residents fetch water from a well.
. Sankin, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

Local resident Grandma Shura carries buckets of water home. With no tapped water, Sankin's residents fetch water from a well.

Local resident Lyudmila is seen in a goat barn at her house in the village of Kalach.
. Kalach, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

Local resident Lyudmila is seen in a goat barn at her house in the village of Kalach.

Local resident Alexander poses with a gun in his house in Kalach.
. Kalach, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

Local resident Alexander poses with a gun in his house in Kalach.

A railway manager sits in her office in Elnichaya.
. Elnichnaya, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

A railway manager sits in her office in Elnichaya.

An engine driver's assistant walks past diesel locomotives at a train depot in Alapayevsk.
. Alapayevsk, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

An engine driver's assistant walks past diesel locomotives at a train depot in Alapayevsk.

An engine driver’s assistant attaches a carriage to a TU4 Soviet diesel locomotive in Sankin.
. Sankin, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

An engine driver’s assistant attaches a carriage to a TU4 Soviet diesel locomotive in Sankin.

An engine driver's assistant walks past diesel locomotives at a train depot in Alapayevsk.
. Alapayevsk, Russia. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev

An engine driver's assistant walks past diesel locomotives at a train depot in Alapayevsk.