steam engine

This witness to the Siberian gold rush might be the only one left in the world.

Reputed to be the largest train station in Russia, it takes an area of almost 30,000 m2, and can simultaneously host 4,000 passengers. 

Novosibirsk Glavniy Train Station is designed like a steam engine, heading East, with interiors which one of the visitors described like: ‘Huge and decorated like a concert hall in Vienna...high ceiling, big chandeliers, the architecture - it is unique!’

This exceptional collection of brightly coloured historic engines and carriages, dating from pre-revolutionary times, is fascinating as much for the casual visitor as the railway fanatic. 

You can climb into many of the old exhibits, and get a sense of the extraordinary Soviet locomotives that opened up Siberia in the age of steam.

From the city, you can get here by local train, perhaps combining a visit with sightseeing in Akademgorodok and at the Ob Sea.

There's no better place to grow than in the towns like my historic Tara, founded in 1594, without traffic jams and supermarkets, but with winter fun and fresh air. 

Major discovery of Ben Leigh Smith’s vessel which sank off Franz Josef Land in 1881 sandwiched between two giant icebergs.

When Vadim Kolpakov went on an expedition to the north of Irkutsk region, he had no inkling of the sensational discovery he was about to make.

Haunting images of this Railway to Nowhere, built by Gulag convicts in the cruellest of conditions on the cusp of the Arctic Circle.