How an engineer from St. Petersburg built his own RAILROAD

“Sixty years ago, I was traveling through the Lithuanian SSR with my parents and, at Švenčionėliai Station, I saw a little steam locomotive,” recalls Pavel. “The engineer was operating everything by himself. He’d drive it, then jump out to either switch the points or couple the little cars. And I, a primary-school boy, would watch all of this – it was so fascinating! Since then, I’ve dreamed of having my own narrow-gauge railroad. When I walked in the forest or in a park, I’d think: “How could I lay a railroad here?”

He was able to fulfill his childhood dream in 2008. By then, Pavel was already living in the suburbs of St. Petersburg and he finally had the time and the space. And, on the day he took his wife to the maternity hospital, he immediately began construction.

From organs to railways

An engineer by training, Pavel Chilin is Russia’s only specialist in organ construction. He had to master the profession on his own – there was nowhere to study it. He studied literature at public libraries, figured out how the instruments worked and made his own drawings. Today, he has more than 50 organs to his credit in various Russian cities, while another 20 instruments have gone to Europe.

“It’s puzzling why, in a country of almost 150 million people, no one is doing this,” Pavel wonders. “It seems so interesting!”

His largest organ – a 16-stop instrument – is located in the town of Znamensk in Kaliningrad Region. Moscow has the most of his instruments, including a teaching organ at the Gnessin Academy and at the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve. Many ensembles use his small portable organs to perform Gothic music.

As an engineer, Pavel finds it fascinating to study the inner workings of all kinds of structures. So, when his friend Sergey Terekhov suggested building a steam locomotive, he couldn’t resist.

“Sergey has been working with steam locomotives for more than 20 years,” says Pavel. “He was the initiator of our idea and served as chief designer of the steam locomotive. By the way, he’s also an engineer on our railroad!”

A railroad in a garden plot

To build what may be a small, but real railroad, they had to level the marshy banks, build bridges and draw a great many blueprints. “All the work is very labor-intensive,” Pavel notes.

Today, the plot has more than 300 meters of track and the route in both directions comes to about 650 meters: “We go around twice: once clockwise, once counterclockwise.” The railroad has three bridges, 12 switches, one diamond crossing and three depots.

The track gauge is 300 millimeters. On social media, it has already been dubbed the ‘Chilin gauge’. “It’s half of a 600-millimeter military field railroad,” explains Pavel. “In model terms, that makes a scale of one to two. Very convenient.” The rolling stock was reduced by about a factor of one and a half so that it wouldn’t be cramped.

This is not an amusement ride!

The railroad quickly became a local attraction and began to appear on maps. So, every Saturday (except during the winter months), Sergey takes the driver’s seat and Pavel becomes the station master.

The steam locomotive runs on firewood and pulls four cars: two passenger cars and two mixed-use passenger-and-freight cars. The train can carry up to 32 people. Besides the steam locomotive, an electric locomotive runs on the same rails and, in summer, Pavel’s friend brings a tram, as well. “We sometimes have very heavy traffic,” he jokes.

The railroad is not an amusement ride or a business. “We don’t sell tickets or anything like that – it’s purely an educational railway for friends. Two young guys have already gone to study to become assistant drivers,” notes Pavel.

Pavel and Sergey also help build other field railroads: at the Kiiskilä Estate near Vyborg and near Kaliningrad, by the ancient Schaaken Castle.

Now Pavel is also building a steam boat – just for fun: “We want to take a trip along the White Sea–Baltic Canal with our engineer!”