The main railway station of Rostov-on-Don is a junction station of the North Caucasian railway, which is recognized as one of the most popular in our country. This is a complex consisting of two stations: the main one, from which long-distance trains depart, and a suburban one. The railway station of Rostov-on-Don looks very respectable. Few people know that this building has a rather turbulent history, which goes back almost a century and a half.
History
The railway station of the Don capital has experienced a lot in its long history - both the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War, when fierce battles took place right on its territory. The building of the railway station in Rostov appeared in 1875 - on the land that the City Duma allocated for construction. Unfortunately, history has not preserved the name of the author of the project of the first structure.
At that time, it was one of the largest railway stations in southern Russia, located in the floodplain of the Temernik River.
Station during World War II
In this difficult period for the whole country, the railway station in Rostov-on-The Don was glorified by Lieutenant Ghukas Madoyan. In the early days of February 1943, the soldiers of the combined battalion of the 159th brigade under his leadership crossed the frozen Don on the ice, seized the territory of the city by a sudden assault.
For the Nazis, this was a complete surprise - trains loaded with military equipment that were to be sent to Taganrog were waiting on the rails. Residents of the city helped the soldiers in every possible way - with bread and medicines, nursed the wounded. Under pressure from superior enemy forces, Madoyan's group withdrew to the station and held it until February 14, despite the heavy fire of enemy artillery and air bombing.
According to eyewitnesses, it seemed that not only the earth, but also the air was burning here. Thanks to the machinist Khizhnyak, who was later killed by an enemy sniper, the soldiers were able to move to the foundry of the Lenin plant (locomotive repair). German aviation bombs fell on the empty station building, and Madoyan's group, under the cover of the powerful walls of the plant, kept the station under fire, preventing the invaders from using the railway.
Ghukas Madoyan was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1943 for courage and heroism in the performance of a combat mission. Moreover, this feat was also noted by US President Roosevelt, who awarded the hero with the gold medal of the US Army.
Recovery
Needless to say, during such battles, the building of the railway station in Rostov was practically destroyed. Later it was restored, repeatedly completed and reconstructed. At the end of the seventiesof the last century, the building was dismantled in parts in order to make way for a new modern station with a high-rise hotel.
In 2004, a large-scale reconstruction of the complex was completed, after which a concourse with spacious waiting rooms and convenient exits to the platforms was added above the rails to the station building. The engineers and architects of Kavzheldorproekt, led by V. A. Sukhorukova, initially planned the creation of three concourses, as well as the construction of a railway overpass for the convenience of boarding and disembarking passengers. As planned, the underground level of the station was occupied by a parking lot, and a shopping center was located on the second floor.
There are three platforms and five railway tracks at the main station. Three more ways are shunting. The platforms can accommodate twenty-eight cars.
Today, Rostov-Glavny is the largest railway station in the south of Russia with a large passenger flow and capacity. There are several cafes, a restaurant, an emergency room, a hotel, luggage storage facilities on the territory of the station.
As passenger traffic grows every year, a new reconstruction and technological re-equipment is planned soon.
Further development
The next reconstruction of the railway station in Rostov provides for the expansion and arrangement of platforms for high-speed trains, and the construction of a multifunctional complex. The developed project proposes three types of reconstruction: linear, areal and underground. Plannedthe development of the underground area of the station territory: a shopping and entertainment complex should be located on two levels. Thus, reconstruction with an increase in transport service indicators and a functional level will lead to the creation of a large modern station complex.
