Near the town of Holubivka (55 kilometers from Luhansk), there is a unique object of historical railway infrastructure - a railway arched viaduct. It is a unique mainline that operated for 30 years in its time and is now a heritage of our region.
The TRIBUN publication has gathered all known facts and photographs about this mysterious viaduct of Luhansk.
Due to the rapid industrial and trade development in the region at the beginning of the 20th century, there arose a need to connect Luhansk and the surrounding mines with other cities by railway. In September 1911, the first section of the North Donetsk Railway was constructed – the Yama line (now Siversk) to Rodakove, which connected the region with a number of populated areas along the Moscow-Kyiv-Voronezh, South-Eastern, and Southern main lines. This unique object for Luhansk Region was erected near the worker settlements of Holubivka and Kamenyvate (now Donetske).
was laid was challenging for construction. Due to the economic impracticality of building embankments to cross a road with a deep ravine, the need arose for the construction of a viaduct. The bridge had to be built over a ravine with steep banks, through which a stream flowed. The length of the bridge was 170 meters, and its highest point reached 40 meters.
As a result, the North Donetsk Railway was connected to the Southern and Katerynoslav main lines. On the new railway, 36 stations were built, including Sviatohirsk, Lyman, Yama (now Siversk), Nyrkove (in the village of Nyrkove), Sentyanivka, Mykytivka, Shypilove, Bezhanivka, Rodakove, and others. Later, steam locomotive depots (now locomotive depots) were established at the Lyman, Kramatorsk, Nyrkove, and Rodakove stations. Two years later, on September 7, 1913, the construction of the Yama-Mykytivka line was completed, and the first train from Mykytivka station departed for Siversk station. The new mainline became a profitable enterprise. In 1912, each verst of the railway yielded 18,000 rubles in dividends annually.
For thirty years, the bridge carried both passenger and freight trains. In 1941, to prevent the advancement of German troops to the east, the viaduct was blown up by Soviet forces, although this still did not stop the enemy. After the liberation of the Luhansk region in 1943, restoration work began with the efforts of the 31st Separate Bridge Regiment under the leadership of engineer S. Fradkin. The destroyed arches of the stone structure had to be replaced with reinforced concrete. In our time, the line of transition between historical and new supports is clearly visible. Full restoration was only completed in 1949.
On the bottom of the ravine, you can still find scattered stones - fragments of the blown-up arches. Since 2014, the viaduct has been located in the temporarily occupied part of the Luhansk region by Russia.
Author: Oleksandr Kuchynskyi
