RAILROAD FACILITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00047R000100250004-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 15, 2013
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: February 26, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr2013/04/15 :CIA-RDP82-000478000100250004-8
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY,
INFORMATION REPORT
50X1
50X1
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Railroad Facilities
50X1
PLACE
ACQUIRED
DATE
ACQUIRED BY SOURCE
~,~~ a~ ORI~aTZO~
TNIB DOCUMENT CON TRIM! INFORYRTION AFFEOTIN6 tNE NRTIOMAL D[FENBE
OF THE UNITED lTA TElr YITN IN TNf YEANINB OF TITLE IBr !lCTI ON! 799
RND 794r OF TNf U.4. DODEr ?! RYfMDEO. IT! TRAM BYI l910M D REY!?
LATI ON OF IT! CONTENTS fD OR AECf IPT BV RN VMAV TXDRIIED Pf RlOY IB
PRONI BI TEO BY LAY. THE REPRODUCTION Cp TNI! /DRY I! PRONI BI T[D.
N0. OF ENCLS.
(LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT N0.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
1, The Soviet Union had railroad tranasport difficulties throughout the per=50X1ove~ed
because of a l~.ck of freight cars and locomotive a, poc... _rpai~
o roc , an n?s fast, tl1at the rails were too light (30 kgs~meter~,
~e Hopper cars for bulk coTrmodities wer? scarceo This meant that much hand unloading `.
of bulk com;nodities had to be done, Sometime+e oven engineers in plants were
called out to h~-1p in this manual labor, There wore also not enough tank cars;
many of the vary old two-axle ~typc ware used. Flat cars and gondola cars for
carrying hesavy load., had to be reseax-~ed many months in advance of the shipping dates
Tanl~ ca~:?s were apparently always load.r,d to capacity. VPe lcnevl of no cases where
tank cars wire returned from an unlc~.ding point still containing large >arnountR of
POLO If, for. ex~,e the train docurnerit showed. that ~. car had 20 toms of pOL, anal
it had more, tl~e4~m~i;~s~~ could bl" sold on the black market, As ?vi.den.ce of full
loading- of tanl{' c~r~; ~ fresh oil on the sides, of a tank ear
which had come from Bacu, indicating that -train motion enroutc h~.d coaxed some
liquid to spill outs Tf an individual arras unloading for a plant, when he was re'
spon$ib1? for the job, all POL would be unloaded. But if he did it 'for a Miniwntry
wh~sre responsibility was not aS direct, ho might not be a:s caresful to drain every
drop of pOLo -The only. unur.ed freight cars vre saw were danced cars, Wes doubt
whether the ~o-viets have any pos~.ibility of building uyo frai ght car r~serv~ss as
it would not conform to their theory of making full u:se of capital goods. Frv~50X1
carrQ wore often in bad r~*pair, and sometim^s the cargo had to be transferred tc50X1
oth~-r cars o Hotivevvr, train brea.kdovTns were not too ~frequo-~nt, ~.nd freight train
wrecks occurred only occasianallyo
DATE DISTR. ,2G Fib 1,9~~.
N0. OF PAGES 3
SCR`'
341 The railroads did not have ?nough crane. for loading and unloading heavy shipm?ntss
Wry b~alieve that there was little mechanical equilament for tr~.nsloading at Brest
becauses of the slowness with which freight moves from Sovzona~ ~rex~n.any to USSRa
This conclusion is based on an experi?nc~s in shipping some winches from Sovzone
Germany to the USSRo This was an important shipment, and its delay in Brest causmd
one of the ministers probably the Ministor for PJtachinexy) to go to investigat?
CLASSIFICATION SECRETfS~'
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr2013/04/15 :CIA-RDP82-000478000100250004-8
 - nti~+~ ar~er~
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr2013/04/15 :CIA-RDP82-000478000100250004-8
S,~CRET~SECURITY I~IFOI~~ATION
~, To g:Mt.,per~onal attmntion by train personnel on freight shipmontss and tc~'assur?
reasonably prompt d?livery of freight shipmeantss admini.strativc personnel ~of
pla~it~; csfte*n bri,b?d: rL~.ilroad personnel. Brib?~ wire also necea~sary to obtain.
pa~cean~~r tickets; thosea who did not giv? Brib?s would com~timeas hav? to wait f~sr
wr.:eks to get tic;keats, In v~intcrs traffic was often de~laymd bescaus~ of the Lack
of cnovr plowso This often 13e1d up train mov?ment for days. In s~nmer trains opeara~
tcd protty much on scheadulee, In the spring anal autumns trucks could nei~hmr ~.~~
liver freight tos nor recsiv? traffic from minor ~tationc (called punkts~ because
roads weres too muddy,
5a Thm origin. and destination of a freight shipm?nt is not shotivn on then outside of thea
Soviet freight cars, UQea .are sure of Chic because wm did notices that it was shovrn
on freight cars in Germany. One reeason for nit putting this inform?ztion on th?
outsides of Sovieat cars was that p~aople would st?al the pap~x? bmcaa.se them was suc~z
a chortagv of v~riting paper, We saw some Soviet freight,earc on which tre original
_ - --- -~-' - _ _ n a __ . _..vL _ .... rrt7....-
waa don? to fors*ign freight carse
fi, From 36 to 48 hour. time. was usually permitted far then unloading of freight care~Q .
Ilowev~r~ norms w~cre cat for loading and unloading tim?as9 depeanding an, the facilit~~ss
`
had
avai:l~.ble at 'th~~ shipping- and recariving point~o Thus if a coal. loadi~a;g-poirs.t
bunl:~er?a from`-which coal:' could bes: dropped into cares its norm. for loading times was
much less than :if Ioadin~ f'aclit?a-wesr~s n:ot as f~.vor?able for rapid loading{
I~"' ~hipmont reeports were bald beyond tY? tim? p~rmitt?eI by an organizations th?y
would be Be*nt to the; T,Tinistry which governead they organization;: Breakage was
I~eS~:vy `I?his waA often dues to ovear@economy in us? of .paekin~ materialse zn adci~..tionD
3.oadng and unloading was not don ea carefully;: and cau.sQd much daTCi~.ge to cam,~oditisso
In parts this breakagA was dues to lack of`intear~st by workerso
7o Freight cRx?s were nav:~r loaded b?yond the mark~at capacityg because thcr~ was a
1.~.kel:iliood that the individual'-who clid so would b? called to account for ito
N~ith~r was there uri.d.erloe,dings caxcept where neceas?arye For ?xampleg :t,f 1.5?ton
.. n~~.:hines wire boring loadeod in a 50~ton box carse-the or~ari:ization would load- threes
m? ^l~in:ma~ fora total of 45 tones but would not load four machines f'or? si tota:f of
6G ~onsa Th?~ he,*aviest load carr.iead by a railroad car which was kno~v'r~. to us was
a. 12F~toza. steam hydraulic prea3o It was probably carried on a 16=a~1.~_flat ears
The Sovi-t$ have published hdndbooks for heavy indu.strie~ which b~:v~ axles 1.e,~ad:ing
and typ~$ -?f cars used for various types of heavy load:s 'It also gives instructions
on b.ow to load -and secure the cargo, V~lhean a freight c~ir is lradedg the ~1ant turns
it ovasr to a ra:ilraad r?presentativi in then plant area.e The ray lros;d 'inspects then
~ontentss signs the documents for then cars and sdals the Dana Freight c~ rs mu s+ b~
s~ale~Cl. in USSRs becausas if they were Hots the c?nteants would bee stolen.;
8o P=~r:odicallys vrhmels and. axles would- have to be put in a latki~ to reistor~e they aamoc~'trb.
surface..: Ngw ,axles had a diameter of 17.0-1:20 mm at the= paint where they be>:~r. irxgs
toucl-~eed but after successiv? turnings on the lathee the- dimension; mig'ri:t b~ r~du.ce?
to as littlea as `85 mm~ This lovra~red tho p~rmissibl? maximum nxlea load~ige which.
was shown by painting a, n-~w tonnage capacity on they tide of then carte, Standards were
sit up to indic