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Abandoned “Water Tram” on the Desna River in Kyiv Oblast
No comments · Posted by Sergei Rzhevsky in Entertainment, Funny, Photos
In a quiet backwater of the Desna River, not far from the village of Rozhny in Kyiv Oblast, you can find an unexpected thing – a tram that can float on water.
The owner of the water tram is the ex-head of the waterways section, who introduced himself as Viktor Pavlovich. He said that he had long dreamed of creating a permanent vacation spot for his family.
“It’s a long way to go to Crimea or Odesa, and what’s the point if there’s such a beautiful Desna River next to our house,” says Viktor Pavlovich. “So I decided to create a floating dacha (cottage house) where you can relax with your family and friends.”
The idea to create a floating tram came to Viktor Pavlovich spontaneously. In one of the warehouses he saw several pontoons and decided to buy them to install a house on them. Since it was troublesome to build a house from scratch, Viktor Pavlovich decided to use a ready-made structure and buy a decommissioned metro or tram car. After some thought, he decided to take the tram, since its carriage is much smaller, and in navigation conditions the bright red-yellow body color is preferable.
“I went to the tram depot, and there they sold me a decommissioned tram at the price of scrap metal,” says Viktor Pavlovich. “We transported the tram on a special trailer at night so as not to interfere with traffic.”
It took Viktor Pavlovich two years to build the river tram. He says that he did it during his vacation, equipped four cabins, installed sofas and a refrigerator, in general – a full-fledged home. But the water tram had one feature – the ship did not have an engine, it moved with the help of a tug. “But there were no problems with this, there were a lot of ships sailing along the Desna, and it was an honor for every captain to tow my tram,” says the inventor.
The owner of the water tram recalls that many people were surprised by his ship, to put it mildly. “People didn’t believe their eyes,” Viktor Pavlovich smiles. “Once we accidentally scared the fishermen. It was night, my son and I were in the cabin of the tram that was at the entrance to the bay on the Desna. Suddenly I heard the noise of a quickly approaching motor boat. I immediately thought that if only it wasn’t moving in our direction, otherwise they wouldn’t pass the tram at speed, despite the fact that it had signal lights. Meanwhile, the boat headed in our direction. I hear a man’s voice shouting: “Tram!” The other one answers him, saying, you’re crazy! Then they both screamed, after which the boat veered to the side and crashed into the shore. It turned out that these were fishermen who were not entirely sober.”
Many years later. The owner of the water tram resigned and abandoned it. This is what it looks like now, gradually being destroyed by nature. An amazing and unusual sight. Photos by: Richard Zorge.
This is what the water tram looked like originally.
Tags: abandoned · Kiev oblast
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