Two rare locomotives were stolen from the territory of the former construction site of the Stalinist railroad line (Krasnoyarsk region).
As Maria Mishechkina, director of the „Permafrost Museum“ in Igarka, reported to IA REGNUM-KNews, the two locomotives had been standing in this place for more than half a century – since the time when in the summer of 1953, after Stalin’s death, the camp sub-sectors of the GULAG construction sites stopped the laying of tracks throughout the wooded tundra for the Salekhard – Igarka main line.
According to the words of Mishechkina the robbery was committed in the overgrown settlement of Yermakovo. Each of the locomotives has a weight of about 40 tons. The director of the museum continued that the huge machines were stolen by „inordinately active profit-seekers“ from neighbouring settlements, in order to sell them as scrap metal.
Since 1948 the administrative headquarters of the Construction Project No. 503 were situated in Yermakovo. Ruins of uncompleted bridges, a depot and other special buildings, as well as camp zones established alongside the future polar main line, surrounded by barbed wire fences and watch towers, survived in this place.
Due to the historic value of all these objects the administration of the town of Igarka, which executes the control over the said territory, passed special regulations in 1992 and 1996, according to which it is strictly prohibited to remove any objects from these places.
IA RENUM-KNews 03.08.05