Krasnoyarsk

At around 2.30pm local time we came to Krasnoyarsk, a big city set in rolling hills. All the usual stuff to be seen: marshalling yards, endless lines of goods trains, derelict sheds and worn Soviet-era industrial facilities. But this city, like all the others we have passed, does not bear the signs of urban decay or economic stagnation. Whilst there are many old and tired buildings, there is much that is new; much construction is clearly taking place. The station was the most big-city style station we had seen so far, with platform indicators, stairs and overbridge, endless announcements. Whilst there was no Victorian style train shed, the station reminded me of York, in that it was bustling with activity - men unloading brake vans, wheel tappers passing along the trains, policemen, passengers and tourists. Also, like York it is on the edge of railway yards and engine sheds, with lines of coaches and wagons and spare locomotives.

As we took the fresh air outside the train, a suburban electric train comparable to those used in the UK pulled in. The low platform, the broad track gauge and the wide and large loading gauge conspired to make the train seem enormous compared to British trains. From the platform, the floor of the carriage was nearly head height. 

Beyond the station, some hills could be seen, and beyond that, there was the Yenisei river. One might compare it to the Seine at Bordeaux - but this is no estuary. This is a freshwater river a thousand miles or more from its mouth on the Arctic Ocean. And they are throwing another bridge across it.

After the river, more hills - more serious tree-covered hills, with picturesque brightly painted chalets ("dacha") and booths piled up the side of the hill. For an hour or so these hills continued, before the train emerged back onto a rolling plain. This is rich and fertile country - trees, grass, wild flowers.

5.15pm local - the train is crossing what can only be described, cliche though it is, as "rolling farmland". Huge fields of wheat or other grain are draped across the landscape on both sides. There are still masses of trees, but they are in clumps, thicker towards the horizon. There are hayricks everywhere. I suspect that the railway itself is the centre of a corridor of cultivated land with mostly wilderness on either side. The weather has improved to a golden afternoon of hazy sunshine, though exactly what the local time is, I don't know.