Miller's line was a passenger

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

from 1873 to 1886, run by the Finnish State Railways. The line ran from Beloostrov to

Sestroretsk Sestroretsk (; ; ) is a municipal town in Kurortny District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, the Sestra River and the Sestroretskiy Lake northwest of St. Petersburg. Po ...

, and was the site of the world's first functional electric

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

Organisation

The private organisation ''Societies of the Sestroretsk Railway'' was established to control the railway, headed by Collegiate Assessor Moritz von-Dezen and Titular counsellor Michael Ivanovich Miller. It had been built for the military as the Sestroretsk spur line. There were plans to build a station 3 versts (approximately 3 kilometres) from Sestroretsk, on the bank of Sestroretsk Bay, and also an additional

branch line A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located ...

to the Tarhovsky

pier A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore, typically supported by piling, piles or column, pillars, and provides above-water access to offshore areas. Frequent pier uses include fishing, b ...

, where an operational station already existed.

Experiments with electrification

File:Sestroretsk miller rail.jpg, Place on Miller's line where Fyodor Pirotsky's first electric

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

was tested In

1875 Events January * January 1 – The Midland Railway of England abolishes the Second Class passenger category, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the year (Third C ...

, on an area between Miller's pier and Sestroretsk rail station, the

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

Fyodor Pirotsky experimented on the adaptation of

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

to be driven by an electrogalvanic cell. These experiments later led to a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

"For an electric way of transfer of forces on rail and other conductors", that is, for the creation of the first electric

. The experimental area consisted of a site with an extent of 3½ versts (3.73 km), which passed along the sand of beach for a large part of its length, with rail cars travelling distances of over one kilometre. The system used the

rails Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters * Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' (1967 fi ...

as conductors for electricity transmission; one rail carried the

direct current Direct current (DC) is one-directional electric current, flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor (material), conductor such as a wire, but can also flow throug ...

, and the second rail functioned as a return wire. After establishing the necessary connections on the joints between the rails, the transmission of electricity was successfully carried out. Pirotsky stated that current leakage to the

earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

was not appreciable, and the transfer efficiency was calculated to be acceptable. Expenses for the adaptation of existing railways to electricity transmission were determined to be insignificant – from 50 to 100

rouble The ruble or rouble (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is a currency unit. Currently, currencies named ''ruble'' in circulation include the Russian ruble (RUB, ₽) in Russia and the Belarusian ruble (BYN, Rbl) in Belarus. These currencies are s ...

s per verst.

Closure

1877 Events January * January 1 – Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India by the Royal Titles Act 1876, introduced by Benjamin Disraeli, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom . * January 8 – Great Sioux War of 1876: Batt ...

, the line operated four pairs of

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

s. They primarily served residents during the

summer Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

period, while in the

winter Winter is the coldest and darkest season of the year in temperate and polar climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Dif ...

they were only used by officials. The recorded volume of patronage was very insignificant because of a disputed

tariff A tariff or import tax is a duty (tax), duty imposed by a national Government, government, customs territory, or supranational union on imports of goods and is paid by the importer. Exceptionally, an export tax may be levied on exports of goods ...

policy of Finnish railways, and ultimately the Miller's pier station was left idle. As a result, the operators appeared to be in a disastrous financial position, and the majority of the proposed plans were left incomplete. By the mid-1880s, the Society of the Sestroretsk railway was definitively ruined, and on January 1,

1886 Events January * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British rule in Burma, British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5–January 9, 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson ...

, the railway was closed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller's Line Railway lines in Finland Railway lines in Russia Electric railways in Finland Electric railways in Russia Rail lines by company Railway lines opened in 1873 Railway lines closed in 1886 1873 establishments in the Russian Empire 5 ft gauge railways in Finland

Organisation

Experiments with electrification

Closure

See also

References