zinfamous
No Lifer
- Jul 12, 2006
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Somebody upthread mentioned gauge and I think I remember hearing a long time back that they made their rail system to a unique, non standard gauge. If that's true, they can't just buy, beg, borrow or steal rail cars and locomotives from anywhere else.
yes, exactly. when transiting from Russian rail networks--even a lot of the former soviet-occupied countries, like the Baltics, are stuck with horseshit, narrower Soviet tracks--you have to switch trains and tracks at stations. Russian trains can't transit into the west, and I'm not sure if this is completely true in the east and south, but I think it is.
This is a wonderful thing, though, because it vastly limits their ongoing ability to keep things going.