Trans-Siberian treasures

While travel to Siberia is currently a little tricky, Siberia is coming to us this year in the form of a two-centred exhibition which will display priceless exhibits surrounding the story of what is universally recognised to be the mother of all train journeys – the Trans-Siberian.

Taking pride of place in the exhibition at the National Railway Museum in York will be the jewel-encrusted Fabergé egg embellished with the legendary Moscow-Vladivostok route. An Easter gift from Tsar Nicholas II to his wife in 1900, the egg is normally housed in the Kremlin Armoury Museum in Moscow.

The Science Museum in London is being lent a section of a 1km-long panorama painting by Pavel Pyasetsky, which appeared at the

Paris Exposition of 1900 showcasing to the world the extraordinary feat of engineering the railway spanning 5,772 miles across seven time zones represented.

The simultaneous exhibitions – originally due to open earlier this year and now scheduled for late June – have come about as a result of a unique partnership with JSC Russian Railways.

Other highlights of the exhibitions will include model carriages of a luxurious Siberian Express, a model of the Newcastlebuilt “Baikal” icebreaker and unique archival documents, diaries and drawings that bring to life the story of the railway and those who built it between 1891 and 1916.

For more information on Trans-Siberian: The World’s Longest Railway and news of opening dates, see railway museum.org.uk and sciencemuseum.ac.uk

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