The 2TE10
evergreen · planted 2023-01 · tended 2024-02
The 2TE10 is a Soviet diesel with two sections, each with its own engine, and together it pulls a freight train of about 3,000 tonnes without breathing hard. Ours were built in the 1970s and 80s in Luhansk, and they are still the pride of the depot. The drivers talk about them the way other men talk about horses: this one pulls to the left, that one is shy in the rain.
The cab smells of old diesel, hot dust and tea. I put my name on the visitors' list once and was allowed up for ten minutes. See Diesel, no wires and Fewer than twenty.