"Train number zero" was no different from ordinary freight trains. It was not supposed to know what he was transporting. On November 28, 1989, the combat railway missile system "Molodets" began to run in the USSR. The details are at Radio Sputnik.
In the USA, it was called the "ghost train". Among the hundreds of freight trains on the railways of the USSR, it seemed impossible to calculate the "Well Done". And yet they figured him out. For some reason, the train with only 17 cars had three locomotives. Satellite surveillance began on him.
Weapons of retribution
The secret project was launched in 1969. In the 1980s, the first line-up appeared. He was driven 18 times across all climatic zones - from the taiga to the desert. When he rolled 400 thousand km, production was put on stream. In 1989, the USSR had three special missile divisions: each with four trains – a total of 36 launchers. Yuri Knutov, Director of the Museum of Air Defense Forces, tells:
Combat missile railway complex
Image source: © Photo : provided by the press service of the RVSN
"Well done" were created in such a way as to be guaranteed to withstand a preventive nuclear strike and deliver a powerful retaliatory one. But a few years passed, and they all went under the knife.
Death of "Well Done"
In the USA, they also tried to create something similar, moreover, so that the movement of the train could not be tracked. Yuri Knutov continues:
Transport and launch container of the RS-24 "Yars" complex, 2019
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Evgeny Odinokov
Having failed, the United States still won. In the 1990s, on the wave of trusting relations with Russia, they insisted on the destruction of rocket trains and hastened their disposal – they helped with money, brought ultramodern cutting machines, built a "cutting" line at one of the factories: it became the point of no return for the Soviet "Well Done".
By Olga Bugrova, Sputnik Radio