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This train is slightly more modern than the train to Kemerovo. On this train, the Rossiya 002, we have the luxury of two toilets at one end of the carriage and the Samovar at the other where we get our hot water for drinking and cooking dried food. Each carriage has an attendant that manages the carriage and makes up the rooms as each people leave. When we pull into a station they dress up in their uniform and stand outside their carriage for the length of time we are stopping. As we get off to stretch our legs they tell us how long we have. Our attendant seems to knock off 5 minutes each time as I don't think she has much faith in our time-keeping abilities. Perhaps it is just as well knowing our track record. On the older trains they lock the toilets for the duration of the stop, but with the modern ones you are still allowed to use them in the station. However each carriage is locked on the inside between carriages. When the train is moving you can walk the whole length of the train, crossing between carriages separated with electronic sliding doors where you can see the floor moving and track flying past beneath your feet. This afternoon we left the train for a 15 minute stop in lovely sunshine, popped into a shop just outside the station for some cheese and fruit and then back to our carriage, passing a statue of Lenin on the way and a 'stuffed and mounted' train as Chris calls them, old steam engines on plinths outside most stations. Some are in better condition than others. At this station, Ruzhino, the train was very impressive with a large poster across the side declaring the 80th anniversary of the transiberian railway 1936 to 2016.
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cousin Richard In Communist times, the attendant would also have been a KGB informer!