Thread: Repin train

I'm writing a novel that takes place in the US, Finland and Russia and in order for my characters to get from Helsinki to St. Petersburg on the budget they have in the amount of time they have, they need to take the Repin train.

Problem is, the railway info sites are pretty much useless when it comes to giving actual descriptions of what the train looks like and what it's like on it. I've done alot of trawling on the internet to look for information and pictures, but there's not much to be found, save an editorial or two and a few exterior pictures posted up on traveller's websites.

So I was wondering if anyone here has heard much about it or has been on it? It's a bit of a long shot, but I'd be grateful for anything.

This is in the wrong forum; you need to move it to the one called "I'm writing a novel and need help."

I don't know a)about the Repin specifically, b)how much you know about Russian trains (completely different than American ones, IMHO), and not so important, but c)if you know who Repin is (leading artist of the Wanderers -- sorry if I'm "talking down" to you -- just don't know what your familiarity is -- but it's good to know).

In general, you have two classes for long trips -- one that's very spartan (sounds like what this character would use) and one that's slightly more comfortable. In the cheap version, you have 4 people to a berth -- there are 2 benches there (with 2 people per bench during the day), with 2 overhangs that fold down at night to form beds -- a rudimentary pair of bunkbeds essentially. The windows aren't opened, the conductor woman will issue you lenins (pun intended ) and pillows, and will tell you where you can get hot water for tea. Other than that, you're basically on your own -- food, enterntainment, etc. Bathrooms are at the ends of the cars, with smokers developing their various cancers at the ends of the cars, between where they join.

Sorry... I looked around this forum a bit, but I didn't see a forum like that. I'll look again.

I already know that the Repin has the two classes - 6 per compartment for 2nd class and 2 with bunks for 1st and apparently the whole train is a throwback to Soviet era. This article here was pretty much the only useful one I could find: http://travel.guardian.co.uk/rail/story ... 93,00.html

The reason I'm looking for details is because I can't really just skip this part saying "Five hours later, they were in St. Petersburg", as the book covers a week-long period and things like that are missed. Plus, I need an oppourtunity for my rather confused main character to be filled on the history between her friend and the antagonist.

Oh... and Ilya Repin is one of my favourite traditional artists (and by that, I mean use of paint and paper/canvas, rather than photoshop) Though I admit that I could hardly be called a connoseur.

You are in the right forum, if this isn't about travel then nothing is.

What I found so far:
Repin goes to from Helsinki to Moscow, Tolstoi goes from Moscow to Helsinki. Repin goes once a day, Tolstoi once a day.
Repin leaves Helisnki at 12:18 and arrives in St. P at 22:27

From the little info I manage to dig up, from the outside the train looks like any other Russian train:

I might not be an excellent source, but the Russian trains I took looked all like them, and they were all built in the soviet times, so I don't think Repin is really special in any way, as regards to other Russian trains...

Strangely enough I got an email from someone who found my previous post in extreme error! That may very well be, since I did a simple internet search... Well the user can't log in, so he sent me an email:
------------
Hi!

I ran into your post while trying to figure out which station the train
coming from Finland uses in Moscow and ran into your post, finding it
filled with wrong information.
Since the frogging forum has a gazillion-day lag before letting new
users in, I had no possibility to correct the mistakes myself. And, since
I'd forget this otherwise, I decided to throw you a mail.

So, the post it's about is this one:
http://masterrussian.net/mforum/viewtop ... a3c9#99900

The reality:
There are three trains connecting Finland and Russia: Tolstoi, Repin
and Sibelius.
Tolstoi (also referred to as Lev Tolstoi or Leo Tolstoi. And possibly
with the similar equivalents written with an y instead of i and/or w
instead of v) is the only one going all the way to Moscow, while Repin and
Sibelius are the ones that only go between Helsinki and St. Petersburg.
Tolstoi and Repin are both Russian trains, Sibelius is a Finnish one.
Also Tolstoi stops in SPb.
The outside of the train you have given us as an image of is from
Sibelius, which doesn't go to Moscow at all. It also has nothing to do with
Russian cars, as it is of German design, more precisely designed in the
city of Esslingen. It's livery is the one all Finnish railway cars used
to have before updating to the current red -and-white livery. Mind you,
all Russian-build cars and locomotives have clearly visible horizontal
stripes that are part of the structure.
By the date of writing the message Sibelius was, however, already
switching to newer stock.

Repin and Tolstoi ARE both very different from most other Russian
trains, because they go to the west. For example, they have none of the
traditional platskartniy cars (sleeping cars without compartments).
Also their level of service is high: each train car has its own
steward/ess. Also the restaurant car is very luxurious. The 2nd class sleeping
compartments are only typical west-european quality, which means that
they work well, but won't look very beautiful.
Although Russia is VERY bad with the human rights situation and has an
insanely high number of insanely poor people, it also has some people
with civil rights. And they are rich. And amount in millions. And are
demanding.

The Finnish cars aren't that special, as the typical level of service
on the Finnish railways is high enough that quite standard cars can also
be used on international routes. The only bigger difference between a
car of the Sibelius train and a typical Finnish is that the Sibelius
cars have air conditioning, which is of course useless in a train running
this north. To mention, the Finnish trains are more expensive and have
more expensive and worse food than the Russian international ones.

So, could you please correct your post? Some other people might be
reading it, and it would be nice not spreading too much false information.