Kum-Torkale Station

The remains of the abandoned Kum-Torkale railway station are located at the foot of the sandy Sarykum dune in the Kumtorkalinsky district of Dagestan. It once belonged to the now-extinct village of Kum-Torkale. The village was completely destroyed in 1970 by a strong earthquake.

On July 6, 1915, an important event took place in the life of Dagestan — the first railway train arrived in the regional capital, the city of Temir-Khan-Shura (Buynaksk). According to eyewitnesses, it consisted of two small passenger cars, the rest were freight cars.

The beginning of this event was laid in the early 1890s. Immediately after the completion of the railway branch Vladikavkaz – Port-Petrovsk, Temir-Khan-Shura’s merchants and industrialists had the idea to connect the regional capital with the "Shamkhal" station. The highway passing through the Atly-Buyun pass was a serious challenge not only for passengers but also for goods.

In 1900, a delegation traveled to St. Petersburg regarding the construction of the railway. Temir-Khan-Shura’s representative, Daitbekov, visited major Russian cities and Moscow, and arranged with a group of engineers for the construction of the road. They committed to building it up to Petrovsk, and the costs of the survey were to be covered by the city’s residents. Although the Petrovsk – Temir-Khan-Shura branch was still in the planning stage, many merchants, traders, homeowners, and industrialists were excited. The newspaper "Kaspi" reported that in Temir-Khan-Shura "prices for apartments, houses, and vacant lots were rising not by days, but by hours." From that time, Shura began to attract business people.

It was estimated that construction would cost 700 thousand rubles, and the delivery of goods by road to the nearest station would cost half a kopeck. The transportation of goods and passengers was expected to bring significant profit. It was assumed that the costs would be recouped in about 5-6 years. Everything seemed to look promising. Moreover, by the end of the first year, 3 thousand rubles in donations had already been collected from the townspeople, but the Tsarist government kept postponing the start of construction work. Even during the boom that began in 1909, when 3,500 kilometers of railways were built in Russia, the Temir-Khan-Shura branch remained only a project.

Only by the beginning of World War I did this issue move from a deadlock. The workforce was supplied by the villages nearest to the road — Kumtorkala, Kapchugay, Kafyr-Kumukh, and others. The following year, the work was completed. In less than a year, a single track and about 10 railway station complexes were laid, which included buildings such as a station, a water-pumping station, a warehouse, storage facilities, and a toilet. Since there was only one railway track, to allow trains traveling in opposite directions to pass each other, an additional track about 500 meters long was laid at each station.

And so, from July 6, 1915, a train began running once a day from Temir-Khan-Shura to Petrovsk and back. Time passed, the steam locomotive was replaced by a diesel locomotive, wooden sleepers were replaced with reinforced concrete ones, and radio and telephone began operating at the stations. But first came May 14, 1970, when a powerful earthquake shook Dagestan. Many settlements were destroyed, including Kumtorkala, Kapchugay, and several other villages located near the railway branch. The republic’s leadership considered it irrational to restore these villages and simply relocated their residents elsewhere. From that time, the railway stations began to die out. Of course, the Kum-Torkale station was the luckiest, as it was located in a protected area, which served as a kind of safeguard. As for the other stations, they gradually fell into ruin, and the local residents used the materials from which they were built for construction.

Even now, it is clear that the station was very beautiful and large, which also speaks to the size of the village of the same name that used to be here. It was located 4 km southwest of the district center, the village of Korkmaskala, on the right bank of the Shuraozen River. And it was indeed very large — according to the 1939 census, the village had 2,396 residents, of whom: Kumyks — 88.6%, Russians — 5%, Avars — 1.8%.

The village housed the Kum-Torkale railway station on the Shamkhal — Buynaksk line of the North Caucasus Railway.

The village was the center of the small Kumtorkalinsky domain, semi-independent from the Tarkovsky Shamkhalate, which emerged at the turn of the 16th–17th centuries. In 1613, the Kumtorkalinsky ruler Mamet-khan-murza swore allegiance to the Russian Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich. In 1722, during the Persian campaign of Russian Emperor Peter I, the village was "devastated" by Russian troops. In 1742, the village was occupied by the troops of Nadir Shah.

Besides the very beautiful old station building, there is a residential house, a water tower, and a public toilet building. They were built in 1914 by a Russian merchant.

The binding mortar for the stone blocks of these buildings was mixed with egg white, which is why they withstood the earthquake and still stand to this day.

After the 1970 earthquake, the population was relocated to the newly built settlement of Korkmaskala, and the station was abandoned.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Кумторкала_(станция)