Miller's Line

The line ran from Beloostrov to Sestroretsk, and was the site of the world's first functional electric railway.

Miller's railway
The railway and station on the sea coast at Miller's pier
Overview
Native name	Железная дорога Миллера
Status	Defunct
Owner	Moritz von-Dezen and Michael Ivanovich Miller
Locale	Saint Petersburg
Termini	Sestroretsk Beloostrov or Miller's pier
Stations	3
Service
Type	Regional rail
Operator(s)	Societies of the Sestroretsk railway
Rolling stock	Leased from Finnish State Railways
History
Opened	1873
Succeed by	Zavodskaya Line
Closed	1886
Technical
Line length	9.5 km (5.9 mi)
Track gauge	1,524 mm (5 ft)
Route map Legend 0,0 Vyborg line Vyborg Zelenogorsk Solnechnoye 5.8 5.9 Sestra crossover 6.3 6.6 Beloostrov 0,0 Vyborg line Finlyandsky Rail Term. Lanskaya Pesochny Sestra river 2.3 1.8 Trackside 1871-1886 0,0 SPb-Sestr.-Beloostrov Kurort Planned ferry line 2.9 Miller's pier Gulf of Finland 0,0 Trackside (1875-1886) 0,0 SPb-Sestr.-Beloostrov Kurort 2.2 Sestroretsky kurort 1.7 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.5 Factory bridge Zav. s. 0.2 0.0 Sestroretsk (1871-1924) Sestroretsk armory lake Rasliw 0,0 planned trackside Vodoslivnoy channel 1.7 Sestroretsk 1.7 Dubki horse-iron road Sestroretsk armory Dubkovsky pier 2.1 Liteyny bridge 3.5 Razliv 3.6 SPb-Sestr.-Beloostrov Finlyandsky Rail Term. Novaya derevnya Tarkhovka 5.7 Tarkhovka pier | Ships to Saint Petersburg Distances in kilometers Miller's line railroad line includes Sestroretsk spur line

Societies of the Sestroretsk railway

Russian: частное "Общество Сестрорецкой железной дороги"
Miller's pier railway station
Overview
Headquarters	Sestroretsk
Locale	Saint Petersburg
Dates of operation	1873–1886
Predecessor	Finnish State Railways
Successor	Primorskaya Railway
Technical
Track gauge	1,524 mm (5 ft)
Length	9.5 km (5.9 mi)

The private organisation Societies of the Sestroretsk Railway was established to control the railway, headed by Collegiate Assessor Moritz von-Dezen and Titular counsellor Michael Ivanovich Miller. It had been built for the military as the Sestroretsk spur line.

There were plans to build a station 3 versts (approximately 3 kilometres) from Sestroretsk, on the bank of Sestroretsk Bay, and also an additional branch line to the Tarhovsky pier, where an operational station already existed.

•  
  Place on Miller's line where Fyodor Pirotsky's first electric tram was tested

In 1875, on an area between Miller's pier and Sestroretsk rail station, the engineer Fyodor Pirotsky experimented on the adaptation of rail transport to be driven by an electrogalvanic cell. These experiments later led to a patent "For an electric way of transfer of forces on rail and other conductors", that is, for the creation of the first electric tram.

The experimental area consisted of a site with an extent of 3½ versts (3.73 km), which passed along the sand of beach for a large part of its length, with rail cars travelling distances of over one kilometre.

The system used the rails as conductors for electricity transmission; one rail carried the direct current, and the second rail functioned as a return wire. After establishing the necessary connections on the joints between the rails, the transmission of electricity was successfully carried out.

Pirotsky stated that current leakage to the earth was not appreciable, and the transfer efficiency was calculated to be acceptable. Expenses for the adaptation of existing railways to electricity transmission were determined to be insignificant – from 50 to 100 roubles per verst.

In 1877, the line operated four pairs of trains. They primarily served residents during the summer period, while in the winter they were only used by officials.

The recorded volume of patronage was very insignificant because of a disputed tariff policy of Finnish railways, and ultimately the Miller's pier station was left idle. As a result, the operators appeared to be in a disastrous financial position, and the majority of the proposed plans were left incomplete.

By the mid-1880s, the Society of the Sestroretsk railway was definitively ruined, and on January 1, 1886, the railway was closed.

• Sestroretsk spur line