[Weter]

So, you see, that railroads are rather ideal variant of transport for such regions.
I'm afraid, that passage about "black flyes" need some explanations for me.

[ebnertra000]

Black flies are insects. It may refer to a certain species, but I suppose that probably depends on where you are. Here it's mostly deerflies and some horseflies. This does not include the outrageous number of mosquitoes present for much of the summer months.

The comment about 'mud season' reminded me of the two seasons here in Minnesota: winter, and road construction season

[Weter]

Thanks. Deerflyes, as I know them, are very unpleasant creatures.
Here there are two such seasons- the autumn and spring "распутица", when all rough roads look like porridge, being soaked with long rains.
At not reinforced asphalt roads the limitations by weight are applied at that times.

[ebnertra000]

 Weter, on 06 October 2020 - 08:18 AM, said:

No one would guess?

Could be any of them, but I'll guess the hoppers. I almost want to say the gondolas, but they're painted one of the shades of brown that RZD seems to use often

[Weter]

Indeed!
The brown-painted general-freight cars belong to railroad, and other-colored ( most often-some shades of green) -to side enterprises.
So the gondolas and boxcars are rented by small factories to transport their freight as well as two state hoppers.
So I've seen two ones: grain-hopper in the middle and light-weight stuff covered van at very end of train.
The refrigerator and thermostable cars usually belong to special department of railroad, as they require constant specific maintenance between their trips, and crews to escort the frige-consists all their way long.
The numbers of departmental cars start with 7 or 8 and there is title, saying, that "the owner is ...(enterprise name) Собственник...

[Weter]

Thank for all, who voted.
So, the style of this narration will be 70% reminiscent and 30% touristic.

Story 3.
the Touristic train
I've seen a strange train this spring:

Being attract that afternoon by the sound of a steam locomotive's whistle (it sounds like a minor triad), I almost ran to the station.
I've catched such touristic train and have talked to its engineer, as the tourists went to see the sights of the town, and the crew of the green steamer went to nearby shop.
The engineer was walking around the wheels of the black steamer with a wrench in his hand, performing some maintenance and inspection. He said, that the best-quality steamers are the monuments-they take them back to track and restawr, as the steam locos, rolling all the time since 1950-th are completly worn or incomplete because the parts, made of brass were mostly stolen.
One of favorite goals of long touristic trips are lines with rare traffic, as line to Весьегонск near Сонково, but the good part of the infrastructure, which is compulsory for steamers operation (water columns, wuyes for reverce) is missing nowadays nearly everywhere, so they use pairs of steamers, coupled tender-to-tender for trips.
The actual train's consist were: Э^м-С^у-one modern carriage, but we have only analogue models within ORTS, so the only thing, that I can say - they look like rather similar.

That train were spotted at a different station, but let's imagine, we've seen it at Savelovo 2.0 route.
To reproduce the look of that train, I used the models of:
СО17-508 by Александр Елонов ( a.k.a. eav ) and Вадим Литвинович ( a.k.a. walt )

C-207 by Вадим Шандарев © ( a.k.a. German )

and modern carriage by RailTeamClub, looking like the carriage I've actually seen.

See the train climbing uphill at 110-th km:


https://pereyezd.ru/images/articles/par-2.jpg


Almost done that:

[Weter]

Overview of the route from Bezhetsk:
There are two pieces of former Moscow-Vindava-Rybinsk railroad (about 3km lengh each) - to the East and to the West of Sonkovo station, wich were modeled in Savelovo route, 2nd version.
The route starts at 110km (counted from Rybinsk),

climbs uphill,

turns flat,

having S-curve...

and enters Sonkovo from the West, along with line from Mga (Leningrad's suburb) which is a part of sayed Mologa line.

Let's see, how the train passes the curve:
It climbs,

approaches...

...the curve,

enters the first turn,

passes...


...and leaves 108 km

[Weter]

Western entrance to Sonkovo station:
1. The block-post.
You can see entrance signal mast with YR YG heads and separate invitation light at the bottom. The interval signal towards Bezhetsk, with triple RYG head, is at the right.

2. The facility for automatic car number recognition-a portal with cameras and RFID sensors. It allows to compose the consist-list of the arriving train instantly.

3. The lead, the siding and the pull-out track. At the left, the Mologa line from Mga is attached.
At the right, the pond for reserving water for steamers resupply was established.

4. The northern part of Mologa line adjunction.

5. The western (even) station neck.
The locomotive depot and MOW base are at the right. The center of the settlement with invariable Lenin street is at the left. There are the bus station, the railroad station buildings and the department store around of the center square.

6. The dwarf WB signals for shunting management.

7&8 The settlement and the station at sunset.


9. The exit signals and route indicators at the western end of station park.

[Weter]

Touristic trip:

Sitting at the boat and fishing with Slava, we wonder, that the pond's surface doesn't reflect evening sunlight atall under ORTS.

See prototypic photo to compare:
https://watertowers.ru/images/water2/Sonkovo_IMG_4595_750px-3.jpg
As long as it is a diesel line, the tracks are fertilized with a large amount of oil, turned to tar by the Sun.

The train approaches from Bezhetsk:

Passes the grade,

an S-curve,

(with a borschevik at the trackside)

going downhill and...

...after 107km...

...enters Sonkovo station boundaries.

That grade demands helpers to let a heavy train to leave Sonkovo.

The ancient Saveliha village is at the right.

The pond and the northern piece of Mologa line.

Changes the track...

And creeps to platform-see the photo above^

[Weter]

After the train arrive, let's go walking around the Sonkovo station.
The view of Sonkovo's central square, the department store.

The station building made of wood.

The warehouses and old luggage wag turned to shed.

The footbridge and Sonkovo's park.
http://www.savelrr.ru/content/oldmedia/gallery/sonkovo06.jpg

https://pp.userapi.com/_7deWsFB_3lXltTMSfB1DRZuTi6jHlLPbprKaQ/nyKdLGoidXs.jpg
The monument for Эр serie freight steamer.

http://tversvod.ru/media/2014/11/07/sav-tv2006_03.jpg