Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

(.Fig. 1.) This illustration gives a good idea of the size of the superstructure and of the design of the vessel. BY ANDREW DOUIE, Chief Constructor at Lake Baikal, Siberia. Illustrated with photographs supplied by the Author. A Unique Feat of Transport and Shipbuilding. THE construction of the ice-breaking train-ferry Baikal in this country, its transport to Siberia, and its re- erection and completion at the village of Listvenitchnaia, on the shores of Lake Baikal, occupied a period of about four and a half years. Before giving an account of the enormous amount of time occupied and labour expended in the transport, and the many difficulties to be overcome in the reconstruction, we may fitly give a description of the vessel herself. The Baikal is an example of a very unusual, and in many ways unique, type of vessel. (1,408) A Short Description of the “ Baikal.” She was built by the well-known firm of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Co., Lim- ited, who have made them- selves famous for ships of this description, the work being car- ried out at their Walker Ship- yard, Newcastle-on-Tyne. The Baikal was built to the order Government for the service of the Siberian Railway, and destined to transport passengers and freight cars across Lake Baikal, both in summer and winter. This lake is frost- bound for a considerable portion of the year, and consequently a powerful ice-breaking of the Russian 5