The Tsarskoye Selo Railway () was the first public railway line in the Russian Empire. It ran for from Saint Petersburg to Pavlovsk through the nearby (4 km) Tsarskoye Selo. Construction began in May 1836, and the first test trips were carried out the same year between Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk, using horse-drawn trains. The line was officially opened on 30 October 1837, when an 8-carriage train was hauled by a steam locomotive between Saint Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo. Until the construction of the Moscow – Saint Petersburg Railway in 1851, it was the only passenger train line in Russia. In 1899 it was merged into the Moscow-Windau-Rybinsk Railways and now forms part of the Oktyabrskaya Railway. History The first railways in Russia were short and narrow-track lines with wooden and then steel rails, which were used in the 18th century to transport carriages with ore at numerous mines of the Urals. In particular, the Nizhny Tagil line built in 1833–1834 was equipped with a steam locomotive and could transport a few miners, together with the load of ore. The steam locomotive was constructed by the Russian engineers, father and son Cherepanovs. However, their design had not found application outside of their factory, and most hardware for the Tsarskoye Selo Railways, including rails, carriages, locomotives and railroad switches, was purchased abroad. The first European railways had demonstrated their great economic potential, and in August 1834, the Russian Mining Ministry invited Austrian-Czech engineer Franz Anton von Gerstner to explore the possibility of building railways in Russia. After several months of travel through the country, in January 1835 he submitted a written report to NicholasI and then met him in person, suggesting building railways between Moscow and St. Petersburg and then between Moscow, Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod. Gerstner's proposal was evaluated by a commission headed by Mikhail Speransky. The commission found the project feasible and recommended starting with a short railway between St. Petersburg, Tsarskoye Selo and the nearby Pavlovsk. This resolution was supported by the imperial decrees of 21 March and 15 April 1836. Construction The construction and operation of the Tsarskoye Selo Railways was managed by a newly established joint-stock company headed by Count Alexander Bobrinsky (president), von Gerstner and businessmen Benedict Kramer and Ivan Konrad Plitt. The company had about 700 shareholders, both in Russia and in Europe. The work started in early May 1836 and was supervised by