A model of the legendary 2-3-2V steam locomotive will become the centrepiece of the new exposition at the National Centre RUSSIA

The installation of the new exposition "Region-2030. Platform of the Future" is nearing completion at the National Centre RUSSIA. It will showcase the achievements of the Chelyabinsk, Tula, Voronezh and Amur regions, the Nenets Autonomous Area, the Republic of Dagestan, and the Jewish Autonomous Region. The starting point of the exposition will be a model of a railway platform featuring a recreated version of the legendary experimental high-speed locomotive type 2-3-2V. This steam engine was designed at the Voroshilovgrad Locomotive Works in 1938 and entered history as one of the symbols of engineering achievements of its time. Now it will appear in a new format — as part of an exposition project introducing visitors to the regions of Russia. The exposition will be located on the second floor of the National Centre RUSSIA and will open to the public on 2 September. Meanwhile, here is the story of the real locomotive that became the prototype for one of its main attractions.

And at the front — a shining star

How the Soviet 2-3-2V No. 6998 steam locomotive set a speed record and what Joseph Stalin, Felix Dzerzhinsky, Helen the Beautiful, and Alexander Deineka have to do with it

Each era has its own records. Long before high-speed rail, "Lastochka" and "Sapsan", the highest speed achievement on the Soviet railway belonged to a passenger locomotive. Its creators in 1938, without much concern for marketing, named it with proletarian straightforwardness — steam locomotive 2-3-2V, where 2-3-2 denoted the wheel arrangement and V referred to its manufacturer, the Voroshilovgrad Works named after the October Revolution. The locomotive also had a number — 6998 — which, it seems, carried no particular meaning. Sometimes a factory number is simply a factory number.

The 2-3-2V had the right pedigree. Designed and built as a one-off by the distinguished locomotive engineer Dmitry Lvov, it was directly descended from the "Joseph Stalin" and "Felix Dzerzhinsky" locomotives — the FD and IS series, which were also very powerful and fast for their time.

One of the ancestors of this future record-holder, the IS20-241, travelled to the World Exposition in Paris in 1937 and returned with the Grand Prix. Another contender for the main award was the Polish mainline locomotive Pm36, nicknamed "Piękna Helena" ("Helen the Beautiful"), but the "Joseph" did not falter, and the Polish beauty had to settle for a gold medal.

Borrowing many parts from its relatives (most of the boiler components, cylinders, rear bogie frame, axle box liners, wedges and much else), the 2-3-2V was noticeably lighter — partly because welding was used in its construction instead of the previously widespread riveting.

Its outstanding performance characteristics were further enhanced by the smooth, cigar-shaped streamlined casing covering the entire front of the locomotive. With a design speed of 180 km/h, the experimental locomotive was crowned with a giant red star, which reduced air resistance and gave it the look of an airship. It was not only functional — it was fresh, it reflected the spirit of the time, it was truly futuristic.

When it came to speed, the 2-3-2V dominated not only among its fellow steam locomotives but also compared convincingly with almost all Soviet vehicles of the time, whether on the ground or in the air. The GAZ M-1 car, the famous "emka", which formed the backbone of the Soviet taxi fleet, could not exceed 105 km/h. The K-5, the most widely used Soviet passenger aircraft of the 1930s, reached only just over 200 km/h at its peak.

It is not surprising that soon after it was built, the 2-3-2V was assigned to the October Railway. Here, right up until the war, it hauled passenger trains, including the legendary "Red Arrow" express — the fastest and most comfortable train of that era, covering the distance between Moscow and Leningrad in under ten hours, while others required twelve or often even more.

However, just three years later, in the spring of 1941, the concept changed radically: the already achieved ability for rapid movement across space was sacrificed to the rather prosaic considerations of conserving resources and ensuring exemplary uniformity.

To reduce wear on the tracks and bring all train timetables into line with a universal scheme, the People’s Commissariat of Railways ordered that the speed of all Soviet trains, without exception, be limited to 70 km/h. After this, the question of launching the 2-3-2V into series production disappeared on its own.

It remained the only one. The only one of its kind.

The war soon followed, with bombings and the destruction or damage of large parts of the railways across the European territory of the Soviet Union, which seemed to have finished off engineer Lvov’s creation for good.

After the war, stripped of its once-beautiful but now utterly useless streamlined casing, the 2-3-2V returned to the October Railway, but it no longer looked heroic — rather, it looked resigned.

And yet it still had one final moment to remind the world of itself. Just once, but what a moment! 

That was its shining hour, its swan song, its unbroken, forever-recorded achievement.

In April 1957, while testing a set of new high-speed passenger coaches, the 2-3-2V reached 175 km/h.

No other Soviet steam locomotive ever managed anything like this. Neither before nor after.

Strictly speaking, there was no "after": the age of steam traction was rushing to an end, giving way to electric power.

The record-holder’s final home was the Bologoye depot, where in 1963 it was officially retired and scrapped for metal.

And yet the 2-3-2V did not disappear without a trace. It remained in Arkady Shaikhet’s famous photograph "Express", where it appears in steam against storm clouds, in all the bleak beauty and stern power of its design.

It also lives on in one of Alexander Deineka’s mosaics, cast during the Siege of Leningrad, delivered to Moscow in 1942, and placed a year later beneath the vaults of the newly opened Novokuznetskaya metro station.

Photo: Sergey Pyatakov / RIA News

The mosaic, titled "Skiers and the Triumph of Industrialization", is nothing less than a collective portrait of the boldest achievements of Soviet science and technology in the pre-war years.

On it, the 2-3-2V speeds across a reinforced concrete single-span arched bridge over one of the locks of the Moscow–Volga Canal, designed by engineer Bachelis, which at the time was the longest of its kind in the USSR.

Above them in the sky, the silhouette of the ANT-25 is clearly visible — the very same all-metal single-engine aircraft designed by Tupolev, on which in July 1937 the crew of Chkalov, Baidukov and Belyakov made the first non-stop flight from Moscow to the United States via the North Pole.

A record-holder among record-holders. An equal among the first. This is how one of the great classics of Soviet visual art depicted the 2-3-2V.

And this is how we see it more than 80 years later. And so it will remain forever.

Technical specifications of the 2-3-2V steam locomotive

Wheel arrangement: 2-3-2

Length: 16.9 metres

Driving wheel diameter: 2.2 metres

Trailing wheel diameter: 1.05 metres

Leading wheel diameter: 0.9 metres

Track gauge: 1.5 metres

Service weight: 138 tonnes

Light weight: 123 tonnes

Power: 3,400 horsepower

Design speed: 180 kilometres per hour

Boiler pressure: 14.5 atmospheres

Number of cylinders: 2

Cylinder diameter: 670 millimetres

Tender length: 12,543 millimetres

Tender weight (light): 56 tonnes

Fuel reserve: 22 tonnes

Water capacity: 49,000 litres

The fastest steam locomotives in world history

1.  Mallard No. 4468 — built in Doncaster (United Kingdom) in 1938. In July of the same year, it set the absolute world speed record for steam locomotives — 203 km/h. Today it is displayed at the National Railway Museum (York).

2.  BR 05 (Germany). In 1936, it reached a speed of 200.4 km/h. It is now displayed at the Nuremberg museum.

3.  2-3-2V (USSR). In 1957, it accelerated to 175 km/h. Built as a single unit, it has not survived.

4.  2-3-2K (USSR). Produced at the Kolomna Plant in 1937–1938. The maximum recorded speed was 170 km/h. Of the two locomotives built, none has survived.

5.  IS 20-16 (USSR). Produced since 1936 at the Voroshilovgrad Works named after the October Revolution. In 1938, it reached a speed of 170 km/h.

6.  No. 999 (USA). Produced in the 1890s. The officially recorded speed record is 170 km/h. Today it is displayed at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

7.  Hurricane (United Kingdom). Produced in the 1930s. In September 1939, it reached a speed of 160 km/h.

8.  New York Central Hudson (USA). Produced from 1927 to 1938. It reached speeds of up to 153 km/h. None of the locomotives have survived.

9.  Union Pacific Big Boy (USA). Produced from 1941 to 1944. The speed record was 129 km/h. Eight units have survived (all are non-operational).