SPORT IN RUSSIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 May 1934, Page 12

SPORT IN RUSSIA

RAILWAY ENGINE WRESTLING. MOSCOW, March 25. Wrestling matches between locomotives reported from a local station on the main Sverdlovsk-Cheliabinsk line show what sporting efforts the Russian proletariat aro capable of—if not watched. Every “free day” through expresses and freight trains carrying coal and iron to the great tractor plant to Cheliabindk have been held up for over two hours while Comrade Tretiakof, the stationmaster, refereed after putting the signals against all traffic. The entire local population turned out regularly for these bouts between two locomotives stationed at Mramorskaaa, crowding the slopes on either side of the line which forms a natural arena at this point, cheering the rival drivers and betting heavily on the result. The scene is reminiscent* of elephant fights at the courts of Indian Rajahs. The highly-strung driver Smirnof, we aro informed, attacked most fiercely, jamming on or taking off his brakes with surprising quickness and sending the engine backing wildly or suddenly forward. His opponent, Chuikin, however, a cunning peasant with more real staying .power, usually won in the end, hauling off the crestfallen Sniirnof to his baseline.

Up and down the line they pushed each other until the rails got red hot, while a few miles away three, and sometimes four, other trains waited wondering what had happened. Such are the things the Commissar of Railways, Andreef, has 1o contend with after the railways have been neglected for years by a party enraptured with newer mechanical devices. “Locust soap” is the latest luxury which Soviet. science offers to the grateful Russian proletariat. Machine oil and glycerine are also obtainable from locusts, and the powdered waste left over makes good cow cake and chicken food. So says the All-Union Agricultural Academy. Locusts are a prevalent pest in Russian Asia.