In 1914 Russia had in all 20,057 locomotives, of which
15,047 burnt coal, 4,072 burnt oil and 938 wood. But that
figure of twenty thousand was more impressive for a
Government official, who had his own reasons for desiring
to be impressed, than for a practical railway engineer, since
of that number over five thousand engines were more than
twenty years old, over two thousand were more than thirty
years old, fifteen hundred were more than forty years
old, and 147 patriarchs had passed their fiftieth birthday. Of
the whole twenty thousand only 7,108 were under ten years
of age. That was six years ago. In the meantime Russia has
been able to make in quantities decreasing during the last
five years by 40 and 50 per cent. annually, 2,990 new
locomotives. In 1914 of the locomotives then in Russia
about 17,000 were in working condition. In 1915 there
were, in spite of 800 new ones, only 16,500. In 1916 the
number of healthy locomotives was slightly higher, owing
partly to the manufacture of 903 at home in the preceding
year and partly to the arrival of 400 from abroad. In 1917 in

spite of the arrival of a further small contingent the number
sank to between 15,000 and 16,000. Early in 1918 the
Germans in the Ukraine and elsewhere captured 3,000.
Others were lost in the early stages of the civil war. The
number of locomotives fell from 14,519 in January to 8,457
in April, after which the artificially instigated revolt of the
Czecho-Slovaks made possible the fostering of civil war on a
large scale, and the number fell swiftly to 4,679 in
December. In 1919 the numbers varied less markedly,