RUSTING, crumbling and returning to nature - deep inside Russia sits a graveyard of trains built in preparation for nuclear war.
In the shadow of the Ural mountains, the steel skeletons of steam locomotives betray a time when the spectre of the mushroom cloud loomed dangerously near.
The undisturbed site in the Perm region located close to the city of Shumkovo was built during the Soviet era to serve as a nuclear war base.
It remained operational from the 1950s to the mid-1970s - ready and waiting to whisk Russians to safety if World War III broke out and all other transportation failed or was destroyed.
During this period of the Cold War, 140 trains were stationed there that were regularly maintained and guarded.
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Time progressed, the Iron Curtain lifted, diesel trains took over and the threat of nuclear war waned - leaving a cemetery on rusty tracks.
Now, dozens of trains still litter the landscape, mostly steam locomotives as they were chosen in case electricity lines were destroyed by bombs.
It has formed an unofficial museum for locals, history lovers and train enthusiasts who can manage to find it.
However, what remains is only a shell of its former glory - many trains were bought up by Chinese companies, restored or transported to museums.
Footage, posted by Russia Beyond, reveals a piece of remarkably preserved history.
The haunting communist symbols of stars remain on the decaying black engines left on tracks that lead nowhere.
Grass and weeds has claimed parts of the trains adding to the eerie landscape.
And visitors can enter inside the carriages and drivers compartments to see torn leather seats, glass instruments and hand-written markings.
Grigoriy Gordeyev has managed the graveyard for 30 years and has desperately worked to prevent the trains from being scrapped.
“You can see for yourself how they (the locomotives) are living out their lives, just standing there,” he told Euronews in 2017.
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“People are interested, they come here, take photos, observe. It’s our history after all.”
Visitors have also heralded its importance in being a time capsule of history.
Photographer and train-obsessive Alexander Osipov said: “It’s like you go several decades into the past, especially when you get inside a steam train.
"There are all these levers, which someone touched, you get this feeling.
"You really feel that there are fascists and the Red Army are running just outside the window. It is all really very interesting."
