Notes: The striking semi-streamlined P36, named after its Kolomna project number and nicknamed Pobeda (victory), was the USSR's final express passenger steam locomotive. Slightly less powerful but faster than the IS , it was an impressive modern design fitted with roller bearings throughout and a mechanical stoker. It was normally painted in the standard Soviet passenger green or an eye-catching blue livery, and its appearance on the prestige Moscow-Leningrad expresses in the 1950's as well as its work on the Moscow-Belorussia, Moscow-Ukraine and trans-Siberian routes naturally ensured that it became one of the best known Soviet steam types. But inevitably the class had a rather short working life: only 140 were still active in 1967, just 26 in 1973 and none by 1976; most were withdrawn in 1982-86. In the early 1990's several were retained in working order for tourist traffic, including one, P36-0071, which was operated jointly by the MPS, VNIIZhT and a British company, Steam Traction Ltd, and which has ventured as far afield as Belorussia, the North Caucasus, Archangel and Siberia.
