Imperial Russia 1918 Railway Badge

[Chuck In Oregon]

Boy, not much activity here lately.

Sorry, I just can't describe this badge any better. Can anyone out there help me with a proper ID of this one?

I think the disk is silver, with no markings. The RR emblem looks like a thin layer of gold over a base of something else, maybe silver. The screwplate, also unmarked, appears to be silver.

Chuck

[Chris Boonzaier]

Silly question... but where is the train? How do they end up putting an anchor on it?

[Chuck In Oregon]

Silly question... but where is the train? How do they end up putting an anchor on it?

* * * * *

Yeah, I don't get the anchor either.

Chuck

[Stogieman]

Good question and an oddity that perpetuated itself well forward with Soviet Railway emblems incorporating the anchor as well.....

[Chip]

Guys,

I am pretty sure that the anchor is a vestage of the old association of the military railway with pioneer troops and in particular, the pioneer's function of staffing the bridge trains (mobile pontoon bridging units). German pioneer iconography also includes anchors as part of the motif.

This little badge has the letters that stand for 3rd Railway (railroad). Not sure about the "C.K.".

Chip

[Archipelago]

This little badge has the letters that stand for 3rd Railway (railroad). Not sure about the "C.K.".

Hi!

I?m quite sure that the letters stand for "North-west railroads" ?(Severo-zapadnyi ...). The "number 3" stands for the russian letter Z. The last letter K could mean "komitet" or "Konduktor". Similar types of badges were sometimes worn as tokens of free passage on the mentioned railroads.

That?s my best guess.

Regards

Paul

[Chip]

Paul,

You may be right, I often have a hard time tell the difference between the "Z" and the "3". I'm sure you know a lot more Russian than I do. I was thinking that the top three letter went together and the bottom two went together. I was trying to think of which rail line it might have been, the "C" for Severo, made sense, but I could not think of how the "K" fit with it. Here is what I was thinking that the Northwest Railway abbreviation would look like.

Best regards,

Chip

[Archipelago]

Hi Chip!

Looking at Your belt buckle, I?m not so sure about my guess anymore. My guess came from a cavalry model 1827 sabre that have the unit stamp CZschDschP ( in cyrillic letters of course ). It stands for "North-west railroads gendarme regiment". That sabre model was used by gendarmes in early 20th century in railroad units.

Paul

Edited November 14, 2006 by Archipelago

[Chuck In Oregon]

I'm a little confused here. Is there any consensus here about any of this, or a reliable reference we can check out? I'm willing to accept NW RR as part of it, but that doesn't get us very close to understanding this badge.

Thanks to all who have pitched in here.

Chuck

[REGAL UNIFORMA COLECTOR]

Boy, not much activity here lately.

Sorry, I just can't describe this badge any better. Can anyone out there help me with a proper ID of this one?

I think the disk is silver, with no markings. The RR emblem looks like a thin layer of gold over a base of something else, maybe silver. The screwplate, also unmarked, appears to be silver.

Chuck

I beleive the badge you have is from the Baltic States area due to the construction of the badge. Thin silver stamped. The enamel color blue is often found in Lithuanian badges. I would start there in your research. The top row of letters "3.X.D." stands for "3rd Railrod Detachment". The bottom row letters "C.K." identify the Rail line. My geuss is "Samositia - Kaunus".

Samositia is Central Lithuania and Kaunus was the established capitol of Lithuania in 1918. Bermont-Avalov liberated much of this area from the Bolshaviks in 1918. This is an educated guess, but I would start here do to how the badge is constructed, color, date, and letters on it. Quick note : Some Insignia found in 1918 were made from melted down coins, thus the silver and gold availability. Probably reserved for officers.

Edited February 4, 2007 by REGAL UNIFORMA COLECTOR

[Chuck In Oregon]

I beleive the badge you have is from the Baltic States area due to the construction of the badge. Thin silver stamped. The enamel color blue is often found in Lithuanian badges. I would start there in your research. The top row of letters "3.X.D." stands for "3rd Railrod Detachment". The bottom row letters "C.K." identify the Rail line. My geuss is "Samositia - Kaunus".

Samositia is Central Lithuania and Kaunus was the established capitol of Lithuania in 1918. Bermont-Avalov liberated much of this area from the Bolshaviks in 1918. This is an educated guess, but I would start here do to how the badge is constructed, color, date, and letters on it. Quick note : Some Insignia found in 1918 were made from melted down coins, thus the silver and gold availability. Probably reserved for officers.

* * * * *

Thank you, RUC. That will have to do for me, at least for now. I haven't the faintest idea of how to research Lithuanian badges, unfortunately. On the plus side, thanks to you and Wiki I learned a little bit about the Samogitia - Kaunas region. Actually, just about Samogitia. All new info to me.

I can accept that RR officers might have worn this badge, but officers who did what? It might be that the 1918 on the badge signified this as a commemorative badge, I suppose. So maybe this signified that they were officers of the new government rather than of the Bolsheviks?

Thank you for contributing here. This badge has been quite a mystery for me. Anyone else?

Chuck

[Chuck In Oregon]

It's been quite a while but I've got some more information -- a second badge and an accompanying document. It looks like the З.ж.д. stands for Закавказскiя желъзныя дороги, Caucasus Railroads. The is Mr. Davidov's ID as stationmaster of the Gori (Georgia) Зжд railway station. Since this one has the eagle and the first one doesn't, perhaps the 1918 RR insignia example was issued to replace the Imperial version. I do notice that at the same time it doesn't embrace a Soviet version, just a non-Imperial one. Until 1921 Georgia was most definitely not a Soviet enclave so no reason to put the Soviet gerb on the badge.

Maybe it's not much of a mystery but I don't get to solve very many, so I'm claiming this one.

I got back from Tbilisi late Wednesday evening. I'll share some more new things soon.

Chuck

[Chuck In Oregon]

And here's the badge:

[Guest Rick Research]

Note that the poor man has an in-turned right eye, which would have made scanning tracks ahead quite problematic.

[Chuck In Oregon]

On further review, I think "Transcaucasus Railroads" is better.

I didn't quite know what to make of that little eye problem. If it kept him free of conscription I'd bet he didn't much mind it at all. Who knows, maybe at one time he was the only single employed guy under 60 left in Gori. Coulda been a lot worse things happen to a guy.

"Gaumajos Sakhartvelo!"

[Stuka f]

Managed to lay hand on a small lot of imperial Russian medals and insignia.

During my search I came by this  post.

Could the insignia I got be related to railway's ...

It is about 3 cm big, so I assume it is a miniature....

 

[Stuka f]

Sorry, just found out it is a pioneer badge.

[Alex .]

This is Institute of Railway Engineers graduation badge.