Chunyshyne station. The railway station building. Neglected, closed, forgotten

A small photo-report about the closed Chunyshyne station was planned, but one wants to show every corner of the abandoned railway station. Small stations, welcoming, tidy, become unprofitable and are closed, deciding the fates of the people who worked here and the fates of the stations, those abandoned toilers. Perhaps here someone waited for a suburban train in the waiting hall, someone met and saw off their relatives and friends.

The opening of the Chunyshyne railway station dates to 1914-1915. During the construction of the Rutchenkove-Hryshyne (Pokrovsk)-Dobropillia railway, the mine owner, the Belgian joint-stock company, pressed for the fastest possible advance of the line in the industrial region. Perhaps the architect of the stations was some foreigner who made his contribution to the design of the station buildings.

The Chunyshyne stopping point of the Krasnyi Lyman division of the Donetsk Railway

The settlement of the same name belonged to the landowner, collegiate assessor S. I. Chunikhin. In May 1917 the first passenger train Hryshyne (Pokrovsk)-Rutchenkove passed through. From 1924 there was passenger traffic; a passenger-and-goods train ran three times a week on schedule. An unscheduled goods train ran twice a week until 1924. Through Chunyshyne, Rutchenkove-Belgian goods trains ran regularly: until 1925 — once every 2 days, later — once a day.

The opening of the station stimulated the development of new pits and the construction of coal enterprises, with the black gold carried out by rail.

View to the north, 250 m before the station

Dead-end branches of the West Donets and Hryshyne societies adjoined the station. The freight flows of the coal-mining enterprises passed through Chunyshyne.

View to the south, 250 m before the station

After the Second World War, passenger carriages ran hauled by a steam locomotive. In the direction of Krasnoarmiiske-Rutchenkove and back the train ran once a day. In the first half of the 1960s the train was transferred to the suburban category. Diesel trains entered the route in 1965. In the 1950s-1960s narrow-gauge tracks were laid at the station to serve the small mines. The passenger flow fell in the 1960s with the development of motor transport and the ferrying of miners by enterprise buses.

During the Hitlerite occupation, in the period of the first liberation of Krasnoarmiisk (Pokrovsk) in February 1943, the station was the front line of defence of the 4th Guards Kantemyrivka Tank Corps.

Until 1 September 2013 the station was used as a passing loop for goods and passenger trains. In the summer of 2014, with the outbreak of hostilities, the Krasnoarmiisk-Ilovaisk diesel passed through the station for the last time.

In 2020 the Chunyshyne stopping point of the Krasnyi Lyman division of the Donetsk Railway has a neglected look.

Part of the track has been dismantled.

Remnants of the pre-revolutionary section of track. Beyond was a dead end

According to a trackwalker who was passing with a working tool and lubricant, sometimes now goods trains with coal from the Selydove mines pass along the line.

The passenger platforms have slanted, and reinforcing bars stick out of the slabs.

But the most depressing sight is the station building, built in the Neo-Romanesque style. The asymmetrical building of white brick resembles a small palace, which once lent the station a romantic atmosphere, and the small village with a population of about 100 people — a special status.

The construction of railway tracks in the industrial region was influenced by the Anglo-French-Belgian anonymous society, and, perhaps, the designs of the station buildings were carried out by foreign specialists. Such palazzi have survived at the stations of Mertsalove, Selydivka, Hostryi and Tsukurykha.

The station building of the Mertsalove railway station of the Krasnyi Lyman division of the Donetsk Railway

The facades are decorated with a severe ornament using straight lines and breaks at a right angle, which outwardly resembles railway tracks and platforms. A brick cornice girdles the building around the perimeter. The window and door openings are framed with tall architraves. The corners of the building are finished with vertical frames. The tall and narrow attic window is an element of the architectural decor of old buildings.

The station lavatory does not fall out of the theme of European neo-romanticism, which speaks of a respectful attitude towards passengers.

In the same style is decorated the trackside dwelling house for the railway workers.

The station building is not used in any way and has not been mothballed.

The doors are flung wide open, and traces of vandalism are present.

The panes are smashed, the floorboards and the wiring torn out; the wind roams through the rooms and ruin holds sway.

Local historians raised the question of saving the station and brought the state of the railway monument to the public's attention. A sensible idea for preserving the historical heritage was proposed by Pavlo Belytskyi — to open a railway museum in the station building. Ukrzaliznytsia is not a poor enterprise in our country, and the national carrier of goods and passengers has something to preserve and tell about railway transport. The station awaits sensible decisions from the department's leadership and the local authorities. And for now — oblivion and hopelessness.

Wild thickets of undergrowth have crept up to the station and conceal its pain in the green dense growth.

Not every station has a well, but in Chunyshyne passengers could draw some water to take with them on the road.

With the closure of the station and the station building, life in the village could not but change for the worse. Chunyshyne does not even have a small shop; the residents have to travel to Pokrovsk for necessities.

Chunyshyne. Bus stop on the M-04 highway

Near the village of Chunyshyne runs the M-04 highway, along which, in the south-easterly direction, one could reachDonetsk, Izvaryne, Debaltseve, Luhansk.

The once cosy and public place of rest by a small pond with a clean beach, a cafe and a large car park has lost its popularity and looks gloomy and deserted.

Traces of mismanagement and neglect have been left on the bank of the picturesque gully. The rubbish looks more spring-like than the primroses and the green grass.

Chunyshyne. Rubbish dump

In the floodplain of the Solonenkyi stream, a tributary of the Solona river, fire-show enthusiasts staged a burnt patch. The merciless flame only delays the growth of the reeds for a short time, but in the fire the small animals, insects and birds do not manage to save themselves.

A destroyed station, burnt hedgehogs and leverets, violets buried under plastic — links of one chain: of bungling, ineptitude, helplessness and self-destruction.

Thanks to the local historian Pavlo Belytskyi for the historical reference and interesting information about the Chunyshyne station.

Coordinates:  48°14'7"N   37°12'15"E