Just before New Year, the Belarusian Railway began conducting exercises on loading and unloading military equipment using SRMA.
SRMA is a demountable metal ramp, a device for loading and unloading all types of equipment “under their own power” onto/from flatcars at any location, including unprepared sites between stations. A separate type of ramp is also used to bridge gaps between adjacent flatcars, allowing equipment to be positioned along the entire length of the train consist.
❗️Thus, on the Vitebsk–Yezerishche section (Vitebsk Division of the Belarusian Railway), according to management orders, a training exercise on SRMA installation was conducted on December 29, 2022 with corresponding activities at Prudok station and, 29 km from it, at Losvida station (with preparation of sites for SRMA installation and conduct of training loading and unloading operations). SRMA elements manufactured in 1954 were used for this purpose.
📍It should be noted that on the siding tracks of Prudok station are located:
• to the northwest – military unit 94017 (2631st Aviation Base for Storage of Missile Armaments and Ammunition);
• to the southeast – the base of the Vitebsk Track Maintenance Section (PCh-12 Vitebsk).
📍Losvida station has no siding tracks. Approximately seven kilometers to the west of it is located a large military territory, which is the training ground of the 103rd Separate Guards Airborne Brigade (“Losvido” training ground). Since October 2022, this training ground has been one of the locations where a camp of Russian military personnel from the regional force grouping is situated.
Participating in the exercise were: the Military Transportation Service (VOSO of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus), track maintenance workers, bridge workers, and a mobile crane was allocated.
Similar exercises to practice SRMA deployment skills are also conducted at other divisions of the Belarusian Railway, at key locations of Russian troop deployments. The readiness of military personnel and Belarusian Railway workers to carry out loading and unloading of equipment at locations not designated for this purpose is being tested.
ℹ️ The removal of SRMA from storage began in October 2022; prior to this they had been in storage, and there had been no need to use them. Previously, for more than ten years, the Belarusian Railway had not conducted training activities to practice skills in installing such specialized equipment as SRMA.
