Once a center of the timber industry, Soyga is now mostly home to the elderly. For many of the village residents, train driver Petrovich with his ramshackle narrow-gauge railway is a link to the outside world, and a kind of guardian angel.
Petrovich and his train take the spry, old residents of Soyga to the nearby town to run errands. He even brings them groceries and firewood himself, if needed. And he is there to escort them on their final trip – to the cemetery. Ever since the timber industry closed down, there have been no more jobs in Soyga. Most young people have left the village in search of work, leaving Petrovich without much reason to keep the narrow-gauge railway operational. But that hasn’t stopped him. Petrovich has become train driver and mechanic in one. A report by Juri Rescheto.
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