Many people believe that the last diesel locomotive was built in Kharkiv in 1968 (the TEP10). In fact, there was another secret series of locomotives produced at the Malyshev Plant later, in the 1970s. But first things first…

The Trans-Siberian Railway was built on the southern borders of the Russian Empire—in the most favorable territory beyond the Urals. In the Far East, it ran very close to the border with China. Following the cooling of relations with the PRC and the subsequent military conflict on Damansky Island in 1968, the USSR began intensively reinforcing its Far Eastern defensive lines, which had been mothballed during the period of friendship with China in the 1950s. This included restoring the engineering infrastructure of fortified areas and military units, deploying additional equipment and personnel for permanent service along the border with China.

But the railway could not simply be picked up and moved north. In the event of war, the Chinese could easily cut off the Trans-Siberian Railway—the main transport artery connecting to the Far East. The Baikal-Amur Mainline was intended to duplicate the Trans-Siberian Railway north of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and resuming its construction took on extraordinary strategic and defensive importance. But laying such a long railway line in the taiga is not a one-year project, so it was decided to revisit one of the military concepts that had been forgotten since the late 1940s but to implement it using more modern technology.

This involved the use of armored trains.

In the early 1970s, the Malyshev Plant developed the BP-1 armored train and the BTL-1 armored train. The armored train could include up to five armored railcars.

Each BTL-1 armored train consisted of an armored TM diesel locomotive (a converted TGM1 shunting locomotive), equipped with a troop compartment for 9 personnel and a trailer platform, along with an armored box carrying 8 machine gunners and a T-55/T-62 tank. The tanks could, if necessary, leave the platform and go on the offensive. A total of 42 BTL-1 armored trains were produced at the Malyshev Plant in 1971–72.

The BP-1 armored train was more complex and “serious.” It consisted of an armored two-story diesel locomotive based on the TG20. The engineer’s compartment was located on the first floor, and the commander’s fighting compartment was on the second.

In addition to the BTL-1 armored light tanks mentioned above, the train also included platforms carrying PT-76 tanks, anti-aircraft platforms (ZU-23-2), platforms with BTR-40zhd railway armored vehicles, command cars, and safety cars…

In total, four BP-1 armored trains were built in Kharkiv in the first half of the 1970s, which were in service on the Trans-Siberian Railway near Chita. Only one of them saw combat, and even then it had to be deployed far from its home base—in the 1992–1994 Karabakh War. By now, it is clear that all of them have been scrapped. With these armored trains, the history of railway engineering in Kharkiv came to an end.