One of the lesser-known transportation relics from the 1930s in Kharkiv is the garage built from subway cars in Osnova.

Type “B” cars were manufactured between 1937 and 1939 for the Moscow Metro. Essentially, they were a minor upgrade of the Type “A” cars, the first models used in Soviet metro systems.

A total of 162 cars were built; in the 1950s, they were modernized and renamed “Bm.” Interestingly, at the bottom of the subway cars, you can see a recess for a larger rubber seal—to prevent passengers’ feet from getting pinched too tightly.

It was called the “Kaganovich elastic band,” which, according to legend, was installed after the People’s Commissar of Railways stepped on it to test how tightly it would grip his foot. But this is likely just a legend, since an identical design was used on the New York R1 subway cars (1930). The Type B cars were decommissioned in 1976 and distributed throughout the Soviet Union for utility purposes. Their neighbors are garages made from passenger rail cars, on which Soviet coats of arms can also be seen.

According to reports, the number of freight cars in this area is dwindling year by year—you can see this for yourself by looking at satellite images from twenty years ago. Don’t miss it! Most of them are located 500 meters north of the building at Merefyanskoe Highway, 34, Kharkiv.