This story is most often called “the incident with train No. 1702”, which happened in 1985 in the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
It was first published in the magazine “Technology of Youth” No. 8, 1989. Nowadays it is rarely discussed anywhere, although this is one of the most unusual UFO cases on the territory of the USSR.
In February 1985, a freight train was carrying 70 empty wagons to Kostomuksha via Petrozavodsk and Suoyarvi. The locomotive was driven by driver Sergei Orlov and his assistant V. Mironov.
At 8:35 pm they passed Essoila station, everything was fine, the train was running on schedule. But then, suddenly, Orlov noticed some strange ball-shaped object on the side of the trees. The object moved parallel to the movement of the train and did not lag behind.
Orlov and Mironov watched the object closely, wondering what it was.
“Look, he threw a beam of light at the ground and then pulled it back…” – Orlov commented. Then the ball sharply broke through the train and now “flew” in front of the locomotive, about 30-50 meters ahead of it.
Orlov was frightened by the train’s supposed collision with the “ball” and turned off the propulsion engines, and then slammed on the brakes with all his might. But the train did not stop or slow down, it continued moving forward, as if it was being pulled by something.
The shocked Orlov and Mironov could only look helplessly at how the mysterious object moved in front of the train and it seemed as if it was the one dragging the train.
Home Affairs investigators were later told the object was of the correct geometric shape, about four metres in diameter, and was moving not far above the ground and completely silently.
The train was approaching Novye Peski station. Orlov turned on the radio and contacted the station attendant and told her about the mysterious object that had taken the train in tow.
The woman didn’t understand what he was talking about, but decided to go out onto the platform and see for herself. She was very surprised to see two (!) strange objects flying in front of the train.
The first was a kind of vibrating device (a classic disc-shaped UFO), the second was a luminous ball. They flew in front of a diesel locomotive, which was moving at a speed of at least 50 km per hour.
From their cabin, Orlov and Mironov could not see the second UFO, as the luminous ball covered it, so it became clear why later they did not tell anything about it.
In front of the station, the train did not slow down and the attendant was startled to realize that the ball was heading straight for the police station and was now going to hit it.
However, right at the arrow, the ball abruptly separated from the locomotive and flew smoothly around the house, returning again to the train.
The train, however, passed the Novye Peski station, but at the moment the ball flew out of the train, its speed dropped sharply and several objects hit the driver’s cabin, and Orlov and Mironov themselves were seriously injured, hitting the windshield.
But as soon as the ball returned to the train, the train’s speed increased again. As the train approached Zastava station, the mysterious ball left the train again and disappeared somewhere behind the forest.
The train immediately slowed down and managed to stop at the station. Orlov immediately jumped out of his cabin to check if the train had been damaged during the entire incident, but as he began to walk around the locomotive, a bright beam of light illuminated him from above.
This beam literally pressed the man against the side of the locomotive and he managed to move with great difficulty. Somehow he managed to get back into the cabin and when he got into the cabin, the train moved on by itself, as if it had been waiting for him.
So the ball dragged the train for some time, and then for the third time it flew somewhere, and this time finally.
In total, the UFO dragged a train with 70 empty carriages for 1 hour and 20 minutes over more than 50 km. It was noted that the UFO helped the train save 300 kg of diesel oil.
Orlov and Mironov did not suffer much physically, but they suffered a very strong nervous shock. The veracity of their testimonies was confirmed by the diagrams of the recorders installed in the locomotive and by some documents.
However, none of the officials were able to provide a logical explanation for this incident. By the way, it was reported that a strange glowing ball was seen at the Karelian station of Kutizhma and shortly before the incident with train No. 1702.
