The Trans-Siberian: Fascinating facts about the world's longest railway

In 1913 it cost the Russian Empire 1.455 billion rubles in gold. To put that into perspective, a policeman used to earn 50 rubles a month back then.

It all began in 1891 with a visit by the future emperor, Nicholas II of Russia, to the building site in Vladivostok, Russia's Far East. It then took at least 22 years to build the railway line connecting Vladivostok and Moscow.

At its peak, construction of the line involved 90,000 people, most of them soldiers, peasants and convicts. The 7,500km of line completed in the first 12 years was built by hand with hardly any heavy machinery involved.

With modern trains it takes six days and two hours to get from Moscow to Vladivostok, a 9,298.2km journey – nearly twice as far as between London and New York.

The world's only train station built entirely from marble, Slyudyanka-1 is one of 64 stops en route from Moscow to Vladivostok. It's located not far from Lake Baikal.

Although not the northernmost point of the journey, Mogocha-Skovordino is still known to be the coldest part of the route, with temperatures falling to -62C (-79.6F) during winter months.

The team spends two weeks on the train taking the full journey from Moscow to Vladivostok and back. After the shift is over, the staff has two weeks off before it sets out again. Linemen are required to have a musical ear because they are meant to determine a faulty wheel by the sound it makes when they hit it during checks.