Vladimir Ermishin is a Tough Nut to Crack
The Neva River bathed in its cold waters the tracery of bridges and the glare of lanterns. The ancient sphinxes silently and haughtily gazed from the arrow of Vasilyevsky Island, preserving the secrets of the past millennia. The architecture of Northern Palmyra fascinated with the unique creations of great architects, whose names made one's head spin: Rastrelli, Quarenghi, Rossi... Here, even an intourist who had traveled the world was overwhelmed with delight.
— Well, how can you not love this city with its magnificent avenues and white nights? — Nadezhda Viktorovna Orekhova, a leading technologist of the Oktyabrskaya Railway locomotive service, became our guide for a short time and gazed lovingly at the Nevsky prospect with its palaces and parks.— It is no coincidence that they say that authentic architecture is frozen music. St. Petersburg meets this definition.
Behind us was a busy and solemn opening day of a new workshop for the repair of wheel sets at the Malaya Vishera depot, where the heads of the locomotive services of the road network were invited. The specialists had a lot to look at. Production lines, brand-new machines and equipment met the most modern requirements. In fact, this is not even a workshop, but a mini-factory, which a large industrial enterprise can envy.
The head of the Oktyabrskaya Road, V. V. Stepov, and the governor of the Novgorod Region, M.M. Prusak, who came to the opening, did not hide their satisfaction. The 186 million rubles invested in the reconstruction of the workshop will pay off very soon. Suffice it to say that the expected annual economic effect will amount to 130 million rubles.
During the presentation, managers and specialists, representatives of companies who put a lot of effort and skills into equipping the workshop and mastering modern technologies, were honored and awarded. Among the awardees was the heroine of this essay, Nadezhda Viktorovna Orekhova, an extraordinary person and a high—class specialist.
For more than three decades, such is her work experience in the service of the locomotive industry of the Oktyabrskaya highway. You must agree, dear reader, enviable constancy and dedication to your chosen cause. And on the road, many people call her "die hard", without associating it with her last name. Actually, puns are out of place here. Orekhova is one of those people who feel the slightest falsehood in their gut, but cut the truth directly.
Nadezhda spent her childhood and youth in Tashkent, a city of dazzling sun and cold ditches, juicy melons and fans. His father, Viktor Vladimirovich, was a military representative at one of the "closed" enterprises, and his mother, Henrietta Sergeevna, taught at a school. Orekhova studied diligently. Actually, from an early age, she got used to doing everything thoroughly. Apparently, the influence of his father, a strict and demanding man, even in small things, had an effect. I spent my free time in the library, discovering the mysterious world of technology.
In 1972, my father was transferred to Leningrad. By that time, Nadezhda already had a high school diploma, and the question arose: where to enroll? There are so many technical universities in the city on the Neva that you can't help but get lost. And she decided on an engineering career for herself a long time ago. I stopped at the Leningrad Institute of Railway Engineers. And he still doesn't regret it.
I met a guy once. There was also a common thing — water tourism. At that time, Nikolai was studying at the Military Mechanical Institute. A year later they got married, although the parents on both sides were categorically against early marriage. After some time, Maximka was born. Nadezhda had to switch to the evening department.
They were given housing in Pushkin. Stove heating, outdoor toilet. To get to work on time, I had to get up with the roosters, and I came back in the dead of night. But maybe for someone the phrase "with a nice paradise and in a hut" is empty bravado, but for her it's real life with all the pros and cons.
The wheel of fate spun further. It wasn't easy to combine work with study, but she couldn't see any other way out. She joined the Leningrad-Baltiyskiy depot as a laboratory chemist. Then she worked as a contractor for locomotive crews and as a wheelset measurement technician. She defended her long-awaited diploma in electrical engineering brilliantly. By the way, she did not shy away from public work when she was elected a member of the bureau of the Komsomol depot committee. After a while, the Communists accepted Orekhova into their ranks. Becoming a member of the CPSU in my twenties was an event at that time.
The young master was greeted warily in the wheel shop. Behind him, one could hear: "Only a woman boss was missing here!". Repairmen are cheerful and rollicking people. Sometimes they won't turn a nut without a mainland. Orekhova suffered a little, and then gathered her "eagles", having previously removed the women, and demonstrated such "Russian folklore" that the men's ears had withered. They stood with their mouths agape for a long time. After such a "prevention", no one else heard an obscene word in the workshop.
But life didn't stand still. Soon a daughter, Varenka, was born. I wish I could stay at home! But Nadezhda Viktorovna decided in her own way. A new position was waiting for her at the depot — the senior foreman of the same wheel shop. The work front has expanded, and responsibilities have been added. The main ones are the organization of non-destructive testing, strict adherence to wheelset repair technology, lubrication, and locomotive diagnostics... And there is a fierce demand at every workplace, for every operation. So that you don't have to worry about why the wheelset didn't run out of time.
Valentin Alexandrovich Gapanovich got up a lot today. It's no joke, the vice president is the chief engineer of JSC Russian Railways, and Nadezhda Viktorovna remembers him as her own father. At that time, Gapanovich was the chief engineer of the Oktyabrskaya Road.
— It was a pleasure to work with him, - says Orekhova, — although Valentin Alexandrovich asked, as they say, to the maximum. After all, he is a technician and a locomotive engineer from God. An excellent production organizer. At any meeting or at a meeting in the workshop, he will definitely listen and let you argue. And only then will he make a decision. He worked for days and charged the others with his energy...
There is no trace of sycophancy or obsequiousness in these words. And Orekhova is not capable of such a thing. Proud and independent, domineering and tough, Nadezhda Viktorovna honors the law of "mirror image". If you like a person, it means they deserve it. An ordinary virtuoso locksmith is sometimes more expensive to her than an engineer. He will do something that no other master can do.
Dear reader, let's return to Kolesny. To the workshop of the Malaya Vishera depot. Its reconstruction and opening for Orekhovaya is an epic. After all, she was responsible for everything. How much she had to endure defending her positions is well known to many on Oktyabrskaya Road. At first, Nadezhda Viktorovna was even considered an adventurer. But it was like that. The head of the road, Gennady Pavlovich Komarov, decided to build a workshop only for diesel locomotives.
Orekhova did not think long, and then she came to the deputy head of the Oktyabrskaya highway, S.V. *Иванов**Иванов**Иванов**Иванов**Иванов*tsev: they say, we will buy equipment suitable for processing wheel sets of electric locomotives. The money is the same, but it will work for the future. Sergey Vyacheslavovich only thought for a minute, and then waved his hand: "Do everything quietly, do not advertise. We'll see later. After all, winners are not judged!"
She did just that. She delivered equipment that could handle two types of wheelsets — diesel (diameter 1250 mm) and electric (1200 mm). Later, when brand-new wheelsets are installed for VL10 electric locomotives, many will appreciate Orekhova's "adventurism." The head of the road Stepov will present the prize and an armful of roses. At the same time, Viktor Vasilyevich will add: "Thank you, Nadezhda Viktorovna, for your foresight and courage."
She will smile and remember by name all those with whom she had a chance to experience good luck and mistakes in this workshop: depot chief V.I. Ivanov, his deputy S. V. Zhukov, repair fitters I.Y. Belokopytov and A.N. Shavrov, locomotive receiver V.V. Kuzmin, defectoscopist V.N. Vasilyeva, presser A.D. Spiridonsky, many others. He won't forget anyone.
Orekhova can talk endlessly about the installation of repair and production lines, the adjustment of each machine, and the working position. And about how the authorities "got" him twenty-four hours a day, and Sergey Vyacheslavovich *Иванов**Иванов**Иванов**Иванов**Иванов*tsev "affectionately" promised: "I will personally hang him on the gate if you do not deliver the workshop on time." I had to spend the day and the night at the depot
Malaya Vishera. What kind of personal life is there if you had to step through "those very gates" every time! I haven't been on vacation for three years until I started this wheel shop. And that was exactly the kind of life she wanted. Full of passion and innovative thought.
Actually, what is a technologist? Roughly speaking, as Nadezhda Viktorovna put it in a conversation with me, he has to use his brain. If you are not able, for example, to create a technological map, the price on the market day will be high. And also, the entire repair and technological process must be mentally passed through yourself, clearly imagining every moment.
"A full—fledged technologist can only come from a master who has worked thoroughly in the workshop," says my interlocutor. — The theoretical knowledge gained at the university must be supported by good practice. I know that from my own experience. There is one more point. In my opinion, you need to be born a technologist. It may sound grandiloquent, but it's true. Here Anna Guryeva works at the St. Petersburg-Sortirovochny-Moskovsky depot. An excellent engineer. She has a grasp and a sensible approach to business. I am convinced that Guryeva will eventually become a real technologist. A man knows his job and loves it. And you can't get far without these qualities.
They say it's a bad nut job, you can't say a word across it. If she's on the shop floor, she's a complete matriarch. The order is ironclad. It also happened like this: "We had a talk here, and I decided..." Or maybe that's right? After all, she bears not only legal, material, but moral responsibility, which she has never shifted to others.
