Rock around the clock: A day in the life of 100-year-old clocks

Anyone who has ever traveled somewhere from a railway station knows this feeling of panic: I mustn’t miss the train, mustn’t forget my passport, mustn’t leave my luggage in the taxi. In an atmosphere of permanent rush, no wonder clocks are visible from every corner of the station.

The clocks at Moscow’s Kievsky railway station have a unique ancient mechanism with a 120kg weight and lots of gears and components. They have been in operation since 1917.

Clock fixer Maksut Safin has worked with the mechanism for the last 3 years. He used to be a railway engineer, but when his predecessor retired he took over the job, though there’s no explicit instruction manual for this mechanism. He says it's no big deal, but maybe that's just false modesty.

 

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