The most famous railway station is undoubtedly Leningradsky! But how did it come to be, and what was there before? Let's find out!
Interestingly, these surroundings were known as early as the 14th century. Back then, they were called Krasny Prud and belonged to the Moscow Prince Vasily I. However, by 1462, the land came under the ownership of Ivan III, and it became known as Krasnoselskaya Dvortsovaia Sloboda.
The waterfront area was used as pastureland, so by the late 17th century, the territory between the embankment and the pond was a wide field. In the northwest part of the plot stood the travel palace of Alexei Mikhailovich, adorned with a belfry, which is why the vacant lot came to be known as Kalanchevskaya Square.
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When the Kamery-Kollegskiy Wall was built, the area became part of the capital and gradually began to be developed. At that time, the area served as a route to Vladimir Land, with the northern part occupied by the Artillery Field Yard, where ammunition was stored and exercises were held.
During the fire of 1812, the complex caught fire due to ammunition explosions. However, the yard was not reconstructed. Part of the plot remained vacant until the mid-19th century when it was decided to build a railway station there.
By the way, the construction of a direct railway connection between Moscow and St. Petersburg began in 1842 when Emperor Nicholas I signed the corresponding decree.
The railway was intended to become the first state-owned double-track line in the country!
Work was carried out simultaneously along the entire length of the line, but sections were opened one by one. For the final station in Moscow, they initially planned to use a plot within the Garden Ring.
They considered areas such as Tverskaya Zastava and Trubnaya. However, this idea was abandoned due to noise and the risk of fire from sparks from the locomotive's chimney. Therefore, the construction committee chose the Kalanchevsky vacant lot on the northeastern outskirts of the city.
In 1843, architect Rudolf Zhelyazevich prepared designs for the intermediate station buildings of the railway. He also proposed his own ideas for organizing the station, but they were not accepted.
They took a different approach, a more complex one. An architectural competition was organized, in which famous specialists such as Alexander Brullov, Nikolay Efimov, and Konstantin Thon participated. By the way, Thon's work was approved by Nicholas I for both terminal stations of the railway.
Construction of the building in Moscow began in 1844 under the guidance of the transportation manager Peter Kleinmikhel, who had disagreements with Thon. Kleinmikhel demanded the use of brickwork with thin seams, which he considered most aesthetically pleasing. However, the architect refused to comply with this directive, fearing a loss of wall integrity and the formation of cracks. As a result of conflicts, in 1847, the work was entrusted to Rudolf Zhelyazevich, who, according to contemporaries, was more accommodating.
The construction was completed in 1851. The building was a stylistic pair with the station in St. Petersburg but smaller in size. Its length was 25 sazhens, and its width was 12 sazhens.
The main facade was located along Kalanchevskaya Square. The central part of the building housed a spacious double-height vestibule. The interiors of the station were adorned with oak parquet floors and Swedish marble stoves, while the toilets were equipped with fireplaces, which was rare. The imperial halls featured massive oak doors and were equipped with mirrored cabinets. The second floor of the main station building was allocated for the apartments of the staff.
Interestingly, the layout of the building followed a class system for passengers. Separate areas were provided for different sections of the population, with identical facilities for each group.
The left platform was separated from the external space by glass arches. Two additional pavilions were adjacent to it, one for serving the royal family and the other for baggage distribution and dispatch.
Both platforms were connected by a transverse platform and vestibule. The railway tracks were connected by turntables for locomotive rearrangement.
Architect Thon planned to symmetrically place two wings for customs and staff quarters on either side of the main station building, but only the first one was implemented.
Thus, the construction of the complex was completed by 1853. It consisted of a three-story main building, a one-story baggage warehouse, and a two-story wing with staff apartments.
The first train arrived at the St. Petersburg Station in Moscow on August 3, 1851, and on the 19th of the same month, Emperor Nicholas I traveled for the first time by rail with his wife and heirs.
Regular train service was opened in November 1851. However, four years later, due to the death of the emperor, the St. Petersburg-Moscow Railway was renamed the Nikolaev Railway. Both terminal stations also received this name.
And now, let's turn to historical images:

1. Red Pond in autumn. Landscape by Lev Kamenev.
2. Red Pond and Krasnoye Selo in the late 19th century.
3. Plan of the station (now Leningradsky) of the Nikolaev Railway in Moscow, 1853.
4. Station drawing, 1872.
5. Kalanchevskaya Square in the 19th century, with the Nikolaev Station in the center, 1850s.
6. Imperial train at the station. August 1851.
7. Main facade of the Nikolaev Station, 1883.

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Hi. So this is an update post from this post. I want to formally apologize about how I missed on DS's hardware limitations and overwhelmed the amount of tracks that probably weren't possible due to hardware limits since some of the tracks (mainly GCN and maybe N64). I wanted to make changes to my original Retro Track "fixed" concept. So lets get into it. This time, instead of thinking about what fans are capable of based on custom tracks, I want to base it off whether if I think these tracks are hardware liable for a DS. So, lets get into it.
SNES
I've swapped out KB2 with KB1 and placed it in the Shell Cup since I'd figured that CI1 might've been a little harder than KB1 instead. So that means that CI2 stays (but gets moved to the banana cup) the Shell Cup still kicks off with a Koopa based track though but there's no water holes anymore since its not KB2. DP3 and MC4 still remains in its original spots since there's no point in changing anything from the SNES line after CI2.
N64
[N64] Wario Stadium swaps out Koopa (Troopa) Beach mainly because Wario is cool. However, that's not the only reason why its there in the shell cup. While there's not much going on, [N64] WS can have a few dash panels at the ramps and maybe some fire rings at bigger jumps like in [DS] Wario Stadium. But this is an easy course since the layout of the course doesn't have much going on, which is a fine course for the introductory retro cup. the N64 line doesn't change from here on out however since there's not much else to change.
GBA
Alright, now this is where things gets a lot more interesting. I wanted to be creative a little bit and not be repetitive, so I wanted the shell cup and lightning cup to end off with a GBA course. I know it kills the pattern but it's not that bad of a change honestly. I kinda like this since it mixes it up a little for the beginning cup and final cup just to see what you've learned after completing the last 3 cups.
Anyways, on to the tracks itself. I've been reading about SG being the hardest GBA course in DS while BC2 being terrible. so i moved SG to the Leaf Cup in order to keep the difficulty in check. Yoshi Desert moves down to the shell cup since its easier than BP, RR and Sky Garden. BP however moves down to the Banana cup since i've found out that it's shorter than sky garden, making it a little bit easier, however not too easy since the blocks can still be hit and fallen down and the boos on the path can still be troublesome while also driving through tighter turns than usual.
I've swapped the spots for the last GCN course and GBA course since GBA Rainbow Road can be hard due to shooting stars, tight corners and bouncy road sides. AND, it's possible to program in without the fear of hardware limitations getting in the way due to the track being relatively flat. It's also another rainbow road that has yet to return in a modern MK game. (rainbow tour maybe??)
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GCN
GCN MC was actually an unused track, so I'm giving it the spotlight here in the shell cup. It's a good course, don't get me wrong and i'd love for it to see where it goes. i've limited the amount of retro circuits so it wont be too repetitive hearing the same music or predictable track design during each cup or so.
GCN DKM stays the same. Just reuse the airship fortress cannon and remodel it to be a DK barrel while fencing off any ultra shortcuts to cut down on hardware. If this isn't possible in DS then just pretend that GCN Dino Dino Jungle is there instead.
I've chose Mushroom City over Bridge so nobody has to feel disappointed about the dash panels on the rails in MB not being there (along with the special cars not being there) the music still stays in but now it's at night and theres alternative paths now. So, a little harder than MB itself but it remains in the leaf cup as the 3rd GCN track.
Waluigi Stadium is a weird one since it's less hardware powerful than it's colosseum brother. I overestimated about Wario Colosseum & and Rainbow Road since it was working fine in GCGP (gamecube track grand prix, all mario kart dd!! tracks in mkds). Hopefully since it almost resembles DS Wario Stadium, it can work on real hardware without hardware limitations with the robotic moving Piranha Plants being there.
Might work on fixing MKWii's retros and maybe even adding a retro selection for DD!!, GP 2 and GPDX like I said in the last post. goodbye for now though.

I have a large rhododendron which is very tall and spindly/leggy. I want it to be bushier and fuller with more blooms, but not sure where to start… I’m a gardening newbie so all advice welcome!