Aside from the terrain and a [L3 301 / shortage of labor], nature was the most formidable foe the engineers faced. Winds and subzero weather limited earthwork to only a few months per year. However, deluges of rain that bogged down horses, carts and men in black mud also limited progress in the warm season.
A more serious menace was the spread of disease by the deadly humidity from week-long drizzles. Siberian [G 02 / anthrax] wiped out scores of [V 003 / horses] and large numbers of workers were incapacitated from fever spread by clouds of mosquitoes.
In the forests lurked the formidable Amur tiger. The largest of the big cats (today there are less than 250 left), each weighed as much as 770lbs and could be up to 10ft in length. These intimidating animals would terrorize the Chinese workers whose camps were in their hunting territory.
[M 008 / Vladivostok to Khabarovsk] was only 476 miles, but it took the chief engineer Vyazemski five years to complete. This was less than one-quarter the distance of the West and Mid-Siberian lines combined and the two were completed in just over six years.
The challenges presented by nature and the difficulty finding suitable labor was compounded by the need to source practically all construction material in Russia. Transportation from Europe required a minimum of 40 days from Odessa in the best of weather. This often resulted in delays of several months for materials. Even then, trains could only manage an unimpressive 10mph at the Ussuri's official opening in November [M 003 / 1897].
