In Soviet times, it was exceedingly difficult for Western photographers to get pictures of the railways, since paranoid security concerns placed trains in the same category as military bases! Regular-service steam operations on the Soviet railways were virtually extinct when the Cold War ended. Since then, an appreciable number of preserved locomotives have been hauling excursion trains and all photo restrictions have been rescinded. The last freight locomotives built in the USSR, in the mid-1950s, were 522 LV-class 2-10-2s. No. LV-0202 powered an American photographers' special at Nizkovka, Ukraine, on February 28, 1994.
