All around – machine tools: what is industrial tourism and why is it fashionable

Industrial tourism is still new to most Russians, but is rapidly gaining in popularity. A trip to production is a great chance to learn more not only about professions, but, of course, about people. Izvestia has collected the best excursions to factories and factories in Russia…

Metallurgical plant “Severstal”

Cherepovets

It is unlikely that someone will immediately say what a cast iron carrier looks like, and dare to suggest what a slab is. Knowledge gaps will quickly close at the Museum of the Metallurgical Industry in Cherepovets. There they will tell about all the intricacies of steel hardening, and then they will show the same slab – a red-hot metal mess pouring through the rolling mill 2000. This process, where everything burns with fire, rages, hisses and soars, could be watched for hours. After all, to visit the sheet-rolling Czech of the Cherepovets plant, you don’t even need to change into protective clothing. A glazed observation deck was equipped especially for tourists at ChMK Severstal. But keep in mind: the time of her visit is strictly limited.

Tour cost: 750 rubles.

Vyksa Steel Works

Vyksa

For those who managed to get into the wheel-rolling shop of VMZ, the sound of car wheels will forever become special. Spinning red-hot “pancakes” are a fascinating sight. 70% of the total number of wheels for trains is produced here, in the Nizhny Novgorod region. An excursion to the “railway” shop is one of three offered by the factory travel agency. You can also go check in at rolling mill 5000, one of the largest in Russia, and see how pipes of “Russian diameters” are produced in a workshop with an area of ​​20 football fields. The Vyksa plant, in addition to its gigantic machines, is also unexpectedly famous for its street art. One of the walls of the plant was painted by an artist named Misha Most. He worked on the graffiti “Vyksa 10 000” for 45 days and used 5 tons of primer and paint!

Tour cost: from 1000 rubles.

Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works

Magnitogorsk

A children’s song about a dad who can do anything: swim breaststroke, argue in a bass, chop wood, does not include some important skills. For example, melting super-strong steel, driving huge machines, cutting pipes. Apparently, therefore, ohDean from the routes through the metallurgical plant in Magnitogorsk was named “Dad’s at work.” Curious young visitors, who for the most part go to work with someone else’s dad, dress up in suits, give them helmets, put them on a bus and talk about what heavy industry is and what dads do here.
Older guests are also offered interesting programs: “Steel Route” or “Taming the Fire” – a visit to the largest Russian blast furnace Czech, where the furnace has been producing cast iron since 1943.

Tour cost for children: from 200 rubles. Guided tours for adults: from 700 rubles.

Ice Cream Factory “Chistaya Liniya”

Dolgoprudny, Moscow region

Lots and lots of ice cream! Strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, crème brulee. In waffle cups and on sticks, in briquettes and in cones. The dream of a real sweet tooth, a paradise for ice cream lovers. Visitors are led around the factory dressed in white coats, hats and warm jackets (since the temperature in the shops is quite arctic) for an hour and a half. This time is quite enough for sightseers to salivate after inspecting all stages of ice cream production – from mixing ingredients to icing with chocolate, from baking wafer cups to shaping ice cream.… Tasting not yet frozen ice cream is, in the opinion of many, the brightest part of the factory tour, and how much delight is the promo code for a whole box of delicacies, which after a while will be delivered to your home!

The cost of the excursion is from 1850 rubles.

Agrokombinat “Moskovsky”

Moscow

Trucks with flowers in pots, bunches of lettuce and greens leave from here to the capital every 15 minutes. Cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes and other vegetables are ripening in hundreds of greenhouses of the largest agronomic enterprise in the country. But “Moskovsky” specializes in “inedible” plants – flowers. There are 80 types of them here, including mountain and tropical. Almost all work in greenhouses is automated – robots are responsible for planting seedlings, watering plants, temperature, lighting. As part of the excursion, you can only visit a couple of greenhouses – in one they grow salad, in the other – flowers. It would probably be boring to watch the salad grow, but the excursions are conducted in the format of ecological quests or master classes on creating a decorative support for a flower in a pot or decorating a photo frame.

The cost of a group excursion, including transfer: from 890 rubles for schoolchildren and from 1200 rubles for an adult.

Factory “Freedom”

Moscow

Any tour of the “Svoboda” cosmetics factory will be held with pure thoughts. Access as part of an excursion to three of the four Svoboda productions is free, but some secrets and recipes are not given out. The most interesting excursion is dedicated to products in tubes – they are packed with toothpaste and creams for all parts of the body. This tour is also notable for its architectural eclecticism: some of the factories are located in historical buildings, and one of the toothpaste workshops is in a new modern building. The outlook will be replenished with knowledge about the technological process of cooking toothpaste in a reactor, the secrets of fluffy foam for a bath and a set of ingredients for shaving lotion. Each program ends with a master class, you can make a cream with your own hands, knead shampoo or cook curly soap.

Tour cost: from 890 rubles.

Mariinsky mine “Ural emerald”

Malysheva village, Sverdlovsk region

The only emerald deposit in Russia is located at the Malyshevskoye deposit, aka the Mariinsky mine. Almost 100 thousand tons of ore per year are processed here and, on average, about 150 kg of emeralds and 15 kg of alexandrite are found. Recently, the mine was opened for free visits, however, guests are not allowed into the holy of holies – the mine itself. But there will be a lot of impressions already: the guide will surprise you with figures and facts about the precious stones found at the mine, accompany you to the crushing and sorting shops, where the stones are cleaned, weighed and sorted, and also leads you to the observation deck overlooking the quarry. And, most importantly, during the excursion there is a chance to get the gem yourself. If, of course, you are lucky to find it in the breed on the “field of fools”. This is the name of the site where the waste rock mass was dumped during the Soviet era. Then they were looking for beryl, and emeralds were almost not in demand. Therefore, the chances of finding an excellent stone are many. Newbie prospectors will be given a sieve-butara, a handful of rock from the aforementioned field, from which precious stones must be washed in cold water. But there is also bad news – the emerald found at the Mariinsky mine will have to be left in place.

The cost of an excursion, including a transfer from Yekaterinburg, is from 2300 rubles.

Bachat coal mine

Belovo, Kemerovo region

Coal was found in Kuzbass even under Peter I. Kuzbass still gives the country coal, more than half of the minerals in Russia are mined here. On an official tourist visit, you can go to the Bachatsky mine, the coal reserves of which are estimated at more than 300 million tons, over 8 million tons of black gold are mined here annually. The mining here is carried out in an open way – from the observation deck you can watch how huge BelAZ trucks, drilling rigs, excavators and loaders are slowly working in the quarry. If you look closely, you can see the miners, who are hardly noticeable compared to the gigantic machines.

Tour cost: from 850 rubles.