Choo-Choo Church: Train Brings God to Siberia

A mobile church aboard a train travels to some of Russia's most remote communities.

An Orthodox priest rings bells outside a train carriage serving as a mobile church, at a railway station in Divnogorsk, Russia, on May 26, 2014. ILYA NAYMUSHIN / Reuters
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An Orthodox priest rings a set of bells after baptizing a baby on board a train carriage that operates as a mobile church, bringing religion to remote parts of Russia.

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The Doctor Voino-Yasenetsky Saint Luka train travels annually to distant settlements in the Krasnoyarsk and Khakassia regions of Siberia.

Alongside the mobile church, the train also transports medical personnel and equipment, offering free consultations to about 200 patients a day in places where hospitals and clinics are scarce.

An Orthodox priest baptizes a baby at a church inside the Doctor Voino-Yasenetsky Saint Luka train, at a railway station in Divnogorsk, outside Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, on May 26, 2014. The train was named after Russian surgeon, Orthodox bishop and Gulag prisoner Valentin Voino-Yasenetsky.ILYA NAYMUSHIN / Reuters

— Reuters