Preparations: Links

Just a few links we have collected that might be useful in preparing the trip:

• General info:
• The Virtual Transiberian on Google Maps. To be seen especially if you're not going: you can see hours of footage from the window of the train in different spots of the trip. Plus the maps of some cities with a few landmarks.
• The WikiTravel page on the Trans-Siberian (and the Wikipedia page, since you're there).
• The ever-reliable train-loving Man in Seat 61, with lots of resources, tips and advice on the trip. Some of the links seem a bit like sponsorships, but hey, there's lots of info there, you can't complain.
• Trains in Russia: (more on that later)
• The official website of Russian Railways (RZhD), in English. You can't buy tickets online, but you can get the timetables (provided you are able to search in Cyrillic). Oh, and some sparse information.
• UFS Online. In Russian, and you'll have to fiddle with your keyboard to look up the trains (unless you do manage to input your requests in Cyrillic, that is). But the prize awaits: the website actually gives you some prices, and possibly even sells the tickets! I didn't go that far though. But it's useful to at least have an idea of the cost of each leg of the trip.
• Tutu (nice name, huh?). See above, but it doesn't have the prices. There's also flights and hotels (but you don't want to use any of those, do you?)
• This page is only for real geeks, or for those who are stuck with the Russian Railways timetable lookup. Every Russian station has a corresponding number, and this page lists them all. So you can use it to lookup (in the RZhD website) from 2060001 to 2060500 and you'll get all the trains from Gorky (pardon, Nizhny Novgorod) to Kazan.
• Travellers' comments:
• Some Trans-Siberian travel tips and costs, dating from 2007
• A Trans-Mongolian Railway FAQ, and several blog posts about the Trans-Mongolian trip

Obviously, suggestions are welcome... We might add some more while we go. Merry browsing.