In 1985, a UFO in Karelia Dragged a Freight Train for Over an Hour

This story is most commonly referred to as “the incident with train No. 1702,” which occurred in 1985 in the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. It was first published in the journal Technology of Youth in issue #8 in 1989. Today, it is rarely discussed, despite being one of the most unusual ufological cases in the history of the USSR.

In February 1985, a freight train was transporting 70 empty wagons to Kostomuksha via Petrozavodsk and Suoyarvi. The locomotive was operated by driver Sergei Orlov and his assistant V. Mironov.

At 20:35, they passed through the Essoila station, and everything was proceeding normally; the train was running on schedule. Suddenly, Orlov noticed a strange object shaped like a ball among the trees. The object moved parallel to the train and kept pace with it.

Orlov and Mironov watched the object closely, puzzled by its presence. “Look, it released a beam of light to the ground and then pulled it back,” Orlov remarked. Then, the ball darted sharply across the train and flew ahead of the locomotive, about 30 to 50 meters in front of it.

Concerned about a potential collision with the object, Orlov shut off the propulsion engines and applied the brakes with all his might. However, the train did not stop or even slow down; it continued moving forward as if being pulled by something unseen.

The shocked Orlov and Mironov could only watch helplessly as the mysterious object glided in front of the train, seemingly dragging it along.

Later, they informed investigators from the Department of Internal Affairs that the object was geometrically perfect, approximately four meters in diameter, and moved silently just above the ground.

As the train approached the Novye Peski station, Orlov activated the radio and contacted the station attendant to report the strange object that had latched onto their train. The attendant, confused, decided to step out onto the platform to see for herself. She was astonished to see two strange objects flying in front of the train.

The first was a classic disc-shaped UFO, and the second was a luminous ball. From their cabin, Orlov and Mironov could not see the second UFO because the luminous ball obscured it, which explained why they did not mention it later.

As the train neared the station, it showed no signs of slowing down, and the attendant became alarmed when she realized the ball was heading straight for the station building. Just as it reached the tracks, the ball abruptly separated from the locomotive and smoothly circled around the station house before returning to the train.

Despite the ball’s departure, the train continued past the Novye Peski station. However, when the ball flew away from the train, its speed dropped sharply, causing various objects to collide with the driver’s cab, injuring both Orlov and Mironov as they hit the windshield.

As soon as the ball returned to the train, its speed increased again. When the train approached Zastava station, the mysterious ball detached from the train once more and vanished behind the forest.

The train then slowed down and managed to stop at the station. Orlov quickly jumped out of the cab to check for any damage, but as he began to inspect the locomotive, a bright beam of light illuminated him from above.

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This beam pressed him against the side of the locomotive, making movement extremely difficult. Somehow, he managed to return to the cabin, where he found that the train was moving on its own, as if it had been waiting for him.

Thus, the ball had dragged the train along for a time before finally departing for good. In total, the UFO pulled the train with its 70 empty wagons for 1 hour and 20 minutes over a distance of more than 50 kilometers. It was noted that the UFO helped the train save 300 kg of diesel fuel.

Although Orlov and Mironov were not physically harmed, they experienced significant emotional distress. The validity of their testimony was supported by diagrams from the recorders installed on the locomotive and various documents.

However, none of the officials could provide a logical explanation for the incident. Interestingly, reports indicated that a strange glowing ball had been seen at the Karelian station Kutizhma shortly before the incident with train No. 1702.