For the first thirty-five years of the existence of the Soviet Union, she was reputed to be the owner of the largest fleet of armored trains in the world - and they faithfully served both in the Civil War and in the Great Patriotic War. And after they were gradually sent to the periphery of history because of the beliefs of the command that they were not needed. The only exceptions were the trains that helped defend the borders of the vast state. Moreover, such a measure turned out to be most relevant, oddly enough, in the East, because the USSR suddenly had to strengthen its protection from... "fraternal China."
Most of the armored trains of the USSR were scrapped in the 1950s, with the exception of a few that became props for film studios. And this despite the fact that the geopolitical situation in the world began to heat up almost exponentially - the Cold War began.
However, some armored trains still continued their service, only now in the border troops. So, part of the trains were sent to the borders of the Ukrainian SSR, the Baltic republics. In the East, armored trains began to drive around on the Soviet-Chinese border. And, as history has shown, it was in the latter region that they almost came in handy.
Relations with the PRC began to heat up in the early 1960s: both communist powers periodically faced in a variety of issues, including ideological ones, but territorial claims.
The climax of this confrontation was an armed clash on Damansky Island. In the battles, which lasted for two weeks, tanks were even involved, as well as Grad multiple launch rocket systems, which became the decisive force that defeated the Chinese units.
In these conditions, the issue of strengthening the borders, and therefore strengthening the Far Eastern Military District (FED) and the Trans-Baikal Military District (ZabVO), became especially acute. However, redeploying more troops was not enough. The thing is that this measure could not significantly affect the protection of such strategic objects as bridges and railway sidings - equipment was needed.
It was then that the command remembered about armored trains, which seemed to be the most acceptable option for covering railway facilities. But there are practically no working trains left - you cannot “pull them out” from the western borders, and the rest were disposed of long ago. There was a need to create new instances.
Since the special units for the creation and maintenance of armored trains were disbanded long ago, the work on the design of new trains was entrusted to the Kharkov plant of transport engineering named after. Malysheva.
The specialists quickly got down to business, using the already existing experience of working with railway trains. As a result, on March 1, 1970 Order No. 029 of the Minister of Defense of the USSR was issued - a mobile armored railway unit, called the "armored striker BTL-1" ("armored diesel locomotive briefing, the first"), was adopted.
The armored diesel locomotive TGM1 was taken as the basis for the train. Its main purpose: transportation of troops, which have the ability to shoot directly from the carriage thanks to the presence of embrasures for firing from personal weapons.
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In addition to the diesel locomotive, the BTL-1 included two platforms with artillery weapons. Interestingly, the weapon was not attached to the bepo (abbr. from "armored train") tightly - serial tanks could also be placed on the platforms, and of any available type.
According to the calculations of the designers, one BTL-1 train was capable of protecting about a hundred kilometers of the border. In addition, in combat conditions, it will be able to reliably protect one railway facility.
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For the first time, the armored baton was demonstrated in 1975, during exercises in honor of the Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. A total of 40 BTL-1 trains were built. But they did not serve for long, and for their direct - combat - purpose they were never used: in the early 1980s, after the warming in relations between the USSR and the PRC, the train was transferred to the reserve, and in 1990 armored trains were disbanded.
Want to know more about the legendary Soviet armored trains? Then read: Tanks on rails: how domestic armored trains were arranged
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/120420/54113/