“And the rumor was that a railroad terminus had been built out over the waters of Lake Baikal”
Rails went over the waters in a sense. The original route of the trans-siberian railroad was laid directly over the feet thick ice when the lake freezes over in winter. Later it skirted around it. Havent heard the railcars into the lake story, but in “Gulag Archipeligo” it describes how during the 1930s, barges packed with military officers were sunk into that huge cold lake by Leningrad. All died.
Military officers of opposing armies?