Chinese Eastern Railway Liaodong from China in 1898. Officially, traffic on the line started in November 1901, but regular passenger traffic from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok across the Trans-Siberian railway did not commence until July 1903. In 1898, construction of a 550-mile (880 km) spur line, most of which later formed the South Manchuria Railway, began at Harbin, leading southwards through Eastern Manchuria, along the Liaodong Peninsula, to the ice-free deep-water port at Lüshun, which Russia was fortifying and developing into a first-class strategic naval base and marine coaling station for its Far East Fleet and Merchant Marine. This town was known in
Trans-Siberian Orchestra feature "The Christmas Attic", the only rock opera from the "Christmas Trilogy" never performed live up to that point. On July 30, 2015, Trans-Siberian Orchestra and a reunited Savatage headlined the 26th edition of Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany, which is the largest metal festival in the world. The 2015 festival lasted three days and featured over a hundred bands. This event marked both TSO's first outdoor festival appearance and first Savatage show in 13 years. A massive set was designed so that the two main festival stages would be identical, although this aspect of the show was not