This article describes financing mechanisms of the railway construction in Russia in the 19th and in the early 20th century. We have considered the problem of the lack of investment in the construction and modernization of the railway network in Modern Russia. We have also described the solution to the problem of the lack of investment using the admission of the private capital to the construction and railway maintenance, on the analogy with the experience of the Russian Empire. As an example, the project of the railway network reconstruction around Novgorod has been described.