Я спросила у проводника, где находится мой вагон.

Because Russian past-tense verbs show gender in the singular.

• спросила = asked with a female subject
• спросил = asked with a male subject
• спросили = asked with a plural subject

So Я спросила... tells you the speaker is female.

With спросить, Russian often uses у + genitive to mean ask someone in the sense of ask someone for information.

So:

• спросить у проводника = ask the train attendant
• literally, it is close to ask from the attendant

This is a very natural pattern in Russian.

You can also hear спросить проводника, and that is also correct. But спросить у проводника strongly emphasizes getting information from that person.

Because у requires the genitive case.

The dictionary form is:

• проводник = train attendant

After у, it becomes:

• у проводника = from the train attendant / of the train attendant

So this is a case change, not a different word.

Here проводник means a train carriage attendant, especially on a long-distance train.

It does not mean:

• a physics conductor
• a tour guide

In this context, it is the railway staff member responsible for the carriage and passengers.

Not exactly. In railway Russian, вагон means a train car / carriage / coach.

So in this sentence:

• мой вагон = my carriage / my train car

It does not mean:

• a horse-drawn wagon
• a general cart
• the whole train

Because где находится мой вагон is a subordinate clause.

The sentence has two parts:

1. Я спросила у проводника = I asked the attendant
2. где находится мой вагон = where my carriage is located

Russian normally separates this kind of clause with a comma, especially after verbs like:

• сказать = to say
• знать = to know
• спросить = to ask
• объяснить = to explain

находится means is located / is situated.

So:

• где находится мой вагон = where my carriage is located

This sounds natural and slightly more complete or polite than just:

• где мой вагон? = where is my carriage?

Russian usually does not use есть as a simple present-tense is in sentences like this. So находится is a common way to express location clearly.

Because the main verb and the embedded question describe different time references.

• спросила = the act of asking happened in the past
• находится = the wagon’s location is presented as a current or relevant fact

Russian does not automatically force the second verb into the past just because the first verb is past.

So the structure is similar to English I asked where my carriage is when the location is still relevant.

If you specifically wanted a past location, you could say:

• где находился мой вагон = where my carriage was located

мой вагон is in the nominative case because it is the subject of находится.

Breakdown:

• мой = my, masculine singular nominative
• вагон = carriage, masculine singular nominative

So the meaning is literally:

• where my carriage is located

It is not in the accusative because it is not the direct object of спросила. The thing being asked is the whole clause где находится мой вагон.

This is a difference of aspect.

• спросила = perfective
  A completed, one-time action: she asked and that action is viewed as finished.

• спрашивала = imperfective
  Focuses on the process, repetition, or general fact of asking.

In this sentence, спросила is the natural choice because it describes one completed question.

Compare:

• Я спросила у проводника... = I asked the attendant...
• Я спрашивала у проводника... = I was asking / I asked repeatedly / I had asked the attendant...

Yes, sometimes. Russian often leaves out subject pronouns when the context is clear.

So you may hear:

• Спросила у проводника, где находится мой вагон.

But there is an important detail: in the past tense, спросила shows gender, but not clearly person. By itself, it could mean I asked or she asked, depending on context.

That is why Я is useful here: it makes the subject explicit.

Yes. Both are possible.

• где мой вагон = more direct, simpler, more conversational
• где находится мой вагон = a bit fuller, more formal, more like where my carriage is located

So:

• Я спросила у проводника, где мой вагон.
• Я спросила у проводника, где находится мой вагон.

Both can work, but the second sounds slightly more polished.

Russian word order is flexible, but this version is the most neutral.

• где находится мой вагон = neutral and standard
• где мой вагон находится = possible, but with extra emphasis or a less neutral feel

Russian does not require the kind of inversion English uses in direct questions. The sentence simply keeps a natural clause order.

So for learners, где находится мой вагон is the safest standard pattern to remember.