CFR 764.158 at Sighisoara Station

This weekend I took a trip to Sighisoara (Romania). It's a nice, quiet city, famous for its medieval fortress, which is said to be the only one in Europe inside which people still make their home. Visiting the city is definately worth while and if you're interested in steam locomotives, you'll find a pleasent little surprise at the Sighisoara railway station. Indeed, it's little. It's a 760 mm gauge locomotive from the 764.000 series of CFR. It seems that this type of narrow gauge locomotive was popular in Romania many years ago because the country had an extensive network of forest railways and the 764.000 series was quite suitable for it. The romanian forest railways are almost extinct today (I'll try to post about them in the future) but fortunately many locos of this kind have been preserved. One of them is the 764.158. This is how it looks today:

As you can see from the pictures, this time I had the opportunity to take a look at the cabin of the locomotive from the inside (I even climbed inside it). I was a bit disappointed because it was full of garbage stuck there by ignorant people. The locomotive is not in the greatest shape possible, but compared to many others, it's doing fine. If you compare the images to a photo that I took 3 years ago, you can see that at least it has been repainted in the standard CFR steam locomotive colour scheme (black, red, white):

Facts:

ID: CFR 764.158

Wheel arrangement: 0-8-0T

Built: 1949

Builder: Uzinele "23 August" (Bucuresti)

Top speed: 30 km/h

Gauge: 760 mm

Location: Sighisoara, Romania (train station)

The little steamer is not used anymore, it's on display at the train station. Unfotunately it's between some bushes and a parking place, crowded between the plants and the cars, so it's hard to even take a good picture of it.

Links:

CFR 764.158 at www.steamlocomotive.info