CFR 40.005 near Subcetate Station

  Only one special cog railway (rack railway) line ever existed in Romania, between Caransebeş and Subcetate (in Hunedoara county). It was built in 1908 to connect the Petroşani region of the country, where coal existed, to the Resiţa region, rich in metals. The part of the line stretching from Boutari (Băuţar) to Zeicani was too steep for conventional locomotives, so it was fitted with a rack running between the tracks and special cog locomotives were bought for transporting the raw materials on it.

  Wiener Lokomotivfabriks, AG in Floridsdorf delivered 7 cog locomotives in 1908, which were classified into the 40D (40.000D) series of CFR locomotives and numbered from 40.001 to 40.007. They were used until 1978 when the whole line was closed. Today their situation is the following:

• CFR 40.001 is at Petrosani
• CFR 40.002 was barbarically melted (after being exhibited in Iasi for a while)
• CFR 40.003 was sold to Slovakia
• CFR 40.004 is exhibited in the steam locomotive museum at Sibiu
• CFR 40.005 is in a restricted area near the Subcetate train station
• CFR 40.006 was sold to Slovakia
• CFR  40.007 is exhibited in the Dej Triaj collection

  These locomotives were considered to be very advanced technologically at the time when they were built. They possessed two 4-cylinder engines, one for the normal, adhesive wheels and one for the cog-wheels. These two engines could operate simultaneously and the non-cog engine could also work by itself.They always rode in the front of the train, so they needed to be turned around at the ends of the line. for this purpose two manual turntables were used, so the heavy machines were turned using human power. you can see an example of this in the movie "Steam in Roumania 1969". The top speed of the rack locos was 40 km/h on normal sections and 12 km/h on rack sections.

Facts:

ID: CFR 40.005

Wheel arrangement: 2-8-2cog

Built: 1908

Builder: Wiener Lokomotivfabriks AG (Floridsdorf)

Top speed: 40 km/h on normal sections, 12 km/h on cog sections

Gauge: Standard (1435 mm)

Location: Subcetate, Romania (near train station)

Links:

CFR 40.005 at www.steamlocomotive.info
CFR 40.004 at Sibiu steam locomotive museum

About the cog locomotives at www.albico.cz

About the Subcetate-Boutari line at www.albico.cz

Steam in Roumania August 1969 DVD

I have recently acquired a very interesting DVD: "Steam in Roumania August 1969". It contains 57 minutes of footage filmed in Romania in 1969, the last year when the steam locomotives handled the largest share of rail traffic in this country. The video was filmed by none other than Ton Pruissen, the famous producer of historical railway films who has dedicated his life to filming steam locomotives. His passion began when he was only 16 years old and as the years passed, he created unparalleled quality films about steam locomotives. In 1969 he took a "steam trip" to Romania, where he found friendly people and cooperative railway men, and, in spite of the odds of being arrested, he succeeded in producing high-quality footage about the magnificent CFR steam locomotives, with their unique polished brass embellishment.

The film starts off by presenting some interesting facts about the Romanian steamers, such as they used a system of dual firing (coal and oil), because Romania had plenty of oil but no coal, or such as the fact that Romanian steam locomotive series were numbered according to the French system, where the wheel arrangement (according to Whyte notation) was divided by two, the leading zeros omitted and so the class number was obtained (for example a 4-6-2 was included in the 231.000 series and a 2-8-4 was in the 142.000 series). Also at the beginning of the film some main classes of the CFR steam locomotives are enumerated and presented: the Prussian P8, Prussian G10, Prussian G81, 2-6-0 and 2-6-2 steam locos, 2-8-2 rack locos, the 2-10-0 locos based on the German class 50, the magnificent 2-8-4s based on Austrian design and the elegant Pacifics.

The trip begins at Timisoara. It continues with images of the Subcetate-Boutari rack line. After that comes the station of Cluj, where a considerable amount of the footage was filmed. Next is Sibiu and the narrow gauge line to Agnita. Finally, it ends with Bucuresti (Bucharest), home of the Romanian Pacifics.

The film is tightly packed with important historical shots, it contains rare images of important types of Romanian steam locomotives, many of which are the few such steamers that have escaped scrapping and can be seen exhibited today. It is a pleasant, enjoyable film, with well organized content. Most of it (about 90%) is in black and white and it is obvious that the used filming equipment is what was available over 40 years ago, but that does not spoil the fun at all. The commentary is in English and is very good (but I've heard that versions with German commentary are also available).

Here is a short teaser of the DVD:

The short clip was made available by Camden Miniature Steam Services, which is where I ordered the DVD from: Steam in Roumania August 1969 at Camden Miniature Steam Services.

CFR 40.004 at Sibiu Steam Locomotive Museum

CFR 40.004 is a special steam locomotive, designed to be able to climb sections of very steep track, with up to 70% declivity. It can do this with the help of two cog-wheels. In some sections a third line exists between the tracks, which is used to interact with the cog-wheels of the locomotive to help pull the weight. Such special cog railways existed in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the former Czechoslovakia, etc. There was one in Romania too, between Subcetate and Boutari. It was built between 1908 and 1909 and it served for the transport of raw materials.

Only a few locomotive factories existed in Europe which produced special steam locomotives with cog-wheels. One of them was the Wiener Lokomotivfabriks, AG in Floridsdorf, which delivered 7 cog locomotives to the Subcetate-Boutari line in 1908. One of them is the CFR 40.004 locomotive, which has two 4-cylinder engines, one for the normal, adhesive wheels and one for the cog-wheels. These locomotives had been working on the Subcetate-Boutari line until 1978 when the line was closed. They always rode in the front of the train, so they needed to be turned around at the ends of the line. On the Subcetate-Boutari line two manual turntables existed.

They never were fast locomotives. the maximum speed on normal sections was 40 km/h and 12 km/h on cog sections. They were able to generate a power of around 441-514 kW. These steam locomotives were very advanced from technological point of view and were also very reliable. CFR 40.004 is also a film star. It appeared in the movie "Petrolul, aurul si ardelenii".

Facts:

ID: CFR 40.004

Wheel arrangement: 2-8-2cog

Built: 1908

Builder: Wiener Lokomotivfabriks AG (Floridsdorf)

Top speed: 40 km/h on normal sections, 12 km/h on cog sections

Gauge: Standard (1435 mm)

Location: Sibiu, Romania (steam locomotive museum)

The locomotive, of course, is not being used anymore. It is on display in the Sibiu steam locomotive museum, close to the entrance, in a fairly acceptable state. Unfortunately it too is stuck behind bushes, hard to even photograph.

Links:

CFR 40.004 at www.steamlocomotive.info

CFR 40.004 at www.infofer.ro

About the cog locomotives at www.albico.cz

About the Subcetate-Boutari line at www.albico.cz