Snow Plow at Dej Calatori Station

Last summer I saw an interesting device at Dej Calatori station. It was one of CFR's snow plows. It seems that several exist in Romania. This one was "resting" on a secondary line close to the Dej Calatori station, here:

Its ID seems to be CFR UWPZ 30531004281-0. Unfortunately I could not find any information about it. I wonder when and where it was built, how long and where it was used, how it got where it is today...

You can see a similar american snow plow in action here:

Links:

WPZ Snow Plow at Dej Triaj Depot

Mocanita din Viseu - Part 2

Last weekend I took a trip to the Vaser Valley to visit the mocanita train. Saturday morning at a few minutes before 8:30 we arrived to the CFF station in Viseu de Sus (the address is str. Cerbului nr. 5, for the map location see part 1). From a few hundred meters away we could already see a small steam locomotive getting ready for the trip.

While we walked that distance, it arrived to the station and coupled to the passenger cars, so by the time we got there, the CFF 764.421 "Elvetia" steam locomotive was already waiting for us, ready to take us into the valley of the river, into the land of forests and rocks.

We quickly purchased our tickets (a ticket for an adult costs 35 RON (8-9 Euro) and there are lower cost tickets for students and children). The train left at 8:30 sharp.

First we traveled through the village, close to the peoples' houses and gardens. We stopped more than once for a short brake. The little narrow gauge train's speed must have been betwen 10 and 20 km/h.

After leaving the village, we followed the river's course uphill deep into the valley. Sometimes the trees were so close to the windows that you could touch them, other times you had to pull your had inside in order not to be hit by the rocks. The river was also very close, sometimes the water was no more then half a meter away from the train tracks.

After about two and a half hours of traveling uphill we reached our end station, Paltin, where tea, hot chocolate and other goodies wre awaiting us at a merchant's table.

The line goes much further into even wilder places, but since the flood in 2008, when the water washed away large sections of track, the company does not feel that it's safe for tourists to travel further. It's a pitty because shortly after Paltin a tunnel follows and the land is said to be even more beautiful.

<- Part 1 Part 3->

Links:

CFF Viseu official site

Daniel Secarescu's Mocanita Blog

Mocanita on Wikipedia

Muntii Maramuresului

www.wassertalbahn.ch

Google search for "Mocanita" pages

Mocanita din Viseu - Part 1

In the northern part of Romania lies Maramures county, part of the international Maramures region. It's a land of exceptional natural beauty, with lots of mountains and thick forests. As a consequence many of the locals work in the wood processing industry. In the northeastern part of the county, close to the Ukranian border, at the confluence of the Viseu and Vaser rivers, you can find the small town of Viseu de Sus. One may find many interesting things in this small town, but for the railway enthusiasts the most important place to visit is the mocanita station found here (address: str. Cerbului nr. 5.):

The mocanita term denotes the small Romanian narrow gauge (760 mm) forest railway which runs trough the Vaser Valley. It is named after the locals, in Romanian language the people who inhabit these mountain regions are called "mocan" (mocanita means something like "little mocan railway").

The mocanita of the Vaser Valley is said to be the last remaining real forest railway in the world which still regurarely operates steam trains for the purpose of wood transportation and is the last Romanian narrow gauge forest railway which was not disaffected. It is definitely a tourist attraction that is worth visiting. The Vaser Valley is part of the "Muntii Maramuresului" protected natural park.

The narrow gauge railway of the Vaser Valley spans a distance of nearly 60 kilometers from Viseu de Sus to Coman end station, close to the the Ukranian border. The small steam locomotives make use of the local resources: they burn wood to generate steam so that they can pull the train cars through the beautiful wild valley. They travel through tunnels and over small bridges, very close both to the river and to the rocks, traversing a land where humans can go only by this train (there are no roads), a land where no people live, just bears and wolves (the map is available here).

The explotation of the forests began in the first part of the 18th century, during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austrian settlers transported the wood down the river by rafts. In 1932 the construction of the narrow gauge Vaser Valley railway was initiated and by 1935 the line was complete. It represented an enormous technological progress compared to rafting. The line had to follow the river's course, this is why narrow gauge was used. The 760 mm model was chosen because it was the gauge used throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The locomotives did not need to be very strong because they only pulled empty train cars and workers up the hill, where the cars were loaded with wood and the train went back to Viseu de Sus using only the brakes. The tracks were partially destroyed by German troops during the Second World War, but they had quickly been rebuilt.

After 1950 the forest railways were gradually replaced in the whole world by forest roads, but in Romania they withstood the test of time. In 1970 Romania still had a network of over 3000 kilometers of narrow gauge forest railways and in 1986 steam locomotives were still built for these lines. In the late 80s more than 15 forest railways existed in the country. Unfortunately, since then, due to lack of money and poor administration, they were disaffected, all, except theVaser Valley forest railway, the mocanita from Viseu de Sus.

Today this little railway has become a private railway. It is operated by R.G. Holz Company SRL for the purpose of transporting wood, but since 2005 it has been open to tourists. The locomotives are mostly owned by the company, while track is the property of the state. Since the year 2000 the railway is being helped by the Swiss non-profit foundation "Hilfe für die Wassertalbahn" by restoring damaged locomotives, bringing new wagons and renewing the station.

In the summer of 2008 the tracks were washed away by a great flood but, again, the line has been quickly rebuilt. By the spring of 2009 the mocanita was up and running again.

Part 2 ->

Links:

CFF Viseu official site

Daniel Secarescu's Mocanita Blog

Mocanita on Wikipedia

Muntii Maramuresului

www.wassertalbahn.ch

Google search for "Mocanita" pages