CFR 764.201 at Sibiu Steam Locomotive Museum

The narrow gauge steam locomotives of the 764.000 series were used by CFR on wide scale because they were very suitable for pulling trains on narrow gauge lines. Most of them were tender locomotives but the "Uzinele 23 August" (ex. "Malaxa") factories have built a few (only 9) that had separate tenders. These were more powerful and more independent and they were considered a success. These narrow gauge tender locomotives were numbered 764.201 - 764.209. CFR used them for pulling heavier narrow gauge trains over longer distances.

CFR 764.201 is currently in the Sibiu steam locomotive museum. It was retired in 1987. It's in a failry good shape, unfortunately hidden behind tall bushes, so it's not so easy to take good pictures of it.

Facts:

ID: CFR 764.201

Wheel arrangement: 0-8-0

Built: 1949

Builder: Uzinele "23 August" (Bucuresti)

Tops speed: 40 km/h

Gauge: 760 mm

Location: Sibiu, Romania (steam locomotive museum)

Links:

CFR 764.201 at www.steamlocomotive.info

CFR 764.201 at www.infofer.ro

CFR 764.106 at Sibiu Steam Locomotive Museum

CFR 764.106 is one of the many steam locomotives of the 764.000 series. These locos were specially built for the Romanian narrow gauge forest lines by several factories. They proved to be very efficient and reliable, so they were used on many forest railways throughout the country. Actually, they were so fit for their purpose that after the steam era, between 1982 and 1987 the IRUM Reghin factory built an additional 12 locos of this type based on the original Resita design. A few are still working at Viseu de Sus.

CFR 764.106 was built by the "Uzinele Domeniilor" Resita factory and was part of the lot of 100 locomotives of this type built between 1951 and 1959 at Resita. It was assigned to the ministry of mining and it also did service on the Sibiu-Agnita line. This loco was retired late, only in 1998.

Facts:

ID: CFR 764.106

Wheel arrangement: 0-8-0T

Built: 1952

Builder: "Uzinele Domeniilor" (Resita)

Top speed: 30 km/h

Gauge: 760 mm

Location: Sibiu, Romania (steam locomotive museum)

These days the little loco is not used anymore. It is on display at the Sibiu steam locomotive museum in a place where it is accessible to visitors. Unfortunately it is not in a great shape, it seems to me that even some wheels are missing.

Links:

CFR 764.106 at www.steamlocomotive.info

CFR 764.106 at www.infofer.ro

Old picture of CFR 764.106

Sibiu-Agnita railway

CFR 763.148 at Sibiu Steam Locomotive Museum

CFR 763.148 is a small narrow gauge (760 mm) steam locomotive built in 1923 by Orenstein & Koppel (Berlin) and bought by a private company in 1924. Not a strong or fast steamer (only 50 hp power and top speed of 15 km/h), it was used on forest railway lines in the Arges Valley. In 1948 the little loco was nationalized and became property of I.F.E.T. Curtea de Arges (I.F.E.T. stands for Intreprindere Forestiera de Exploatare si Transport in Romanian, which means forest exploitation and transport enterprise). After its retirement in 1972 it was exhibited in front of the institution's building, until 1997, when it was donated to the Sibiu steam locomotive museum.

Facts:

ID: CFR 763.148

Wheel arrangement: 0-6-0T

Built: 1923

Builder: Orenstein & Koppel (Berlin)

Top speed: 15 km/h

Gauge: 760 mm

Location: Sibiu, Romania (steam locomotive museum)

The little steamer is not used anymore, it's on display. Unlike many other locomotives in the Sibiu steam locomotive museum, it is in a place where it's visible, not crowded between others (maybe this was possible because it's so small).

Links:

CFR 763.148 at www.steamlocomotive.info

CFR 763.148 at www.infofer.ro

CFR 6845 at Sibiu Steam Locomotive Museum

CFR 6845 is a little narrow gauge steam locomotive built by the August Borsig steam locomotive factories in 1908 in Wien for the Huszko, Lozinsky & Co. company in Kiev. So how did it end up in Romania? During World War I it was captured by Austrian troops and it was used in Galitia for operations. At the end of the war it happened to be on Romanian territory and it was taken over by the Romanian troops. So it became part of CFR's park of steam locomotives.

Being a private locomotive, it had no identification number (these locomotives usually just had a name), so when it became CFR's property, it received an ID equal to after its build number: 6845. It was assigned to the Sibiu depot and it was used there mostly for maneuvers until the 70s, when it was finally retired. Today it is being displayed in the Sibiu steam locomotive museum.

The small loco is unusable. Not much information is available about it. I couldn't even find out its top speed, but we do know for example that it has steam-operated brakes. Unfortunately, like many others, its behind the bushes, not displayed as it deserves.

Facts:

ID: CFR 6845

Wheel arrangement: 0-6-2T

Built: 1908

Builder: August Borsig locomotive factories (Wien)

Gauge: 42"

Location: Sibiu, Romania (steam locomotive museum)

Links:

CFR 6845 at www.steamlocomotive.info

CFR 6845 at www.infofer.ro

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

CFR 388.002 at Sibiu Steam Locomotive Museum

This little narrow gauge steamer was built well over a century ago, in 1896 by the Wiener-Neustadt factories for the Sibiu-Agnita railway. Originally named "Segesvár" ("Sighisoara"), it received the circulation number 2. In 1911 in was taken over by MÁV and got the number 388.002, which is still kept today. In 1919 it was taken over by CFR. The little loco serviced the line between Sibiu and Sighisoara until the '60s, when it was retired into the Sibiu train depot. Between 1974 and 1995 it was on display in the front of the People's Council building in Sighisoara. In 1995 it made its last trip between Sighisoara and Sibiu, this time loaded in a standard gauge train car. Since 1995 it is being displayed in the Sibiu steam locomotive museum.

Facts:

ID: CFR 388.002

Wheel arrangement: 0-6-0

Built: 1896

Builder: Wiener-Neustadt

Gauge: 760 mm

Top speed: 30 km/h

Location: Sibiu, Romania (steam locomotive museum)

The locomotive is not in the greatest shape. It could use some painting. A few years ago it looked much better. But at least this one is not crowded between other locos.

Links:

CFR 388.002 at www.steamlocomotive.info

CFR 388.002 at www.infofer.ro

Sibiu to Agnita narrow-gauge railway

CFR 324.951 at Sibiu Steam Locomotive Museum

The locomotives of the 324.000 series became the property of CFR after the First World War when Romania received 499 locomotives of this type as war damage compensation. This is a pretty big number, actually it's more than half of the steam locomotives of this type built by MÁVAG. The locomotive factory at Budapest created a total of 905 locomotives of this type between 1909 and 1917 in three variants: compound without superheating, with twin cylinders and superheating, and with Brotan boiler and superheating. The 1C1-h2 type locos were robust and resistent, they included new technologies and they were versatile enough to perfectly satisfy the needs of the Hungarian Railways (MÁV).

The 324.000 series has become the second most widely spread steam locomotive of CFR, after the 50.100 series. Actually, they were very similar from traction power point of view and both types were suitable for all kinds of traction and maneuvers. They had been used for pulling passenger, freight and mixed trains on sections of track with relatively low declivity. Due to their good characteristics, the locomotives of the 324.000 series had been in service for over 7 decades, until the end of the steam era in Romania. Most of them had been retired around 1978. The Romanian engineers and mechanics used to call them "the Hungarian goat" ("capra ungureasca")

Unfortunately, in spite the fact that so many of them existed in CFR's property, only two steamers of this type survived. 324.951 is one of them. It has been working at the Mirsa ballast-pit until 1980, when it was abandoned. After 13 yars, in 1993, it was taken over by the Sibiu depot. It is now on display in the Sibiu steam locomotive museum.

Facts:

ID: CFR 324.951

Wheel arrangement: 2-6-2

Built: 1917

Builder: MÁVAG (Budapest)

Gauge: Standard (1435 mm)

Location: Sibiu, Romania (steam locomotive museum)

The locomotive is in a fairly good shape. It is on display in the Sibiu steam locomotive museum, not used anymore. It's a pity that it's jammed behind the bushes and it can only be photographed properly from one side.

Links:

CFR 324.951 at www.steamlocomotive.info

CFR 324.951 at www.infofer.ro

CFR 324.951 at www.railwayfan.ro

CFR 324.951 at http://forum.lokomotiv.ro