490fan Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 I was in Bucharest last week and managed to find a few preserved narrow gauge locomotives. The Romanians seem to have no interest in preserving their railway heritage; there is no Transport Museum in Bucharest let alone a Railway Museum. We went on to Moldova and there is a Railway Museum in Chisinau so the Romanians can't claim lack of money as the reason! These two locomotives are situated at the gate to what I think is the main depot beside the Calea Grivitei, about 50m in the direction of the city centre from the Grivita Metro station (I do have to give the Romanians credit for their Metro; it's clean, plenty of clear directions, a lot of new rolling stock - and it's incredibly cheap, just over two Euros for a ten-journey ticket! The Resita apparently used to be in the park next to the Museum of the Romanian Village attached to a couple of coaches - note not IN the museum. I was told that there was a plan to have a railway built around the museum - until someone realised just how many of the buildings had thatched or shingle roofs....even so there is no static exhibit relating to railways inside the museum and I don't think that they now have the room to expand. I was told that the 0-6-0 is an O&K locomotive but if it is 763-106 then according to "Waelder und Dampf II" by Reichel and Hufnagel it is a Budapesti locomotive.... There is an O&K 0-8-0 hidden away in one of the exhibition buildings in the Military Museum courtyard. It was locked - apparently with a lot of staff on holiday they couldn't keep all the exhibitions open, but a very helpful lady rustled up a colleague with the key and I was able to get inside. The locomotive was right at the back with old horse-drawn carts and coaches in front of it which made it very difficult to photograph: At least it is under cover! Hoping these are of interest, With greetings from sunny Szeged, Jonathan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 Interesting photos, Jonathan. To be fair to the Romanians, there are collections of museum locomotives displayed at Resita and Sibiu, and a number of locomotives preserved (often in working order) at various depots around the system, including both working and stuffed examples at Dej. There was a booklet published by LCGB in 2005 listing preserved locos in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, but it looks as though there have been a few changes of location since then. 764.015II is Resita 1445/1953. There was another locomtive (0-8-0T 764.211, O&K 3980/1910) also listed as being in the Village Museum - I wonder whether it is still there. 763.106 is Budapest 1940/1907. The loco in the Military Museum courtyard is 764.215, O&K 5848/1912 0-8-0T. Well done for getting access! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
490fan Posted August 19, 2012 Author Share Posted August 19, 2012 Hi EddieB, 764-211 is now "Mariuta" (there should be a cedilla on the 't') at Viseu de Sus. I've seen the collections at Resita and Sibiu; I wouldn't call either a museum in the strict sense. It is uncertain if any of the locomotives there have any sort of protected status; there is a group of enthusiasts who are trying to set up a Romanian equivalent of the British "Heritage Railways Association" to try and get effective protection for these and other items of heritage rolling stock. The section of the CFR charged with the preservation of its heritage doesn't have a very good track record in this respect... With best regards, Jonathan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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