Moldovița forest railway
The Moldovița Forest Railway is a narrow-gauge railway in Moldovița , Romania . Like all Romanian forest railways, it was previously operated by the state company Căile Ferate Forestiere (CFF). A section was put back into operation as a tourist museum railway .
history
The first section of the line was the 24-kilometer section between Moldoviţa and Roşoşa in what was then the Austro-Hungarian crown land of Bukowina . It was built by the Munich sawmill owner Louis Ortlieb and opened in 1888. Originally the railway ran on a gauge of 800 millimeters, in 1909 it was finally changed to the Bosnian gauge of 760 millimeters. Over the years, an extensive network of routes has emerged in the valley of the Roșoșa River. The Moldovița forest railway reached its largest extension of 73 kilometers in 1987.
In addition to forestry, other companies also had their goods transported by rail. As a result, the economic situation was somewhat better than that of the other Romanian forest railways. Nevertheless, the route had to be closed in 2001 due to a flood , the tree trunks were from then on transported by truck . This in turn damaged the track system several times when crossing it.
The sawmill in Vișeu de Sus , operated by the RG Holz Company, announced in 2004 that it would put the railway back into operation, but rejected these plans and switched to road transport. The steam locomotives used on the route came to the Wassertalbahn , the tracks were partially removed. Georg Hocevar, owner of the CFI (Calea Ferata Ingusta) railway workshop in Brad , was also involved in the Moldoviţa forest railway. Thanks to his initiative, 3.6 kilometers could be made navigable again in the summer of 2005, that is, rebuilt for the most part with used track material. In further stages, the route kilometer 6.3 was reached in autumn 2009 and the route kilometer 10.5 in autumn 2011. Since 2009, tourist passenger trains based on the model of the Wassertalbahn have been running in the summer season, but also in the Christmas holidays. The route to Argel was extended in the late autumn of 2013. In November 2017, the line to the former CFR Moldovita station was extended. This has increased the length of the route to 12.7 kilometers.
The steam locomotive 764-404R, which was only built in Reghin in 1984, and the 764.431 with passenger cars, mostly from Austrian narrow-gauge railways, are used in front of the tourist trains.
gallery
Special train in Moldoviţa, February 2014
Photo freight train near Raşca, July 2013
The provisional terminus on the outskirts of Argel, July 2013
Draisine in the new terminus in Argel, June 2016
literature
- Florian Hofmeister: With Steam Through the Carpathian Mountains - Forest Railways in Romania II . ECM book, Nördlingen 1993, ISBN 3-88563-023-0
- Rudolf Reichel, Hans Hufnagel: Forests and Steam - 1000km on Romania's forest railways . Self-published, Vienna 1990
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Moldoviţa Forest Railway on 760net.heimat.eu (accessed July 2011)
- ↑ CFF Moldoviţa on web.utanet.at (accessed in July 2011)
- ↑ Call for donations for reconstruction, autumn 2013
