Wassertalbahn

Wassertalbahn
Vişeu de Sus CFF
Route length:	56.1 km
Gauge :	760 mm ( Bosnian gauge )
Top speed:	15 km / h
Legend 0.0 Vişeu de Sus CFR 3.2 Vişeu de Sus CFF 5.2 Fabrica trei 6.8 Valea Scradei 12.4 Novat 12.5 0.0 Novat Delta 1.0 after Valea Boului 3.5 after Greben 3.5 Poiana Novat 5.7 Ihoasa 6.8 Betîgi 9.2 Ripi 13.0 Izvorul Cailor 16.0 Glimboca 18.5 Cozia 20.6 Novicior CFF 21.6 Paltin 24.1 Bardau tunnel tunnel tunnel 26.2 Botizu 29.3 Șuliguli 31.2 Faina 33.5 Losthun 35.6 Miraj 36.6 Macarlau 37.5 0.0 Gura Stevioara 3.0 Steviorara 38.3 Valea Babii 40.1 Gligan 41.0 Ivascoaia 42.5 Catarama 43.5 Comanu 46.3 Izvorul Boului

Small train leaving with a harnessed steam locomotive 'Elvetia' at the Oberwischau train station with the destination Paltin through the idyllic Wassertal in Maramuresch

Ascent of the small train through the Wassertal

Haystacks along the small railway line in the Wassertal

The Wassertalbahn (Romanian Calea Ferată Forestieră Vişeu or Mocăniţa de pe Valea Vaserului ) is a narrow-gauge forest railway in northern Romania that leads from Vişeu de Sus (German Oberwischau, Maramureş district ) into the Carpathians . It is the last regularly operated forest railway in Romania and has been protected as a Romanian cultural asset since 2010.

History and operation

The Wassertalbahn was completed in 1932 and operated by the state-owned CFF . The train runs on tracks with a gauge of 760 millimeters - the so-called Bosnian gauge - through the Vaser valley into the border area with Ukraine . It has been owned by the largest employer in Vișeu de Sus, the sawmill RG Holz Company SRL , since 2003

The production trains for timber transport drive into the forests of the Carpathian Mountains several times a day from Monday to Saturday in order to bring the felled timber down to the sawmill from several loading points. The railway is also used to transport the forest workers to their places of work. As a rule, they go up into the woods on Mondays and back again on Saturday. Road vehicles and heavy equipment for forestry operations are also transported by rail due to the lack of forest roads - just like grazing cattle. A train is usually operated by nine employees: two locomotive drivers, a train manager, a technician and five brakemen.

In 1952 a sideline was built from the Novat Delta triangle to Izvorul Boului in the Novat Valley. In 2008, the line, which had meanwhile been shortened to Betîgi, was stopped. In the spring of 2011, thefts on the track systems were detected at Betîgi, so that the operator RG Holz decided to dismantle the track structure. So the route ends today in Poiana Novat.

The superstructure cannot be compared to that of modern public railways and consists of light rail profiles nailed directly to wooden sleepers with screwed rail joints . Because of the track position and obstacles such as falling rocks or fallen trees, it is relatively common for wagons to derail. Due to the poor route conditions, the inclines and the loads to be transported, the trains usually only travel at an average speed of 10 km / h. The 30 km drive from Faina to the sawmill therefore takes around three hours.

Tourism / passenger transport

Until the end of 2006, the trains of the Waldbahn were regularly pulled by steam locomotives, but now mainly diesel locomotives are used. However, the Swiss association “Help for the Wassertalbahn” has succeeded in ensuring that steam operations can continue - albeit primarily for tourist purposes. The tourist train runs Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from May to June and from mid-September to the end of October. Tourist trains run daily in July, August and the first half of September.

The departure point is at the CFF Viseu de Sus train station (signposted “Mocănia”), on the sawmill site in the north of the city, where additional tourist facilities have also been created. The tourist train, also called Mocănița, runs about half of the way to Paltin station in the Vaser Gorge , where a picnic area and a barbecue area for passengers have been set up. For railway enthusiasts, photo weeks are sometimes offered in which, for a fee, you can ride on various steam-hauled production trains for a week.

Vehicle inventory

Used different traction vehicles, including locomotives are Romanian and German production, several Romanian diesel locomotives of the type FAUR L45H , verschiedentliche to Handcars rebuilt road vehicles and a motor coach of Russian origin.

Turntable wagons are used as wagons for the transport of logs , which are coupled in pairs only by the logs on top. Four-axle passenger cars are available for transporting the workers (including one from 1900), and several freight cars are available for company freight transport. The forest railway is not equipped with an automatic braking system, so there are brakemen on the turntables to bring the wagons to a halt with the handbrake. Tourist traffic is handled with original Waldbahn passenger cars, three former Wengernalpbahn cars and several open summer cars .

Stock of steam locomotives:

• 764.408R "Cozia-1": operational, only for special trains
• 764.421 "Elveția": operational
• 764.211 "Măriuța" (manufacturer: Orenstein & Koppel ): operational
• 763.193 "Krauss" (manufacturer: Krauss, Munich ): parked
• 764,449 “Moldovița”: operational
• 764.469: operational

Accidents, storms

Around 2001, the exact date is not known, there was a serious accident on the Wassertalbahn. On the way back to Vișeu de Sus, several tree trunks loosened from their anchorages and hurled one of the brakes against a rock face. He was overrun by the trunks and could only be recovered dead.

At the end of July 2008, severe storms in the Carpathian Mountains severely damaged the Wassertalbahn route: bridges were torn away and tracks were washed away. After the repair work, the route can be used continuously again.

Media coverage

In recent years, the railway line has come through television documentaries (including a report broadcast by ARTE in 2004 with the name “The Carpathian Forest Railway”), a large report by GEO magazine and a program in the Eisenbahn-Romantik series entitled “Forest Railway in Transylvania “(SWR 2008) to international recognition.

gallery

• 

  Steam locomotive "Măriuța"

• 

  With Valea Scradei

• 

  The tourist train

• 

  Production train with forest workers

literature

• Michael Schneeberger: The Wassertalbahn: CFF Vişeu de Sus “Mocănița” . Association "Help for the Wassertalbahn", Bern 2006, ISBN 978-3-033-00902-8 .

Web links

Commons : Wassertalbahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the railway (German)
• 

  The end point for tourist trips is Paltin, where the 'Elvetia' is maneuvered and is ready for the descent after loading wood
  Association "OstGleis - Help for endangered railways in Eastern Europe" , emerged from the association "Help for the Wassertalbahn"
• End of the line in Wassertal - tagesanzeiger.ch

Individual evidence

1. ↑ wassertalbahn.ch ( Memento from October 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ http://www.wassertalbahn.ch/news.html ( Memento from December 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive )