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Narrow gauge railway preservation in Romania

This was the sage advice fromSARUK member Stuart McNairwhen asked for his views on the

‘next steps’ for the Agnita line, but what?“Never miss an opportunity” might makea suitable addition to that advice!

It all started with the chance to purchase adraisine which was in good running orderand complete with road wheels for easytransport – see pictures and full story onpages 2 & 3. The asking price seemed abit high but the offer encouraged theFriend’s president, Mihai Blotor, toactively look at the market to see justwhat might be available - and what wasavailable was totally unexpected. Atrain, complete with loco and threecarriages of the correct gauge, was onoffer in Bucharest. The train had seenservice in a Bucharest park as a children’srailway and on first sight was visuallyunattractive. The locomotive’ssuperstructure looked like somethingfrom a Disney cartoon, painted in gaudycolours with an Emmett-like appearance,whilst the coaches too were finished inextravagant, garish designs and colours.“A fairground train”. Stephen Wiggscalled it! However on the grounds thatyou ‘can’t tell a book by its cover’ a morein-depth investigation, suggested that

indeed this unlikely combination could bejust what was needed in Agnita to kickstart passenger services, and thereforeincome, on the SAR.

On the 12th April Mihai went toBucharest to meet the owner, to inspectthe train and to discuss a price. On offerwere two train sets each consisting of adiesel-electric loco and three carriages.Both sets are identical and were built in1976 at the workshop of the BucharestPublic Transport Co. One set is in goodworking order, whilst the second loco hasbeen partly dismantled; two of thecarriages from this second set have hadtheir bogies removed (which are still onsite), whilst the third is intact but a bitrusty.

Initially, the electrically powered locosran on rechargeable batteries. After ayear the batteries were replaced by 65HPtractor engines driving a generator whichsupplies electricity to two motorsmounted on each axle. Both motors werereplaced with new ones in 2005. Onlythe locomotives have brakes.

The carriages are six metres long, andhave a maximum capacity of 24 people.They run on two very small bogies andhave no braking system.

The owner wishes to sell everything asone lot and is asking euros 10,000(£8250) – this is based on double theprice of scrap. Mihai is hoping tonegotiate a satisfactory deal

Whatever the outcome the bottom line isthat the SAR needs some sort of motivepower to ‘get something running’, andthis is where SARUK comes in.Funding was discussed at the recentAGM and it was unanimously agreed thatSARUK should immediately seek to raisefunds to assist The Friends in ‘gettingsomething running’. Not only is aworking locomotive required but alsosomewhere to store it. The largewarehouse, already purchased anddismantled is ideal and needs substantialconcrete foundations professionally laid,so SARUK’s efforts will be dedicated toassisting with these inter-related projects.Full details on the back page.

“LET’S GET SOMETHING RUNNING”

Not a pretty sight - but read the articlefirst!

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There is little doubt that adraisine would be a mostuseful piece of equipment

for the SAR. Not only will itenable volunteers, equipment andmaterials to be transportedquickly and easily to those partsof the line where maintenancework is needed but it will also actas a patrol vehicle on othersections of the line to deter metalthieves.These machines are easy to de-mount from the rails and with acouple of tyred wheels added (seepicture) can be towed behind acar and even kept in a garage forsecurity.

The machine, pictured middleright, was instantly available, inworking order and located not toofar from Agnita. However theasking price was over the odds and thepossibility of a complete train, asdescribed on the front page, was a muchmore attractive proposition for the limitedfunds.

Nevertheless the advantages of a draisineto the SAR remain. Marian Dumitru, asupporter of the SAR who lives in Arad,paid a visit to Agnita last September andbrought with him a very nice narrowgauge trolley that he had constructed, as agift to the project. This was animmediate hit and used to transportmaterials there and then, with powerbeing supplied by one Friend – pushing!

Not only did Marian present this pushtrolley to the line but he also offered tobuild a motorised one too. Substantialprogress has now been made; indeed heis confident that it will be ready andavailable ‘within the month’. Very welldone Marian!

DRAISINE

PicturesTop - Home made push trolley

Above - motorised draisine - too expensive!

Left - Tyred and ready for towing behind a car

Bottom - Progress in March on Marian’smotorised draisine.

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DRAIZINE - STOP PRESS!Since writing the piece on progress with the draizineon the opposite page Mihai has sent this further updatetogether with more pictures.

He is able to advise substantial progress with deliveryexpected in about two week ( from the 13th April.).

In response to a query he also advises that the machineis designed to pull one or two trolleys of the typepictured at the top of page two, so it can certainly beused to provide station yard rides at Agnita.

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Picture Page - Bucharest ‘Children’s Train’

Editor David Allan, 132 Eastham Village Road, Eastham, Wirral, CH62 0AE Tel 0151 327 3576 - Email david.allan132@ntlworld.com

So what’s on offer?One diesel electric loco in full workingorder

One loco dismembered but with all itsparts

Three newly painted carriages 6 metreslong 24 people capacity

Three more carriages, two dismantledand one complete but rusty

Miscellaneous ‘bits and pieces.

“The carriages are rather reminiscent of theLlanberis Lake Railway and even the Bala Lake -both successful enterprises”

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Above generator & electric motorRight - spare loco wheel

Below - rusty carriage wheel

Left - spare engineAbove - carriage bogie

All pictures on pages 4 & 5 by Mihai Blotor - April 2012

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The Tin Shed!

Not content with waiting for the largegoods shed described elsewhere TheFriends have been busy constructing

a corrugated iron shed which is big enoughto protect their one restored coach.

The story started in November 2010 when itwas realised that the coach needed shelteredaccommodation! Digging the foundationswas hard work, firstly through 20 cm ofcompacted ballast and then 1.5 metres downthey hit water – Agnita station site had beenbuilt on a swamp! Old ballast and concretepoured into the holes sorted the problem.The steel bars for the framework and thecorrugated iron sheets which had beenkindly donated by the Sibiu businesses ofCON-A Foundation and the VK Group weretransported free of charge by another Sibiu-based construction company – Sinecon.

Final work on the foundations wascompleted in the autumn before the mostsevere winter for fifty years engulfed thesite. Work resumed on the 17th March thisyear. The framework needed to be cleanedof rust and given a protective coat of paint.However water had got into the uprightpoles which had frozen at the base, expandedand caused some poles to become deformed,this was confirmed when a hole was drilledin the base of one of the poles and a jet ofwater shot out!

Work has progressed and today (19th April)90% of the framework is painted and thecorrugated iron sheets now cover one of thesides.

All that remains to be done is to finish theprotective painting, complete the installationof the sheets on the side and roof as well asthe rear wall and front doors and construct aconcrete apron around the finished shed andunder the side walls.

Thanks to these Sibiu firms for their kind contributions -Bars for the framework - from the CON-A Foundation.Corrugated iron from the VK Group.Transport of materials from Sibiu to Agnita - was by Sinecon.

Top right and centre - fixing the supporting framework - thecoach makes a handy platform!Bottom right - the cladding goes onAbove - winter water realised from the bottom of the polesPhotographs by Miha Blotor

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Every major station on the SAR hada good’s warehouse, and Agnitawas no exception. A cavernous

wooden building was erected in 1898 atthe Sighișoara end of Agnita, as that wasthe terminus of the then newly builtSighișoara ­ Agnita narrow gaugerailway.

After 1965, the track was lifted betweenSighișoara and Agnita and also from thestreets of Agnita, and a new station wasbuilt at the Sibiu end of the town to servethe remaining Agnita - Sibiu railway. Although the old station and depot inAgnita were demolished to make way forthe bus depot, amazingly the good’s

warehouse survived as storage space,although then nobody remembered theoriginal purpose of the building.

During a survey in 2008 to establish theexact route of the railway track throughAgnita on its way to Sighișoara it becameevident that the building was adjacent tothe former trackbed. Certainty came in2010 when a schematic of the formerstation and depot was discovered – thisclearly indicated that the building wasindeed the original SAR Agnita goodswarehouse. Unfortunately in 2009 theowner stripped it of tiles and planks,leaving only the frames. Not for longthough, as he wanted to use them to build

a shelter for sheep out in the hills. This iswhen the Friends of the Mocănița ,encouraged by Bill Parker, decided to buywhat remained (see picture), dismantleand re-erect it in the new station atAgnita, at the opposite end of the town, toact as a much needed rolling stockworkshop.

The building was bought and dismantledby volunteers in 2011, and now the realchallenge awaits - rebuilding it!

The concrete foundations need to be laidby professionals. The table below is asummary of the cost of that work.

The Goods Warehouse in Agnita

How much will the concrete foundations cost?

This table, prepared by Radu, showsa total cost of eu 2981 or about

£2,500

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Sighișoara to Agnita

Although SARUK isconcentrating its efforts inhelping The Friends of the

Mocănița to reopen the sectionbetween Agnita and Sibiu it mustbe remembered that the originalline was built to connect Agnitawith Sighișoara ( later extended toSibiu).

Although this section closed in1965 the route is still clearlyvisible and is littered with theremains of stations and halts.

Jonathan Sutton was able tophotograph this section last yearwhen he returned to the airport atTurgu Mures.

This photograph by Jonathan is ofof Ruja station and shows its brickconstruction.

SARUK - AGM - Report

The Group’s first AGM was held onSaturday 31st March in Russell’sTearooms at the Welsh Highland

Heritage Railway in Porthmadog.

The Heritage Railway had kindly agreedto allow us to visit their museum, so inglorious sunshine the party walked theshort distance to the Museum Halt. Themuseum is hugely impressive with itsfoyer dedicated to models of the WelshHighland as well as a splendid visualintroduction to the delights of this iconicWelsh narrow gauge railway. Havingspent an hour so inspecting the exhibitswhich include three Romanian-built Lyddiesels, the service train took us back tothe station and Russell's Tearooms.

The business of the AGM was swiftlyconducted; six members were present andthirteen apologies received. The minutesof the inaugural meeting, the chairman’sreport and the accounts were all approvedwithout dissent. The treasurer reportingthat we now had some £765 in theaccount. (including some subs receivedfor this year). The officers were re-elected ‘en bloc’ - they included StuartMcNair, Derek Buckles, John Keylock(treasurer) and David Allan (chairman).The meeting was brought up to date onthe politics of the SAR restoration plansand were most appreciative of the

promise of help from David Morgan (seepage 6). The meeting was advised of theprospective purchase of a complete trainwhich had been used as a children’srailway in a Bucharest park. They werealso advised of the proposal by TheFriends to lay down substantial concretefoundations to support the train shed..The meeting unanimously agreed tosupport both proposals. The meetinglasted about forty minutes

An excellent lunch was then provided byNon Williams who runs the Tearooms.These delightful premises and excellent

cooking are highly recommended - do trythem out next time you’re in Porthmadogas well as a trip on the excellent Heritageline.

The party then made its way to Harbourstation and boarded the Welsh Highlandtrain to Rhyd Ddu, returning by thePorthmadog-bound service that crossed atthat location. The weather and thecompany were excellent, the photograph,taken whilst the train paused atBeddgelert, perhaps demonstrates theenthusiastic high spirits of the group!

SARUK - AGM on a Welsh Highland coach at Beddgelert.L-R - Richard Tapper, Graham Farr, John Keylock, Alastair Stewart, Stuart McNair & David Allan

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David Morgan Agrees to Help

A meeting was convened inLondon on 15th November toexamine ways in which the

reconstruction and reopening of the SARmay best be achieved. In attendancewere Stephen Wiggs (chairman of NewEurope Railways Heritage Trust), DavidMorgan (President of Fedecrail andinternational railway lawyer), MihaiBlotor (President of the Friends of theMocănița), Bill Parker (benefactor to theSAR and owner of The Flour Mill) andDavid Allan (Chairman of SARUK).

The meeting expressed concern about thetenuous contact with officials within theRomanian administration who wereresponsible for railways and thecontribution that restored railways mightmake to the tourism industry in Romania.The high rental for the line would becomea serious issue and would impede thefuture re- development of the SAR. TheMayor of Agnita’s far-sighted enthusiasmfor the project had set in train thereconstruction process, however thisenthusiasm did not appear to be reflectedin the higher echelons of the RomanianGovernment.

David Morgan agreed that he would takeup the whole prospect of re-opening theline with the Romanian Transport andTourism ministries. SARUK had madecontact with the Romanian Embassy inLondon who had agreed to try and set upa meeting.

At the time of writing little progress hadbeen made. One date for a meeting hadbeen set in January in Bucharest but only24 hours notice was given and it wasimpossible to meet the deadline.

Bill Parker, David Morgan & Mihai Blotordiscuss the problems of the SAR

Apold station on the Agnita to Sighișoara section

Photograph by JonathanSutton September 2012

Sighișoara to Agnita

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When S.A.R.U.K. wasestablished in March2011 it was

unanimously agreed at theinaugural meeting that we wouldsupport the ‘Friends of theMocănița’ in their efforts to re-open the delightful narrow-gaugeline that ran latterly betweenSibiu and Agnita. They nowneed our help.

You will have seen on previous pages theproposal to purchase the ‘Children’s locoand carriages' from the park in Bucharest.If a successful deal can be negotiated thenonce refurbished not only will it start toprovide income by enabling the selling ofshort rides, but it will also establish that allimportance ‘presence’, as well as lendingcredibility to ‘The Friends’ proposals - ahugely significant and psychological step.

We have all been there, we know what it’slike when you are just starting out - it’swhen you are most vulnerable and it’s thetime that you stand or fall. There’s noquestion of the SAR ‘falling’ - so we’llhave to help and that’s exactly what we’regoing to do!

Just as important as the train is the shed inwhich to store it. Again you will haveread on page 5 of the old wooden framedAgnita station warehouse (or goods shed)which ‘The Friends’ have purchased anddismantled ready for erection on the ‘new’station site on the outskirts of Agnita.SARUK members Stuart McNair and

Alastair Stewart identified the best locationfor the shed during our visit lastSeptember. ‘The Friends’ will be re-erecting it on that site in June/July thisyear, hopefully with the help ofarchitectural students from "Ion Mincu"University of Architecture in Bucharest.

Essential to the safe and permanenterection of this structure are the concretefoundations which need to beprofessionally laid. We have agreed to tryand raise the funds to cover the cost of thisessential pre-requisite.

The concrete shed foundations will cost£2,500, a snip Stuart confirms; we wouldhope to provide a similar amount to theloco fund.

At the recent AGM members unanimouslyconfirmed that in accordance with our aimsand objectives these twin schemes were notonly worthy of our support, but will fall inline with the reasons for our establishment.So now I am appealing for your help.There are no fancy incentives, no ‘goldmedals’ to reflect your generosity, just thewarm satisfaction and knowledge that youhave contributed to the rebirth ofspectacular railway in a spectacularcountry. You will have the grateful thanksof a group of people whose enthusiasm fornarrow gauge railways matches your own,but who don’t have the benefit of thebackground of railway preservation that wehave been lucky enough to inherit.

We have all been in this position with ownlines in England and Wales and we have allbeen grateful for the support we received

from others when we needed it most, nowit’s our turn to help.

Please send a donation now or arrange amonthly standing order and send to theSARUK treasurer John Keylock,Weathervane Cottage, Childswickham,Broadway, Worcestershire WR12 7HL

A separate appeal leaflet is enclosed withthis newsletter.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Finding the FundingThe Costs

The total anticipated cost is£5,000

This is the capital sum need toget the project up and running

That is our target.

£5,000Can we do it? Yes we can!!

Please send your contributionstoday to John Keylock - fullcontact details in the enclosedleaflet.

It was agreed at the AGM that weshould once again organise a visit toAgnita. The suggested date was late

September, when the weather is still kind inTransylvania and when ‘events’ onmember’s lines in the UK are generallyfinished for the season.

We have enjoyed two memorable visits tothe line in 2010 for the centenary and lastyear just to get acquainted with the railwayand the locations.

We thought something similar this year butwith visits to other narrow gauge lines inRomania, possibly the Carpathian

mountains and to the fantastictiered town of Sighișoara

Derek and Jayne Buckles arevisiting Sibiu this April andflying with Lufthansa to Sibiuat much more convenient timesthan we endured lastSeptember. Derek haspromised a full report.

If you would like to consider avisit to this wonderful countrya quick email or phone callwould be appreciated to gaugedemand.

Contact details:Email - david.allan132@ntlworld.comTel - 0151 327 3576

Agnita Visit September 2012This was our bedroom in the very reasonable ‘Ice House Hotel’ inAgnita last year.