Romanian Forestry Steam Epitaph

Chris Bailey has visited Viseu de Sus and Covasna in early June 2002. This is what he found...

Finally back from Romania after a hectic weekend. I took the overnight train to Viseu to Jos (sharing couchette with charming young Romanian lady) and the connecting bus to Viseu de Jos arriving Saturday where I found 764.436 in steam and apparently doing a bit of shunting outside the forestry company offices. In response to the question: tren? the driver responded: luni (Monday) - it transpired that, with my impeccable timing, I was two days too early for the start of the steam tourist trains.

No matter, the foresters' railcar appeared, coupled onto some timber trestles and I hopped aboard. In the shed area on the left I could see an apparently non-working loco of similar type plus another mainly dismantled.

We then arrived at the station proper which turned out to be a hive of activity. No. 764 408 was also in steam on one of the station loops. It seems to have had a bit of a repaint (still in black) and has a yellow stripe down the side. (764-436 was in unrestored condition. Personally, I prefer my steam locos like that). There was also an 0-6-0 diesel with a train of timber trestles, plus a draisine based on what looked like a 1950s lorry all chugging away.

A station building was in the process of being restored with signs in Romanian, German and English announcing tickets and trains. Wasn't able to go in as the builders were laying wet cement! The operation seems to have been acquired by a company called RG Holz (tel no 062 353 100). Anyway, we chugged up the line, dropping off foresters along the way, and having picked up the driver's young daughter/niece who came along for the ride. We took the left hand fork at the triangular junction up the line. Shortly afterwards, after reaching a place called Covna, the railcar developed a severe hot axlebox (in fact it shed a complete axlebox cover) and after dropping off the trestles and much consultation on the radio, we returned to Viseu at walking pace with much grinding and squealing (from the railcar, I mean). On the way back we passed another railcar (in blue livery) at one loop (was this the service up the other fork or was it covering the bit of the line our car wasn't able to do?) Then, lower down we passed the aforementioned '1950s truck' draisine, a small green draisine and the 0-6-0 diesel with its timber trestles. The line certainly seems to be busy - this was a Saturday, when according to the Rough Guide to Romania the forestry train doesn't operate.

No sign of the steam locos, which was what I'd been hoping for. On arrival back at the terminus 764-408 was still where it had been in the loop road while 764 436 was back on shed seemingly with its fire damped down.

Then took the overnight train via Brasov (no couchette this time and sharing compartment with off-duty priest - was this some sort of divine retribution for the previous night, not that anything had happened, of course), one hour in Brasov and then the 04:00 'Persoane' to Deda via Sfantu Gheorge. (It is possible to do this journey via Sfantu Gheorge but I decided 1 hour in Brosov station with a heated buffet was preferable to 2½ hours in cold, refreshmentless Sfantu Gheorge. The difference in fares in Sterling terms is probably about 50p). In fact, the diesel for the Bretcu branch with its three coaches was coupled to the back of the electrically hauled Deda train as far as Sfantu G. so in effect we had a through service. Arrived in Covasna to find a bus marked 'Gara-Covasna-Voinesti' which was going to the Voinesti sanatorium which is famous throughout Romania. Conveniently, it's also a good starting point to explore the incline. (For the benefit of anyone following in my footsteps, it seems that these buses meet every train, even on Sundays. Buy the ticket from the little kiosk and just make sure that the one you get on is going to Voinesti as there are apparently other buses. A few old boys got on our bus apparently thinking they were going somewhere else and a furious argument developed with the driver when they found they weren't.) Took the bus to the terminus where, amazingly, the 'bufet' was open despite it being before 7am on a Sunday morning. Filled up with black coffee and stocked up with chocolate bars and followed the narrow-gauge line past the old loop-lines (there is an abandoned fourgon here) and over the bridge (Health & Safety bit: some of the planks on the bridge are well-rotten - if you fell through them into the gorge below, you'd do yourself no good at all). Found the incline (well, you can't really miss it, can you?) and started to climb up it. Needless to say, it then started to rain but I decided to press on to the top. By the time I got to the passing loop, it was absolutely sheeting down, I could see low clouds closing in and decided to do the sensible thing and go back down and see if the weather was going to improve.

As far as I can tell, everything on the incline is still there although some of the sleepers are badly decayed with a few promising saplings growing in the four-foot. At the passing-loop one of the cables is hanging across the tracks. The bottom car is still in one piece.

The weather didn't show any signs of settling down so reluctantly I headed back following the narrow-gauge track until it disappeared into a now fenced off area and then walked 3km back to the station to catch the 11:46, which of course turned out to be cancelled. I had for company an old man talking to himself; shortly afterwards, I was joined by another old boy also muttering to himself who sat on the other side of me, giving a stereo effect. There then appeared what I can only describe as a Manx dog. (I've seen plenty of dogs that have had their tails chopped off, but this one had no absolutely no sign of one. Romania is a weird country.) I dozed off for a couple of hours and then explored the old exchange sidings. There are still some timber flats on the sidings and the narrow gauge tracks do look as if they just might have had some movement over them within the last month or so. There are heaps of splintered timber all over the place. There is also a shed there with a narrow gauge track leading into it which is very firmly locked and with the windows boarded up from the inside, so obviously there is something in there.) There is also a standard gauge diesel shunter (non-CFR) standing on rusted (though possibly not entirely out-of-use) tracks. To fill in time, I took the train up to Tarou Secuiesc and back through Covasna to Sfrantu Gheorge. Needless to say, shortly after 2pm the sun came and stayed out! Still, it's a great excuse to go back soon!