In the summer of 2009 the narrow gauge railway system took the final blow. The removal of the last operational 2.3 km of narrow gauge line by the Talc-Dolomită company

All started from behind the limeworks at Zlaşti with the scrapping of the second curved bridge. Shortly afterwards the scrapping of the line had begun. The removal of the track continued down to the 114 meter long bridge and to the locoshed and from the small train station up to the locoshed. There is a plan by the management of Talc-Dolomită Company to scrap the last remaining bridges. One of the bridges is over 100 years old and hasn’t been classed as a historical monument of industrial arhitecture, so it can be scrapped and it will be scrapped if nobody takes any action.

This is a report in the News on antena 1 channel on 2nd of September 2009.

And it’s not far from the truth. Only the narrow gauge railway between Retişoara and Govăjdia took around 10 years to build. The Govăjdia to Hunedoara section took a lot longer to build. Curved bridges built for the first time in Romania, tunnels, and a unique train station in Europe where the locomotive had to go around the station in order to turn the locomotive around without the need of a turntable. All where built by the Austro-Hungarian empire. All of theese are about to or will be scrapped or destroyed by Romanians.

Georg Hocevar is a passionate towards all narrow gauge railways and rolling stock, he has mooved to Romania in 2000. Beside the company he owns “CFI Crişcior” he established an association for preserving the narrow gauge heritage in Romania. In a few years he managed to rescue, restore and reopen a few narrow gauge lines for tourists: Brad-Crişcior (Hunedoara county), Covasna and Comandău (Covasna county), Moldoviţa (Suceava county), Abrud-Câmpeni (Alba county). Mr. Hocevar wished to purchase the whole narrow gauge line at Hunedoara, but he was refused. A few videos about him:

He has managed to save from scrapping and refurbished the rolling stock that we would have scrapped. He is the only one who reached this performance in Romania and we have to tank him.
An example of refurbished loco from his workshop:

Photos by Georg Hocevar; source: http://www.le-rail.ch/text/aktuell11.htm

August the 31st 2009
One of the last remaining two locomotives remaining in the locoshed at Hunedoara:

In December 2006 mr. Georg Hocevar vrote in the “Rail-Club Romania” forum:

1.) How many L45H class locos does mr. Hocevar own:
L45H-091 (CFI Găvojdia) operational
L45H-095 (CFI Baia Mare) out of order
L45H-078 (CFI Şotânga) operational
L45H-076 (CFI Şotânga) out of order
L35H-024 (CFI Câmpeni) operational

2.) How much is a L45H
Depends of its condition. In scrap value is 50 bani/kg × 32.000 kg
One with a capital overhauling costs around 300.000 RON

3.) Tourist train with a L45H

I wish you a lot of success to get rich with a tourist line and a L45H loco in Romania. This type of loco eats around 50 liters of diesel fuel per hour, this means around 205 RON every hour. So to operate this kind of train with 50 passengers for one hour, you have to charge every passenger with a price of 4,1 RON, without the costs of personnel, rolling stock and track maintenance. I wish you all a lot of rich tourists.

It is completly wrong if you thinking that one of the narrow gauge tourist lines are profitable in other countries. All are supported financially by their authorities because the people who work on these lines are dedicated volunteers.

Let’s hope that the last remaining two locos and the ten hopper cars will be puchased by mr. Hocevar. Otherwise they will all be scrapped.

Friday, August the 23rd 2009 “Talc-Dolomită” company removed the track from the 114 meter long bridge over the Zlaşti valley.

The rails where sold to the Austrian business man “Georg Hocevar”, the savior of the Mocăniţa’s in Romania (http://www.cfi.ro). Talc Dolomită company’s management plans to scrap the last remaining two bridges. The first curved bridge, a real museum piece and the 114 meter long bridge over the Zlaşti valley. Just like that our history is being scrapped.

On the Hunedoara to Govăjdia narrow gauge line section are several missing bridges:

- At Zlaşti near “Canton 1″ train halt. (scrapped in June 2009)

- At Căţănaş hamlet: near “Canton 3″ train halt. (scrapped in 2001)

- At Tulea hamlet: three bridges on the cliff face. (scrapped in 2001)

- At Govăjdia one bridge (scrapped in 2001)

- At Hunedoara the first curved bridge (removed and sold in February 2010)

The Mocăniţa started from the Hunedoara’s narrow gauge train station near the castle, near the road to Răcăştia. There was a tippler near the station, where they unloaded the dolomite from the hopper cars. After leaving the station, the Mocăniţa passed over a curved bridge witch was the first of it’s kind built in Romania by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The bridge was removed between 15th-19th of February 2010. There was a splendid view towards the castle. The Mocăniţa continued past the locoshed and crossing a spectacular 114 meter long viaduct over the Zlaşti valley, changed in 1989, and it is high above the road.

There is a spectacular view towards the limeworks from Zlaşti. The Mocăniţa continued its journey trough the woods clinging on the sides of Căpruţa mountain and arriving to the limeworks. Here was the former “Canton 1″. train halt, today two tipplers are here serving the limeworks. Here they have unloaded the hopper cars filled with talcum, limestone and dolomite brought from the quarry at Crăciuneasa. The Mocăniţa continued it’s journey crossing over a second curved bridge (built in the 1890′s and scrapped June 2009) and smaked it’s way on a plateau with dense vegetation, and reaching “Canton 2″ Cocoş halt. Here people would get off the train to gather blackberries. The Mocăniţa continued it’s journey and crossing a 747 meter long tunnel,

witch pierced trough the mountain separating Zlaşti from Govăjdia and exiting on the other side, high above the valley floor. Following the most spectacular section of this line with a great view in the valley, from here the Căţănaş hamlet can be seen.

Here is a small hydro-electric power station built in 1910. The Mocăniţa arrives at “Canton 3″ train halt from here people could go down to the main road. The train than continues its journey and crosses trough a 42 meter curved tunnel and a section with three metallic bridges from there Tulea hamlet can be seen. From there the train continued crossing another set of two metallic bridges and the main road before arriving in Govăjdia’s train station (one of the bridges still survives because the people faught for saving it). From the train station, Govăjdia’s blast furnace can be seen.

The building of the train station is no longer there, but the old stone loading bins can still be seen here. In the station they detached the passenger cars and the train continued up to Crăciuneasa quarry where they filled the hopper cars with crushed dolomite, limestone and talcum destined for the limeworks at Zlaşti and Hunedoara’s steelworks.

We have a plan to turn in to a bicycle trail a section of the former railway bed. The intended section is between Zlaşti and Govăjdia. There is a need to rebuild with wood four of the missing bridges near Tulea.
Untill the bridges are rebuilt the trail can be still used with a detour only after the trail was cleared of vegetation and railings installed. The detour can be taken from “Canton 3″ there is a road leading to the main road in Govăjdia valley.

A few images from Hungary where a former narrow gauge line was turned in to a bicycle trail:

http://narrowgauge.hu/showgallery.php?tip=1&f=184&a=594