760mm gauge 0-8-0T 'ApeMin 1' at Capu Corbu, Romania. 1995.
0-8-0T 'ApeMin 1' (Reşiţa 1129/1954) is seen blasting through the village of Capu Corbu with a mixed passenger freight charter on the Borsec Mineral Water Railway. This former CFF (Căile Ferate Forestiere) 760mm gauge line was taken over by the Ape Minerale company in 1969 and continued to use the standard forestry railways tank engines until dieselisation in the 1980's. After the change of use for the railway from timber to bottled water loaded trains would operated from the Borsec ApeMin Fabrica to Topliţa where they were transferred to the standard gauge CFR network for onward distribution. The Borsec Mineral water even during the Communist era was exported reaching places like Austria. The freight trains used to consist of flat wagons loaded with metal cage crates loaded with the glass bottles and the clanking rattling sound could be heard for some distance as the train came up the valley. By the 1990's this practice ceased as the bottles were then moved in shipping containers so the distinctive sound was lost as the train passed. Then freight traffic ceased in 1992 when all production was switched to road haulage. The railway remained in situ for several years with occasional specials like this one but succumbed to the inevitable and eventually closed outright and the 760mm gauge line has pretty much vanished back into the landscape now. The leading wagon here is a sort of tender for the loco carrying additional logs for the firebox while the second vehicle was especially loaded with empty bottles in the old wire crates to recreate the sound while finally a coach obtained from one of the CFF forest railways brings up the rear.
760mm gauge 0-8-0T 'ApeMin 1' at Capu Corbu, Romania. 1995.
0-8-0T 'ApeMin 1' (Reşiţa 1129/1954) is seen blasting through the village of Capu Corbu with a mixed passenger freight charter on the Borsec Mineral Water Railway. This former CFF (Căile Ferate Forestiere) 760mm gauge line was taken over by the Ape Minerale company in 1969 and continued to use the standard forestry railways tank engines until dieselisation in the 1980's. After the change of use for the railway from timber to bottled water loaded trains would operated from the Borsec ApeMin Fabrica to Topliţa where they were transferred to the standard gauge CFR network for onward distribution. The Borsec Mineral water even during the Communist era was exported reaching places like Austria. The freight trains used to consist of flat wagons loaded with metal cage crates loaded with the glass bottles and the clanking rattling sound could be heard for some distance as the train came up the valley. By the 1990's this practice ceased as the bottles were then moved in shipping containers so the distinctive sound was lost as the train passed. Then freight traffic ceased in 1992 when all production was switched to road haulage. The railway remained in situ for several years with occasional specials like this one but succumbed to the inevitable and eventually closed outright and the 760mm gauge line has pretty much vanished back into the landscape now. The leading wagon here is a sort of tender for the loco carrying additional logs for the firebox while the second vehicle was especially loaded with empty bottles in the old wire crates to recreate the sound while finally a coach obtained from one of the CFF forest railways brings up the rear.