The surviving Sibiu - Agnita railway is actually only half of the original railway, and the second half, at that. The Sighisoara - Sibiu Local Railways Company (SCFL) as it was then known, began construction from Sighisoara, which was then in Hungary, in 1895, and despite delays caused by severe flooding, had reached the 48km to Agnita by the end of 1898. It did not reach Sibiu, 62km further, until 1910, passing through the middle of Agnita. This gave the line a total length, including its 13km branch from Cornatel to Vurpar, of 123km, the longest narrow gauge railway in Romania at that time. Click here for a map of the railway.
In September 1908 the Hungarian state railway company, MÁV, took over operation of the line, although its owner remained the SCFL.
In 1912 plans were made to further extend the railway from south of Agnita towards the extensive military base near Cincu and on across the Olt river to meet the standard gauge railway at Voila. Unfortunately the First World War put an end to these plans.
In December 1918, after the war, Transylvania became part of Romania, so in 1919 operation of the SSR was transferred from MÁV to the Romanian Railways - CFR. It remained under the private ownership of SCFL until 1948, when it was purchased by the Romanian Ministry of Public Works and the SCFL disappeared.
In 1965 the original Sighisoara - Agnita section was closed and dismantled, due to its steep slopes and sharp curves, which made it difficult and expensive to operate. It was replaced by a new road that linked Sighisoara to Agnita.
The line was also lifted from the streets of Agnita and a new terminus built 3 km outside Agnita, towards Sibiu. The remaining Agnita - Sibiu railway, including the Vurpar branch, was modernised to the standards of the day, with an emphasis on freight handling.
This line was closed on 1 September, 2001, ostensibly due to lack of funds for engine maintenance. Since closure the line remains in place, although it has been breached in various places, there have been some washouts, and many buildings have been vandalised or robbed, or sometimes stolen completely.
Operating History
The Sighisoara - Agnita line was operated by 3 new 0-6-0 locomotives of the 388 series from 15 November 1896 until the line closed on 1 June, 1965. They could pull passenger trains of 60 tons or freight trains of 180 tons, at an average speed of 10kph.
On the Agnita - Sibiu section mixed trains were operated from 1914, with three round trips in the first years, between 1940 and 1960 and between 1980 and 1990. From 1990 until 1995 there were two round-trips and from 1995 until closure only one round trip operated between Sibiu and Agnita daily.
The first 5 locomotives that ran on this section, namely the 389 and 399 series, were similar to the Sighisoara - Agnita locomotives and were brought from the Maramures Salt Mines Railway and the Teresva - Ust Corna Railway (now in Ukraine) respectively. Various types of tank engines, manufactured by Maffei, Borsig Schwartzkopf or in Budapest, as well as several Romanian Resita 0-8-0 tank engines, were brought in from other narrow gauge railways and sometimes regauged (like the Alba Iulia - Turda Railway), to help the small 0-6-0s, while in the 1960s the railway received 5 powerful Romanian Resita tender locomotives of class 764.20x to pull the heavy freight trains.
The 1970s brought the Romanian L45H diesel locomotives, resulting in many of the old steam locomotives being scrapped or taken elsewhere, with those that remained used for winter train heating. However some of them remained "preserved" outside in Sibiu, waiting for better days. What remained of the 388, 389 and 399 series were taken to the Sibiu museum and to Brasov, while at the end of the 1990s two fortunate Resita locomotives (764.155 and 764.205) were restored for tourist trains, which have yet to materialise.
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construction |
construction |
bridge testing |
bridge testing |
Agnita's old station |
old steam |
764.155 |
764.205 |
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