Het Groot Belgisch Treinen Forum

Greetings fellow Belgian trainfans ! I am a Romanian trainspotter established in the city of Tirgu Mures, currently a student. Trains are a part of my life since my early years of existence, having spent my childhood near the train station. Keeping eyes closed overnight to start school and without thinking about trains was hard, but now times changed and I manage my schedule more properly.
During my leisure time, I hit the road in order to snatch some photos with the trains that run in my region. I hope you will be very interested about my work.

I am also active (but at a lower rate) on Forumtrenuri. Anyone is welcomed to join our site and ask or post information, photos, etc.

To start with, I'll present some of my photos made with my latest camera, Canon 650D








































Occasionally, I also post videos about Romanian trains, but it is not a rule anymore since I visited Austria and Hungary last year. Here are 3 samples of my trains which you can find in Tirgu Mures :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dZUTWnIItw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wpy9byzJA0

Extra, Orient Express caught in 2012 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7y-mSOrchU

And my newest addition (by now), a cabview made on a General Motors locomotive (former Sulzer Brown Boveri engine) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt7Cp5P7Nig

Thank you for your attention. I hope you enjoyed my small presentation, and I hope I'll keep an update from time to time. You are always welcomed to ask me questions regarding our trains, or ask for advice if you want a trainspotting session in Romania. A lot of Germans, British and Dutch citizens head to Eastern Europe to catch "true" trains (as the Western companies are rather replacing older trainsets with EMU / DMU trains, or "cheap plastic" I call).

Buna ziua Mureseanu_976, bine ati venit la HGBTF!

Multumesc pentru partajarea fotografiilor frumoase! Fotografiilor sunt recunoscute pentru mine, ca am fost in Targu-Mures in luna noiembrie. But let's move on in English, so other members will understand what I'm saying. Do you also have some photos of the Deda-line? Because I took the train from Bucuresti to Targu-Mures, and I realy liked the surroundings between Deda and Sfintu-Gheorghe.

Hello Accelerat. Sorry for the big delay, I was caught with university stuff. I do have some footage of Deda - Siculeni and Tusnad - Malnas but either are old or not sufficient. I hope this summer I'll ride the train often in those areas on daylight, since you can't see anything during night.

Some pictures from Tirgu Mures and around (yeah, diesel action) starting from April 2014

Loaded chemical train pulled by 60-0836-1


The same day, 81-0545-8 was the shunter busy for the day


Night view over Tirgu Mures Sud station


Daylight IR train 1645 from Bucuresti to Tirgu Mures. It is the perfect train to see the Malnas Bai - Deda especially during summer. The return one, 1646 Tirgu Mures - Bucuresti, is even better to do that !


Empty chemical train from Deda, pulled by 60-0125-9. This engine is 50 (!!!) years old and still active !


As usual here in Romania, a lot of discrimination is made. The good rolling stock is thrown on local trains where you find gypsies and other uneducated people who brutally pull the automatic doors instead of pushing a tiny little button. On express trains you may find the opposite, the rather unconfortable saloon cars or those badly modernised :



Unit 60-1195-1 in the head of a chemical tanker train. This is the heaviest train on Deda - Razboieni line, having almost 3000 tons ! A pusher is always needed for the train, but I haven't photographed it (it was 60-1045-8)


If you leave the city for like 5-7 km, you can find other ideal spots for trainspotting. This one was made near Vidrasau


Another heavy train with phosphate for our chemical fertilizer plant, pulled by 836 and pushed by "granny" 125 :


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Bucuresti - Tirgu Mures (bis)


Empty phosphate train pulled by 60-0684-5, shot from a bridge over the railway and Mures river


A local train from Tirgu Mures to Brasov


We also believe in colours !



The grain train was quite a surprise. We rarely see such action at the grain silo, about 1 train in every 2 years.

Night (or maybe early morning) shot of "3 in 1" local train (it goes in 2 directions but also carries an empty consist for a return train Deda - Tirgu Mures). Starting 2 weeks ago, the train is suspended on working days because of infrastructure works. It should continue running from tomorrow.


Some of you may like semaphores


New for this year is the introduction of season train Tirgu Mures - Deda - Brasov - Buzau - Mangalia. Moreover, it has a couchette car (an old 45-47 years old DB Autozug 05-70 Bcmh modernised into AcBcmee 40-31). I only managed to make a video, since the sun isn't helping me much in the evening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr_gL4Mkr8Y

An empty phosphate train from Brasov to Tirgu Mures Sud caught yesterday after my last exam. Most of my mates posted vacation pictures / messages on Facebook, but for me...I should act different

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX2vD_H4mt0

I'll come back with some pictures of Hungarian pilgrim trains (it's a delicate matter) made 3 weeks ago.
I hope you enjoyed my report on our diesel trains.

That red grain train and the many photos of the old grey locomotive look almost HDR. Nice photos!

As promised, some impressions from 07.06 > 09.06.2014 with the occasion of hungarian pilgrim trains.

IR 1407 "Corona" Budapest Keleti - Brasov passing through Izvoru Mures. That's the place we slept for 2 nights in order to catch the pilgrim trains.


Chlorine train pulled by TFG, meeting 40-0530-2 from CFR Marfa as light unit.


Local train 4505 / 4507 / 4144 Brasov - Gheorgheni - Deda - Tirgu Mures. This is in fact a direct train with large stops (between 1 and 2 hours!), they use the same train with 3 train numbers....



Miercurea Ciuc. First train to catch is Szekely Gyors, pulled by TRAXX 480-004 (9 cars)



Next one, MAV Nosztalgia pilgrim train (14 cars) pulled by 40-0839-7 RO-CFR Calatori. This engine almost broke down right in front of us.
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We headed back to Izvoru Mures to rest for the next day. 477 268 with local train 4513 Brasov - Toplita. Note that we were about 500 passengers stocked in 4 cars of maximum 320 places ! Even after 29 kilometers, there were people standing up since there weren't sufficient seats for all.



Ghimes. Third train pulled by TRAXX 480-005 and assisted by 41-0030-1 (16 cars) :


After we caught the trains up in the mountains, we decided to descend along Trotus Valley until Onesti. Unfortunately, our train delayed on our way and had to get down at Targu Ocna in order to catch our train. We picked up Koncar 43-0100-8 at Dofteana Bacau :



Also, our return train got delayed almost 30 minutes, I took a picture of it in Ghimes while it was waiting for some trains in front to reach Siculeni, and only then we departed Ghimes. In Lunca de Mijloc, we found a pipe train pulled by 474-038 (impossible to catch because of catenary pole) and pushed by 40-0828-0. Our train was composed of 1 normal car (20-55 Blee) and 4 double decker cars (26-16) to cope with the "civil pilgrims" (those who live in Romania and who paid the normal fare).



All the delays back then caused other trains to delay, like Budapest - Brasov day service pulled by freshly repainted 40-0078-2.



The last day, we were so tired and eager to reach home, and also our train hadn't got openable windows (damn those AC cars). During my stay in Deda (aprox. 2 hours) we found 2 freight trains, the first one departed to early for me to reach it (diesel 60-1045-8 with intermodal train for Azomures chemical plant). The second one was a Polish steel rods train, only Polish rolling stock (PKP Cargo Res platform cars). It was pulled by 40-0243-2 and recieved unit 40-0831-4 as a pusher for the mountains.

RO-CFR Marfa 40-0831-4 by Alexandru Florin, on Flickr