The first railway engines in Romania

I. Stage 1872-1920:

• In 1872, the "St.E.G" factories in Resita manufactured for the European railways: 16 crane travelling on rails, 18 water tower tanks, 110 plates for the return of the railway engine, 514 switch double crossing frogs, 793 cushions.

• In 1872, the factory manufactured the first railway engine called Resita 2 whose gauge was of 948 mm. It was designed by John Haswell, the manager of the railway engine factory "St.E.G." in Vienna and was designated for the internal transport in the factory.

• In Transilvania, in 1891, " The factory of Wagons, Cars and Iron Foundry" of Johan Weitzer join-stock company in Arad was established as the first factory of steam locomotives for normal gauge.

• The first steam locomotive series 377, designed for the passenger and freight trains on secondary tracks, was manufactured in 1896, on the project series MAV 377 of the factory of railway engine in Budapest.

• During 1896-1922, 125 railway engines were built in Arad but none of them still exist today, all of them being destroyed in the period between Wars.

• Since 1920, the factory, today called "The Wagons' Astra-Arad Factory", has been specialized only for the wagons' construction.

II. Stage 1920-1960:

• On April 23rd, 1880, after the setting up of the CFR Administration, Romanian State was obliged to buy all the steam locomotives necessary for the exploitation service from other foreign countries at extremely high prices.

• The rolling stock was expanded from 193 railway engines in 1882 to 932 in 1916, the date when Romania entered in the First World War.

• On December 1st, 1918, the integrity of the Romanian National State determined also the enlargement of the railway network from 4000 km to 11000 km. The number of the railway engines increased to more 2500 pieces and represented 183 types from countries like Russia, Germany, Austro-Hungary. The lack of spare parts, the extremely wear produced during the war has led to the breakage of a numerous number of railway engines, determining in the following period a crucial period in the CFR Administration. Thus, the CFR Administration decided together with the Romanian government the construction of railway engines in Romania: 8 modern types designed after foreign and national projects.

Since 1920, the design and the construction of different types of railway engines began at the "Domains Factories" in Resita and "Nicolae Malaxa Factories" in Bucharest. These types of railway engines are the following:
- serial 230- passenger trains (1932-1936)
- serial 142- load passenger trains (1937-1940)
- serial 50- freight trains (1926-1936)
- serial 150- load freight trains (1947-1960)
- serial 131- passenger trains on secondary tracks (1939-1942)
- serial 151- prototypes for load trains (1938-1939)
The steam locomotive 50.243 "King Ferdinand", the first locomotive built in Romania between the World Wars, is produced in Resita, in 1926.

Because of the success of the construction of the railway engines in Resita and Malaxa, since 1930, Romania has stopped to import railway engines.
Between 1926-1960, 1207 steam locomotives were built in Romania. From these 10 types were for the normal track and 3 types for the narrow track; 797 were made in "Resita Factories" and 410 at "Malaxa Factories" in Bucharest.
In 1960 the production of steam locomotives was ceased, the Romanian industry focusing on fabrication of the diesel railway engine. Steam locomotives were used in the exploitation of CFR until 1980. Between 1980-1998, steam locomotives were destroyed in proportion of 98%.

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