ISAF SA traditional, present and future specializing enterprise for the CFR-SA

Even if the necessity of signaling the train on their arrival or departure lead to the apparition of the signals and implicit their manipulation, including the switchers even from the first apparition of the rail-tracks and of the trains, the first installation no longer using the manual maneuver, called also the "electric-mechanic centralizing device" was procured from the Schabel &Henning in Germany. It was fixed at Buftea rail station on the already circulated route, Bucharest-Ploiesti on the 1st of February 1890. This kind of installations was concomitantly implemented in other 37 exploited rail stations as Bucharest -Pitesti, Bucharest-Focsani and Buzau-Galati-Tecuci. The command transmission process was made through rigid rods and was pretty heavy but still it reduced the realization time of a route to 15-20 minutes, in a rail station as Gara de Nord involving more than 60 points-men.
Already after 40 years, because of the more and more evident increasing of the railway activity in Bucharest, the 30 of June 1932 the CED electrodynamic centralizing device was introduced in the North Station with a Thompson - Houston installation type that was the latest technology at the time, reducing the route realization process at two minutes maximum.
The electrodynamic centralizing installation proved its efficacy and durability until 1944 when the American bombs over the Bucharest during the Second World War, made it unavailable.
After that few years were necessary to make it operational again. From 1950 when it started to function again, it was useful for another 10 years because another technological era was about to begin: relays centralization demanded by preparations for moving on to electrified railways. This new stage meant reducing a command to a couple of seconds and, of course, major reductions of personnel.
Well, in this troubled period that was used to heal scars left by the war and due to an uprising preoccupation for new and modern technologies the ILCT (the Enterprise for Centralization Works and Remotes) appeared in 1951, in Bucharest. The enterprise will be latter called ISAF Bucharest - The Enterprise for Railway Signaling Devices and Automation.
Qualified personnel recruited from the sections and ateliers of the railways led by engineers and technicians with a great level of specialization managed to impose themselves easily as competent partners to the Romanian Railways.
The beginning of the activities of this new enterprise covered the needs of the railways for telecommunication, with aerial links at first. Since 1958, the unit began installing cable-transmitting devices and radio telecommunication. Among their accomplishments we count 5100 km of subterranean cable for interurban communications, the radio system for moving trains communications on the Bucharest - Constanta route, 260 sound systems for signaling and input within railway stations and the telephonic central of the Transport Ministry with 630 smaller sized stations, spread on the entire railway network. They continued to provide BLA (automated block lines equipment) for CFR, relay electrodynamic centralization and automated level crossing barriers.
Now, when command lines are abundant and at the same time there is great call for new and improved equipment, specialists organize and bring to life the industrial sector. They are highly skilled and they make a good team together with the people who supervise setting or fabrication operations - or even both, on railway installations all over the country.
Over the time they reached performances that put this company right next to renowned European companies and the ISAF name became not only familiar but also present on all Romanian railway network - starting with the smallest railway unit and reaching to the top echelons of the CFR management. On the drawing boards of designers, new solutions are born every day for the most various problems. To confirm this statement we need only add some of their accomplishments:
• Installations for centralised traffic control (Dispatcher) on traffic sections of over 400 km
• Automation installation for triage (automated command for brakes and switches) in six triages
• Fiber optic network for some 2600 km
• Electronic message board for the travellers' use in the North Station
• Automated on transit-weighing systems for wagons.
Since 1960, a new chapter was opened for ISAF. A stage that will launch ISAF as a prestigious company on other railway networks - electrifying railways! This is the year they started setting electrical contact lines for electrical traction. They realised all existent electrified network for the Romanian railways - over 10 000 km.
Between 1992 - 1996 the company honoured a contract with the Greek Railways - electrifying the railway between Tessaloniki and Idomeni - 170 km.
In parallel with rail works destined to the CFR, ISAF also made since 1980 electrical traction - related works for urban transports. They made over 340 km of tramlines and over 120 km for trolley buses in Ploiesti, Craiova, Targoviste and Bacau. ISAF was and still is the constructor that made the entire telecommunication system and centralised command systems for switches and signalling for the Bucharest subway that works on 60 km of line - 40 stations. After 1989, based on the experience they gathered, on their professionalism and their skills of quickly adjusting to the market economy, ISAF went commercial. Today they are called ISAF SA.
In 1994 they went from a commercial society with a state owned capital to private owned capital, thus securing freedom of movement in the new economical environment.
ISAF becomes a major partner and turns in 1997 into a mixed-capital society, privately owned. Among the shareholders we count BERD, the Romanian Privatisation Fund and GEDO. ISAF still remains the main partner for the realisation of CFR SA projects.
The efficient implementation of a quality system within the society made possible the concurrence of the system with the ISO 9001/1995 stipulations by the Romanian Railway Authority (AFER). They also expect an international certificate from the Germanisher Lloyd.
Renowned in business milieus in Romania and Europe, ISAF SA holds top positions in the annual charts, in national charts for quality and economical-financial results as a recognition of performance and potential.
ISAF SA looks forward to the future. They are confident about their development in their relations with their main partner - the CFR and with their other potential partners.

Dan Dragos Aldea