Working on the railway

Spent a few hours on Friday and Saturday helping the Sibiu-Agnita Railway restoration team with the work on one of four carriages stored in a yard just outside Agnita. Three of us worked on Friday and five on Saturday and we removed quite a lot of old paint and filler using power tools. The carriage we are working on was built in 1985 of welded steel construction and is therefore pretty sturdy. Despite lack of maintenance in later years and being out of use since 2001, the steel is in fairly good condition requiring a minimal amount of patching up of rust damage. New windows are on order, seats have been removed and as they are glassfibre mouldings with no upholstery (bring your own cushion!) with metal frames, they will not take much work to refurbish. Interior panelling was plywood, much of it being beyond repair, but most of the interior fittings survive with varying degrees of restoration required. All the underframe and running gear is substantially complete and will only require rust removal and perhaps replacement of some corroded pipework. Lots of work to do but the team is dedicated and more volunteers are coming along as work progresses.

After the Friday work session, I drove to Viscri and spent a very convivial time with Paul and Maria, from whom I bought 130 Roandola. Paul told me he had seen a photograph of me on the Sibiu-Agnita Railway website together with a mention in the work report for 29 May that an Englishman had joined the volunteers and not only increased the numbers but also the average age by quite a bit! I'll have to have a word with Mihai about that! Latest report for 2/3 July is now on the SAR website and I am also featured in two of the new photos. Copy and paste the link at bottom of page into your browser to see me in action!

I returned to Agnita the next morning, this time taking on the task of removing the small lumps of filler with an electric rotary wire brush tool. The second photo shows the "lizard skin" effect which is left after chiselling off the layers of paint and filler. Quite why this speckled finish is there is not known. Perhaps, as the carriage does appear to have once been painted green, it was an attempt to make it look as if they were covered in lizard skin!

Finished work just after 4pm and got back to Roandola at 5:30pm, tired and covered in dust from the wirebrushing, but with a feeling of satisfaction that I was helping to put a piece of Romanian history back into use. I look forward to riding in the carriage behind a steam loco which once worked on the SAR. Or even being on the footplate of the loco!

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