Astra Arad

The ASTRA Automobile & Waggon Factory in Arad, Romania, was between 1891-1918 an Austro-Hungarian manufacturer of vehicles (as Johann Weitzer’sche Maschinen-Waggonfabrik), and between 1921-1998, as ASTRA Arad, a Romanian manufacturer of railroad cars. After 1998, the company split into two main independent companies, one for freight cars, integrated later in Astra Rail Industries, and one for passenger coaches, as Astra Vagoane Călători.

Johann Weitzer (born in 1832, died in 1902) was an Austrian skilled blacksmith and businessman. In 1854, he founded his own workshop, which expanded quickly, even producing vehicles for the construction of the Suez Canal. The main products were railway waggons and arms for Austrian use. In 1872, he transformed his enterprise into a , which later merged with two other companies to Simmering-Graz-Pauker.

In 1891, Johann Weitzer founded, as a subsidiary of the Austrian company in the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, the Johann Weitzer’sche Maschinen-Waggonfabrik und Eisengiesserei Actien-Gesellschaft (John Weitzer Engine- & Waggon-building & Iron Casting Joint-stock Company). It produced locomotives, railway waggons, tramcars (such as 17 items for Temesvár/Timișoara), and, since 1903, Weitzer railmotor, Europe's first successful series of railcars.

The automobiles manufactured in Arad was a licensed production of Westinghouse 150 cars from 1909 to 1912. In 1912 the plant was taken over by Austro-Daimler and renamed to MARTA, the acronym for Magyar Automobil Részvény Társaság Arad (Hungarian Automobile Joint-stock Company Arad). After the edition auf 500 automobiles, civil production ceased in 1914, due to World War I.

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