Mocăniţă

A Mocăniță (Romanian pronunciation: [mokəˈnit͡sə]) is a narrow-gauge railway in Romania, most notably in Maramureș, Transylvania, and Bukovina. Archetypely, they are situated in mountainous areas and the locomotives operating on them (which themselves can also be referred to as mocănițăs) are steam-powered. These railways were built for cargo and passenger services - some in the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before 1920 - but fell into disrepair over the years. Some are now being rehabilitated for the purposes of tourism.

The word mocăniță is a term of endearment, derived from the Romanian word mocan, meaning shepherd or one who lives in the mountains, and suffixed as feminine and diminutive in keeping with the tradition of naming conveyances and indicating small size. It's also been suggested that it means "coffee machine", as one of the little locomotives is reminiscent of one of these in action.

The most well-known mocăniță runs in the Vaser Valley in Maramureş County. This railway was constructed in the period 1933-1935 and uses a gauge of 760 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁵⁄₁₆ in). It was partially destroyed by German troops during the war, but was rebuilt again. It has primarily been used for logging, and is still used for this purpose, but in 2004 work began on rehabilitating it as a tourist attraction. A Swiss enthusiast who came to Romania in 1987 helped this greatly by starting an organisation for saving the railway: "Hilfe für die Wassertalbahn in Rumänien".

Several steam engines are used: 764-211 (Măriuța) was built in Berlin by Orenstein & Koppel in 1910; 763-193 (Krauss) was also built in Germany, in 1921; and there are five Romanian locomotives built at Reşiţa between 1953-1955. Diesel engines (built in 1960s-1970s) and other vehicles such as converted minvans also run on the lines. The latter are used by border police, rangers and others for getting quickly up the mountains.

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Wikipedia