site.btaNarrow-gauge Railway Engine Gets New Lease on Life

A 34-year-old diesel locomotive running the Septemvri–Dobrinishte narrow-gauge line was overhauled in a factory in the city of Ruse and will be pulling wagons again along the 125-km-long, picturesque route between the southwestern towns of Septemvri and Dobrinishte. The engine was manufactured in the Romanian capital of Bucharest in 1988. The factory closed shortly afterwards. The Septemvri locomotive depot has no suitable spare parts, making it incapable of maintaining similar locomotives, and overhauling was the only option, manager of the repairing company Express Service LTD Tsvetelin Kolev said in a BTA interview.

In Kolev’s words, the machine is not too old according to the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) standards, but heavy exploitation wore it out.

The Septemvri locomotive depot’s inability to tackle the problem prompted BDZ to seek the services of the Ruse-based company, which was tasked with overhauling and modernizing two locomotives as a test. “Afterwards, a decision will be made whether it would be smart to apply this [process] to the remaining machines,” Kolev explained. 

The overhaul took a year and three months to complete. “This must be the most complex repairworks ever ordered by BDZ. This locomotive is basically brand new now. The only thing left from the old one is the frame. Everything else is new, designed and manufactured by us in our Ruse plant. We changed all systems and aggregates. We made new, comfortable cabs for the engineer. We ordered and installed a new American engine. The locomotive is now clean and economical,” said the manager.

The harmful emissions emitted by the modern diesel engine are close to none. Express Service made sure to paint the locomotive roof white as an indicator of the machine’s greenness. The engine will emit no soot that would otherwise blacken the roof.

Kolev is also proud of the new digital technologies installed in the upgraded engine. “A number of sensors help to send information about the aggregates condition to remote servers. Video monitoring has also been installed. This is the most digitized locomotive in the BDZ fleet."

The engine can reach a maximum speed of 60 km/h, but the route will not allow for a speed higher than 30 km/h.

The metal coating of the vehicle features a map of all the stations where the train stops and the three mountains (Rila, Pirin, the Rhodopes) that it runs through. “We leave from the town of Septemvri at 238 m above sea level, we climb to the highest train station in the Balkans, Avramovo at 1267 m above sea level, and we arrive in Dobrinishte.” Under the map there is a heart, symbolizing the love Kolev’s team invested in their work on the machine.

To mark the finished overhaul, the factory will have an open day on Saturday. Visitors will be able to see the finished vehicle, take pictures, sit in the cab, and start the engine. “We are incredibly proud. This was our biggest project last year, and we are all very happy with the results,” Kolev shared.

The contract value was 2 million leva, which Kolev called “close to charitable”. He pointed out that buying a brand-new locomotive is not cheap due to the specific track gauge of 760 mm, twice as narrow as the regular one. No European manufacturer is currently working with this standard.

“Narrow-gauge railways are used mostly in tourist regions and in the entertainment industry, which is largely ignored by the locomotive industry in Europe. The only way to fix the problem with the shortage of spare parts is modernization,” Kolev said. 

When reminiscing about the engine prior to the overhaul, Kolev jokes that it used to look like the mythical witch Baba Yaga. Now he compares the machine to Snow White. In the upcoming days, it will be transported to the Septemvri depot, then it will continue carrying passengers among this country’s beautiful mountains.