I was once told that in the 1970's, the US Government allowed the importation of a small number of Romanian built railroad cars and locomotives, built FRA/DOT specs, inorder to encourage the dictator of that country, Nicolae Ceausescu, to lean closer to the west instead of towards the communist east.
If so, what were the details of this program and where did this equipment end up?
Also, were there any other kinds of this "economic diplomacy" during the cold war?
The failure called a Faur Quarterhorse?
The last I saw of the Quarterhorse was when she was occupying a stall in Washington Terminal's dilapidated roundhouse in Ivy City (Wash, DC). She shared the facility with a couple of partially canablized RS-1's and I seem to recall an E8B, which had it's steam generators fired up to provide heat for at least part of the building. That was around 1981. Never saw the Rumanian Reject run.
Ah yes -- the railroad counterpart of the Yugo. Leaked more oil than a Baldwin, noxious exhaust fumes, about 0.25 dbhp before it started to slip.
Cut up at Sayre, in the mid-Eighties (1986, if I remember correctly.)
I dimly recall that there was another locomotive, a larger one, manufactured by the same people, which was going to be tested later, perhaps after the market for really, really cheap light locomotives had been mastered and it was time to go after really, really cheap road power. It would probably not be hard to figure out which Romanian prototype was going to be the source... if you care enough to make the effort, which I, truth to tell, don't.
Here is the locomotive closer to 'new'
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=411264
This was brought to the USA courtesy of the Stanray Corporation, which I believe at one time had the rights to the Dreadnaught freight-car ends.
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16-567D3AThe initials FAUR is an acronym for the Romanian words translating approximately "Consolidation Rolling Stock Factory"
Fabrica Agregate Utilak Rulant, the actual factory name in Bucharest translating as something like '23 August Works' (commemorating the overthrow of the Ionescu regime in 1944) at the time the locomotive in question was built, and the company being privatized in 1990. Isn't it convenient that there is a wiki page with lots of details on this and that there is a Web site in English for them?
Depending on equipment, similar units on CFR were classified as Class 69, 73 or 80. I'm guessing that this is mechanically similar to a 69.
Some are still in service, but most have been rebuilt by Alstom with MTU or CAT prime movers. A good chunk of the other Sulzer-powered locomotives have been rebuilt with EMD 8-710s.
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