CFR Class 77 Malaxa railbus leaving Curtea de Arges, Romania 27/03/2012

Here's a previously unpublished video of one of my favourite Romanian trains as it leaves Curtea de Arges over 12 years ago. These railbuses are still in service in 2024. Designed in the 1930s, under licence from Ganz, they have been re-engined several times. When I filmed this one it had been recently reconditioned, receiving a new Volvo Penta engine.
Here's another video I filmed the following day: • CFR Malaxa class 77 ra...

[@raymondleggs5508]

Cute little 2 axle railbus

[@Cristake1974]

As you might already know, some of the new livery schemes have even nicknames (new meaning the last 10-15 years), if I'm not wrong, this painting scheme is called "Delfin" ("the Dolphin") and it was used mainly for some electric locomotives EA60. There are others, like another one named "Puma", but that (as far as I know) they weren't used on Malaxa railbuses, only on EAs. Thanks for the video, Patrick, it's a joy to see these old vehicles doing their duty.

[@patricksmodels]

@@Cristake1974 I didn't know about the livery nicknames. This one does look like a leaping dolphin!
In 2012 this red and silver livery was brand new, previously the Class 77s wore the yellow and green livery. In 2007 I filmed one with the older dark red and silver livery. It's a pity that nowadays graffiti have spread to Romania and many trains look a bit messy.

[@Imieitrenimodello]

beautiful railbus,liked 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍😊😊😊😊

[@patricksmodels]

@@Imieitrenimodello yes they are really beautiful!

[@railway187]

That's a cool one, idea for a next project? 🙂

[@patricksmodels]

@@railway187 I'd quite like to obtain a result similar to a real CFR Malaxa Class 77 using my composite styrene and balsa technique. I'm considering a red and silver livery for the next V100 based project, as well as trying to reuse the locomotive chassis. The balsa chassis of my first railbus is good, but it was very labour intensive.

[@railway187]

@@patricksmodels Hi Patrick, I am looking forward to the result! I have worked with original chassis for my railway draisine/crane and I feel that as a result the draisine sits much to high. The motor chassis for the UK chassis came from a job lot of unrepairable rolling stock (of which most of it is repaired and running anyhow now) and it came without chassis and body shell (and some parts of the motor were missing too). That forced me to make an own chassis and I feel that the railbus sits just a little bit better on it, in comparison to the draisine. But yes, much easier with the original chassis, so I look forward to seeing your technique on that!

[@attuslebeard5133]

A striking livery. Inspiration for your next project?

[@patricksmodels]

@@attuslebeard5133 I like the colours, even if I'm more conservative in livery application, preferring horizontal lines. Maybe I'm still traumatised by all the diagonal stripes that appeared when British bus services were deregulated in the mid 80s 😅😅

[@attuslebeard5133]

@@patricksmodels Yes I know what you mean - my local buses (East Yorkshire) used to be a very smart navy blue with cream stripe and gold lettering. Now they are a horrible patchwork of yellow, orange, red and light brown

[@patricksmodels]

@@attuslebeard5133 let's not mention the notorious Barbie bus livery of "Last Bus" 🤣. Glasgow's buses were painted in various combinations of green , yellow and some white, green and yellow being the city colours. Then they switched to "Strathclyde red" and black in the 80s, the red being actually orange, but that colour has a certain "colour" in Scotland 😉. And then came Last Bus with it's sickly livery, that reminds me of cheap and nasty chewing gum. Edinburgh fared better, Lothian was never sold off and madder and cream still ply the capital's streets in an updated version.

[@attuslebeard5133]

@@patricksmodels Yes certainly lots of livery changes - I did quite like the SPT orange and black and the following Carmine and cream on the various EMU and DMU types. I certainly won't be adding any barbie items to my bus and train collections🤢

[@patricksmodels]

@@attuslebeard5133 the orange and black livery was originally applied only to the railink buses, the famous single deck Atlanteans, then it was extended to the entire bus fleet. The last version of the green and yellow livery, with the black lower deck window surrounds was also very nice.