page_title: Transylvanian mining railway
section_title: Line history
hierarchical_section_title: Transylvanian mining railway / Line history
caption_attribution_description: English: The Retişoara valley viaduct and terminus with the loading bins for the iron ore.
context_page_description: The Transylvanian Mining Railway was a local interest narrow-gauge railway which was the first mining railway in Transylvania. This railway was built to ease the transportation of the iron ore mined from the iron ore mines from Ghelari to the blast furnace in Govăjdia and the ironworks from Hunedoara. This railway was also known as the "Hunedoara-Ghelari Local Interest Railway", "CFI Hunedoara", "Mocăniţa Hunedoara", "Calea Ferată Minieră Ardeleană", "Erdélyi Bányavasút" in Hungarian. The line was 10 km long from Hunedoara to Govăjdia and another 6 km from Govăjdia to Retişoara terminus. This line was used by mixed trains that carried both iron ore and passengers from Ghelari to Govăjdia and Hunedoara's ironworks. They've also transported dolomite and limestone from the limestone quarries near Govăjdia to the ironworks.
context_section_description: Earlier the iron ore transport from the mines in Ghelari to the chutes and tipplers of the ironworks from Govăjdia was done by horses with two baskets attached on each side or other hired carriers until the demand and the price for the transported iron ore rose in 1859 from 18.6 Fillér/1 quintal to 53.6 Fillér/1 quintal of transported iron ore. Because of the rising expenses for the transportation of iron ore, the administration was forced to replace the transport system.
  In 1859 they started digging a 600-metre-long tunnel from the main mine in Ghelari to Retişoara's valley which was completed in 1866 at a cost of 111,768 Krones and 50 Fillérs. Meanwhile, they built a 790-metre-long, 633 mm gauge railway specially for horse-drawn ore cars. At the end of the line they built a 160-metre-long chute where they dumped the iron ore to the Retişoara's valley floor which was 90–100 m lower than the level of the tunnel's exit. After the ore was dumped down the chute, the carriers transported the ore to the Govăjdia Blast Furnace which was 4 km away.
  Thanks to these investments they have managed to lower the prices for the transported ore from 30 Fillérs to 10 Fillérs, but the ironworks from Govăjdia received less iron ore because the transporters came up with new demands which rushed the construction of the railway to the blast furnace in Govăjdia.
   
  The altitude difference between the "Lukács László" mining face from the central mine in Ghelari and the throat of the blast furnace in Govăjdia was 260 metres; to compensate they built a 5120-metre-long, 633 mm gauge, divided in three sections by the chutes from Nădrab and Retişoara at a total cost of 20,000 Krones. Later theye built two water-driven jaw crushers for the iron ore. The last section of the Retişoara-Govăjdia line was completed in July 1871 and handed over for use. After the opening of the line and chutes, the transported iron ore cost dropped to 7 Fillérs for each quintal of transported iron ore. In 1888 the chutes were replaced by inclined planes (funicular), the first one 140 metres long at Nădrab, and the other 260 metres long at Retişoara.
  
  After the construction of the ironworks at Hunedoara in 1882, the large quantity of iron ore mined from Ghelari couldn't be transported to Hunedoara by the existing systems, for that was necessary to build a separate transport system. Because of economic and 
   geographic problems they've opted for the construction of a ropeway conveyor system. The construction of the ropeway conveyor was completed in 1884 which ensured entirely the ore necessities of the first three blast furnaces from Hunedoara.
  But after the start of the 4th blast furnace the existing ropeway conveyor system proved to be insufficient in enshuring the iron ore needs for all four blast furnaces, so they've decided to build a second ropeway conveyor system between Ghelari and Hunedoara parallel to the existing one.
  Considering the high costs of transportation for the iron ore and charcoal to the blast furnaces from Govăjdia and Hunedoara, in 1897 they've decided a radical overhaul of the transport system.
  This is how the "Transylvanian Mining Railway" was built where to the Retişoara's terminus arrives the iron ore mined from the mines of Ghelari which gets transported to the iron works from Govăjdia and Hunedoara.
  The construction of the Transylvanian mining railway determined the radical overhaul of the Ghelari central mine's transport system, so it became necessary to descend the entire quantity of mined ore to the "Kerpely" mine face adit which was connected by railway to the "Lukács László" tunnel by extending the adit and the extension of this adit could have been done with modest costs.
  The construction of the "Lukács László" tunnel was started in 1898 from two directions and met in the middle in 1899, the tunnel was 504,9 metres long along with the "Lukács László" adit reached 754 metres. The two entrances of the tunnel were lined with stone, for the rest of the tunnel lining wasn't necessary because it was passing through solid shale. The tunnel is 20 
caption: The Retişoara valley viaduct and terminus with the loading bins for the iron ore.
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