Translated article from Romania. The loco is/was a German Class 50 "Kriegslocomotiv" so it's not exactly irreplaceable, but still......

http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... index.html


The original, if you're up to the task: http://adevarul.ro/locale/suceava/locom ... index.html

Looks like it's been through a couple of wars, first the military kind, then the battle against rust and ripoffs.

Same thing happened to Porta's restored 4-8-0 "Argentina".

I wonder sometime like "I dont care" about this engine. It may have a back history transporting Jews to their deaths and part of the Nazi Regime.
The "value" would really be to remind us of the solly time in German history.
We did not know until after the war was over that these atrocities were taking place.

Okay, we've unfortunately heard plenty of stories on this forum of scrap thieves in the US and Canada stealing parts off of locomotives. Everything from bells and whistles to critical pieces of the locomotive (AT&SF #2926 comes to mind), but have any thieves on this side of the Atlantic been bold enough to steal an entire locomotive? With so many (not all) of our preserved engines either in public areas on display or in the hands of museums or watchful private individuals, you would like to think that someone would notice if an entire engine up and disappeared in the middle of the night. But has this ever happened over here? It sounds like this German locomotive in Romania had been overlooked and forgotten (by the railway) for some time and this unfortunately led to its fate. I know people will do a lot of crazy things to get a few more greenbacks.

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Posting from Rio Grandé territory,