CHANGING THE BOGIES : 13 HOURS ON THE CHISINAU-BUCHAREST EXPRESS

March 2025. Moldova to Romnia.

Right, Moldova ticked, let’s go home.

Except flying home from Chisinau isn’t good enough for Mrs RM, oh no, she wants to take a 13 hour sleeper train to Bucharest and get back to Luton Mid Stay from there. Why ? We’ll soon find out.

Our train sets off a mile south of the capital’s centre at 17:05, so there’s time to “Do Chisinau” properly, Metropolitan Cathedral and all.

I was going to do a post “How many days do you need in Moldova ?”, and the answer is three (3), taking in trips to wineries and Russian theme parks, but you’d definitely get a benefit from coming in Summer, when as well as the beer and brandy,

you’ll also get the benefit of some superbly rambling old parks.

The capital revealed new layers that Sunday afternoon, and the contrast between the Soviet housing,

and some upmarket shops and bistros was startling.

La Placinte was welcoming, efficient and served a liver and mash plate that was far, far, better than it looks.

Spotless toilets, everywhere, in a clean city. A bit too clean, perhaps, with pockets of beauty,

but little in the way of edgy art. The giant underpass at United Nations Square showed what Chisinau could look like, with good lighting.

At the station, the Spoons quality loos run out, with just Turkish style squats 400m north of the gorgeous terminal.

We boarded early, and Mrs RM raided the snack bar for a £5 bottle of Moldova’s finest fizz.

No, that’s not Bass on the back row.

And then the 13 hour journey starts. And 3 hours later, stops. Let Mrs RM explain (here);

A short while before arriving at Ungheni, the guard passed through the corridor yelling “toilet!” It wasn’t a suggestion—it was a warning. We stepped outside our compartment, a bit confused and wandered in the direction of the guard and the toilet. He shouted ‘toilet’ again. Then he locked the toilet door from the outside. Suddenly it all made sense! Remember I said these were ‘drop toilets’? People would soon be underneath the train changing the wheels. Enough said!

Then the wheel (bogie) change preparations started. During this process, each carriage was decoupled, moved into place, lined up with the jacks, lifted up and the bogie swapped. Then shunted back again and recoupled. On board it just felt like various clanks and groans and while we looked intently out of the window for much of the time. It was very dark outside and really difficult to see exactly what was going on.

For those of you that care, this is what it looks like;

It was one of the most boring two hours of my life.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

9 thoughts on “CHANGING THE BOGIES : 13 HOURS ON THE CHISINAU-BUCHAREST EXPRESS”

  1. Thanks for this great update especially as 2 days ago we were booked to go on the train and after a lovely day doing a wine tasting and drinking beer in a microbrewery…….we missed the train!!. The bus took us to the autogara, bus station, and not the railway station!!!! rooky error. We then caught the 11.45pm mini bus back to IASI to get our trip back on track.

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    1. Oops.

      We’ve all been there, Tony ! Finding the right place to catch a bus in Albania is an art form.

      Christine enjoyed the rail experience and we got a decent night’s sleep but you didn’t miss much, though Chisinau station itself is an experience.
      Hope you had a great time.

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      1. I remember with rising panic that Albania bus feeling. Not much better when you get in the mini bus either, but then, at least, you are going the right way. With diversions to deliver items en route. An experience.

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  3. Reminds me of the gauge issues when travelling interstate in Australia. Thankfully much less of an issue these days, although the minibar is a lot more expensive Down Under.

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  4. Two hours for the bogie change actually seems to be quite efficient, unless compared to the Spanish TALGO sets where the wheels are simply pressed in or out on the axles whilst moving (but I think that process is patented). Your ‘old’ bogies will be pulled through under the train and a complete new set then pulled in to replace them. However, the broad gauge bogies will be kept at the frontier until the coaches come back and then replaced under the exact same coaches as they were under when they originally arrived. This helps with maintenance.

    The building you describe as ‘Soviet housing’ may actually have been built as an hotel.

    Thanks for a good series of posts. I hope to get to Moldova myself but it will be next year now.

    [IPW]

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