The locomotives were built and delivered by the Romanian plant "23 August" (now

FAUR FAUR S.A. is an industrial engineering and manufacturing company based in Bucharest, Romania. History FAUR was founded by Nicolae Malaxa in 1921 under the name MALAXA. Main activities were the repairing of rolling stock, manufacturing steam loc ...

) -

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

under technical conditions of BDZ. Maximum interchangeability of aggregates, assemblies and parts with the class 76 machines, built in the same plant, was pursued. The main differences are: * altered gear ratio, reducing the maximum speed in favor of traction; * increased number of engine cooling radiators; * changed how the engine is coupled with the hydro compound; * numerous improvements to the engine (driving mode, increased power output, etc.); * more cab controls, control devices, etc. All class 77 locomotives were assigned to the

Septemvri Septemvri (, , ) is a town in Pazardzhik Province, southern Bulgaria. It is the administrative center of homonymous Septemvri Municipality. As of 2024 the town had a population of 8,071. Geography The town is situated at an altitude of about ...

depot. This was fully equipped for narrow-gauge locomotives at the time. Since the early 1990s there has been a drastic decline in transport, when almost half of the locomotive fleet was stored. This was relieved in 1996 when members of the class were sold to

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. They were loaded onto standard gauge wagons and shipped off via the port of

Bourgas Burgas (, ), sometimes transliterated as Bourgas, is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a population of 280 000 ...

on March 20, 1996. They worked a narrow-gauge railroad between the coal mines in the Rio Turbio village and the Rio Galegos port (about apart) in the Santa Cruz area of Patagonia. One of the remaining five locomotives was scrapped and the rest continue to work on the

Septemvri–Dobrinishte narrow-gauge line The Septemvri–Dobrinishte narrow-gauge line (, ''tesnolineyka Septemvri–Dobrinishte'') is the only operating narrow-gauge line in Bulgaria. It is operated by Bulgarian State Railways (BDŽ). The line is actively used with four passenger tra ...

Operational and Factory Data for Locomotives

Димитър Деянов, Стефан Деянов, ''Локомотивите на Българските държавни железници'', Sofia, 2008, page 258

Sources

# Translated from Локомотиви БДЖ серия 77.000 # Димитър Деянов, ''Локомотивното стопанство на БДЖ 1947 – 1990'', Sofia, 1993

References

{{reflist 760 mm gauge locomotives Narrow-gauge locomotives of Bulgaria B-B locomotives FAUR locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1988