THE UZINELE STEAGUL ROSU (RED STAR RAILROAD WORKS), FORMERLY THE ASTRA WORKS AT ARAD.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R005800190014-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 13, 2001
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: September 12, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION XTELLIGENCE, --,T/C^i:TROL-:U. S, OFFIGLLLS O~i:LY
CENTRAL AGENCY REPORT NO,
INFORMATION REPORT CD NOR
COUNTRY Rumania
SUBJECT The Usinele Steagul Rosu (Red Star Railroad Car NO. OF PAGES 4
Works), Formerly the Astra Works at Arad,
PLACE
ACQUIRED
DATE OF
INFO.
1.
RETURN TO CIL
LIBRARY
DATE DISTR. 12 September 1950
NO..OF ENCLS. 1 sketch X
(LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
Since 191,4 the chief manager of the works has been Engineer Victor Antonin,
an expert, and very popular with the workmen-; he is not a Communist. The
assistant manager is Stefan Molnar, originally a fitter-mechanic, who is a
Communist. The political commissar is Johann Nadasdy, a Hungarian, long a
Communist; Nadasdy is in charge of all appointments and engagements and
supervises production according to the prescribed quotas. The chief of the
designing office is Engineer Hranitzki, a Hungarian.
2. The chief of the Soviet Control Commission is the Soviet major, Engineer
Alexander Hopta.,
3. There are employed at the works 2,800 persons, divided as follows:
a. Administrative employees, about 150 persons
b. Technical employees, about 50 persons
c. Engineers, about 8 persons
d. Workers, about 2,300 persons
e. Apprentices, about 256 persons.
Of the total number of employees, 60 percent are Rumanians, 30 percent are
Hungarians, and the remainder are mostly Germans,
4. The plant is located north of Arad in an entirely flat terrain. Its address
is Calea Aurel Viaicu, Numbers 28 to 30 Arad, North of the plant are the
barracks of 1 Cavalry Regiment (Rosiorij, while northwest of it is the Ita
textile plant. On the east the plant borders on Strada Marta.
5. The plant comprises an area 600 meters by 300 meters and is surrounded by a
stone wall three meters high. There are three entrance gates on Calea Aurel
Vlaicu. Two gates on the south side lead to the town park. Number 5 gate
is kept closed (on the sketch only gate No. 4, item No. 35, is indicated).
6. A spur track leads from the rai oad station at Arad through gates Number
1 and 2. On the trackp marked an on the sketch, old cars are disassembled,
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while on the tracks marked "b" and "c", newly built cars are assembled.
Access to the plant is also gained via the well-paved Ca3ea Aurel Vlaicu.
7. During World War II, the large assembling and travelling bridge shop, the
old carpenter shop, the tanks, the material depot, and the power station
were entirely destroyed during United States Air Force bombing raids. All
installations were to be reconstructed by 1949. For the time being there
is a shortage of erecting shops and a considerable amount of construction
work must therefore be done in the open air.
8. The legend of the attached sketch is as follows:
1) Cooperative building
2) Material depot, 40 meters by eight meters, where semi-finished iron
material, screws and bolts, rivets, et cetera are stored.
3) Bookkeeping building.
4) Management building.
5) Underground tanks for fuel oil, capacity, 3,000 liters each; they jut
out six meters above the ground and are fitted with concrete covers.
6) Pumping house, 20 by 10 by 10 meters, with a steam pump for pumping
the fuel oil from the tanks to the installations of the plant where
it is needed.
7) Storehouse for small parts, subdivided into five section:
Electrical workshop, 30 meters by 15 meters. In this shop coils are
wound and the electrical installations for the cars are manufactured.
9) Building under construction with water tower and garage (9a),
10) Mechanical workshop, 50 meters by 25 meters, equipped with 30 lathes.
11) Machine tools, and a workshop for tools, 50 percent destroyed by bombs.
12) Lumber yard, 260 meters by 60 meters.
13) Sports ground.
14) Bathing establishment.
15) Storehouse for old en4;ines.
16) Joinery.
17) Locksmith's shop and erecting shop No. 2. In this shop, sheei.s auu
iron plates are cut to size according to blueprints; buffers and side
rods are fitted here.
18) Locksmith's shop and erecting shop No. 1..
19) Upholstering shop.
20) Paint shop, dyeing shop.
21) Track Number 1, with two travelling bridges.
22) Small boiler house with workshop building.
23) Ruins of the large erecting shop and travelling bridge building.
COFIDETIAL
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24) Large boiler house with foundry, 70 meters by 50 meters, a .uipped with
two melting furnaces and one small Vulcan steam bo' ler.
25) Forge.
26) Erecting shop of locksmith's shop No. 2 where axles and wheels are
fitted.
27) Power station, 40 meters by 40 meters, with a smokestack 60 meters
high. It is equipped with three Siemens--Sehuckert generators of
2,300 kilowatts each.
28) Bomb-destroyed building, formerly a carpenter's shop.
29) Sprin:- workshop, 50 meters by 20 meters. The rate and out:ut per work-
man per day here is three car springs. It is equipped as follows:
a. Six medium-sized Martin furnaces.
b. Two steam hammers, one light-weight and one medium weight her.
c. An oil bath, four meters by one meters, 75 centimeters deep.
d. A lathe with a 1.30 meter opening.
e. Four small anvils.
f. One control press, German made.
A spring storeroom.
30) Wood-working shop.
31) Track line No. 2, with a travelling bridge.
32) Gate Number 1.
33) Gate Number 2.
34) Gate Number 3.
35) Gate Number 4.
36) Barracks of 1 Cavalry Regiment
37) Sports ground
38) Infantry barracks.
39) Children's home.
All workshops are of the same type, 10 to 12 meters high, and have saw tooth
roofs with skylights. All machines and technical installations, 75 percent
of which are in good working order, are, without exception, of German origin.
Four Diesel locomotives are av.ble for use on the plant preri.'ses.
9. Axles and wheels for the cars are sup;.] ied ready-mde by the I.esita works,
which also supplies *wheel iron, iron ingots, and crosspieces (traverses).
Steel, sheet steel and the raw material for the springs are obtained from
the Cugir firm. Lumber comes from the Transylvanian Ore Mountains.
10. Up to 1 January 10,50, only frei;ht cars built on reparations account for the
Soviet Union were to be manufactured at the plant; they are of the R-5806 type,
with Soviet Matrossov brakes, on four axles, with a length of 12 meters, a
height from rail to roof of 3.5 meters, and a carrying capacity of 50 tons.
Monthly production is from 45 to 50 cars. Theoretical maximum production
is 70 freight cars of 26 passenger cars. Immediately after the completion
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of 20 to 30 cars, they are placed on the trial rails and then dispatched
to the Soviet Union via Ghlati, where the cars are re-gauged to the
Russian broad gauge. Armor early 1949, it was intended to construct
passenger cars for the Rumanian state Railways. Rumanian State Railways
placed an order for 80 Pullman cars, first class, with the Astra Works
for the international express trains. The quality of the production is
mediocre.
11. Work is done In three shifts of eight hours each. The power station,
electrical shops, locksmith's shops Numbers 1 and 2, paint shop, maintenance
shop, turnery, spring workshop, garage, fire-station and guard detail
emplo,es work in three shifts, while in all other sections, they work in
two shifts.
12. The plant has its own specially trained regular guard detail which, however,
is controlled by the police. The watchmen wear an iron-gray uniform with
the badge of the works. Each employee carries an identification card with
the photograr.h of the bearer, a-seal, and the signature., of the bearer.
During the night a password is used.
25X1A Comment:
1. In addition to the persons mentioned in paragraph 1, a certain Constantin
Pavlescu has been reported as being managing director.
2. Reportedly, war materiel, especially mortars and anti-aircraft guns, is still
made in the plant. Five hundred workmen are allegedly employed at this type
of production.
3. Raw material and semi-finished products are supplied partly by the "Uzinele
de Fier" (Steel works) in Ftunedoara, partly by the Iron and Steel works
in Resita, and partly by the Soviet Union. The steel sup: lied by the Resita
works is said to be of a remarkably low grade.
CNFIDENTI-
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