Moldova, including Transnistria

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A very modern train, which is actually just a totally rebuilt old 1960s train. This is the D1M (M for modernised) of the Moldovan state railways Calea Ferată din Moldova CFM.
The D1 was a four coach diesel multiple unit train built by the Hungarian Ganz-Mavag. They used to be very common throughout the former Soviet Union and its satellite states. This one has been thoroughly rebuilt so that only the undercarriage and electric axle motors remain of the old D1, all else is new. It is now totally airconditioned and has a wifi-system etc. Everything now state of the art.
Picture from the station of Strășeni in Moldova 21.10.2012 by the Wikipedia user Gikü. Public domain free picture according to the CC0 license.

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Another D1M totally modernised train, now the pride of Moldavian railroads CFM. Here it is at the capital Chișinău, ready to depart towards Iași in Romania, to the station of Iași-Socola in the city centre of Iași. There is a dual 1435mm / 1520 mm track between the Moldovan border and the marshalling yard at Iași-Socola so that Moldovan diesel trains can reach this Romanian city without the change of their bogies.
Picture from Chișinău 17.11.2022 by Markku Salo.

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For comparison: This is how these same trains used to look like before any rebuilding and modernisation.
Picture of a Hungarian built D1 train from Kaunas, Lithuania 29.12.2010 by Kyösti Isosaari.

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A train with a one third piece of a triple locomotive 3TE10 leading a passenger train. Moldova is a mountaineous country and therefore old triple locomotives with three six axle units (the middle one without a driver's cab) of the type 3TE10 are common. They were built in the 1960s in Luhansk which by then was part of Soviet Union, now a part of Russian occupied Ukraine. These triple locomotives are of course most often used as a package of all three units, but whenever the load of wagons is lighter, they can also be used as individual units or just two units out of a total of three, so here we have just one third of a 3TE10 locomotive, pulling here a rake of passenger wagons.
Picture from Gara Feroviară Chișinău, the main railway station of the Moldovian capital Chișinău, by Markku Salo 17.11.2022.

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An old Soviet time shunter of the type ChME3 is bringing a rake of passenger wagons to the platform at Chișinău main station. These ChME3 locomotives were a Russian developed and Czechoslovakian built copy af a 1930s US locomotive from the US company Alco. The US were stupid enough to send a number of these locomotives during the II world war to the Soviet Union. The Soviets made a copy just replacing all the bolts that were in inches by millimeter size bolts and then let the Czechoslovakian industry to start mass scale production of unlicensed copies. The original ChME2 was soon replaced by these ChME3's which were a further development.They were so good that a huge number of them still remain in service in the 2020s in almost all of the former Soviet block countries, both on 1520mm and on 1435mm gauge tracks use.
Picture from Gara Feroviară Chișinău, the main railway station of the Moldovian capital Chișinău, by Markku Salo 17.11.2022.

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Another view of the same ChME3 shunter as shown above. Judging by the very hostile look of the man standing on the locomotive, Moldova might still be a place where the old Soviet rule that photographing locomotives could be seen as espionage (??) that it's advisable to be careful there.
Picture from Gara Feroviară Chișinău, the main railway station of the Moldovian capital Chișinău, by Markku Salo 17.11.2022.

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A closer look at the same nighttrain coaches that the shunter locomotive brought to the station.
Picture from Gara Feroviară Chișinău, the main railway station of the Moldovian capital Chișinău, by Markku Salo 17.11.2022.

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Moldovan railways are built using the Russian 1520 mm gauge whereas the lines in neigbouring Romania use 1435 mm normal gauge. Therefore nighttrain coaches are one by one lifted up and the bogies undeneath are changed at the border. Picture from the Moldovan-Romanian border at Ungheni 15.11.2022

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Inside view of a nighttrain cabin of a Moldovan Railways CFM wagon, ready to leave from Moldova towards Romania.
Picture from Gara Feroviară Chișinău, the main railway station of the Moldovian capital Chișinău, by Markku Salo 17.11.2022.
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