Astra Automobile & Waggon Factory
The Astra Automobile & Waggon Factory was a Hungarian manufacturer of vehicles, seated in Arad.
Contents
Hungarian age
Weitzer János Rt.
Johann Weitzer (born in 1832, died in 1902) was an Austrian skilled blacksmith and businessman. In 1854, he founded his own workshop, which expanded quickly, even producing vehicles for the construction of the Suez Canal. The main products were railway waggons and arms for Austrian use.[1] In 1872, he transformed his enterprise into a joint-stock company, which later merged with two other companies to Simmering-Graz-Pauker. In 1891, he founded, as a subsidiary of the Austrian company in the Hungarian part of Habsburg Monarchy, in Arad the Weitzer János Gép,- Waggongyár és Vasöntöde Részvénytársaság, (John Weitzer Engine- & Waggon-building & Iron Casting Joint-stock Company). It produced locomotives, railway waggons, tramcars (such as 17 items for Temesvár/Timișoara), and, since 1903, Europe's first successful series of railmotors.
MARTA
The automobiles manufactured in Arad was a licensed production of Westinghouse 150 cars from 1909 to 1912. In 1912 the plant was taken over by Austro-Daimler and renamed to MARTA, the acronym for Magyar Automobil Részvény Társaság Arad (Hungarian Automobile Joint-stock Company Arad). After the edition auf 500 automobiles, civil production ceased in 1914, due to World War I.
In 1921, the two companies merged to Astra Automobile & Waggon factory (Romanian: Fabrica de automobile și vagoane Astra).[2] This company from 1922 to 1926 also manufactured some automobiles[3] and lorries, but the main production were rail vehicles. After World War II, it was nationalized and became Europe's biggest manufactorer of freight cars.
Descendants
With privatization, the company was split into specialists for the various branches.
The production of freight cars, Astra Vagoane Arad, was sold to Trinity Industries, which sold it to International Railway Systems (IRS), seated in Luxemburg, but mainly based on plants in eastern Europe.[4] In November 2010, Astra Vagoane Arad and the two other Romanian subsidiaries of IRS went bankrupt.[5]
The two other descenders of Astra Automobile & Waggon factory, Astra Bus and Astra Vagoane Călători (Astra Passenger Cars), are still operating.[6]
References
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (note in German on the merging of Weitzer and MARTA)
- ↑ Georgano 1982, p. 59.
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External links
- cimec.ro, Primele automobile române fabricate în România (in Romanian)
- kmarket.ro, Astra Vagoane Arad (in Romanian)de:Astra Vagoane Călători#Fabrica de automobile și vagoane Astra
