Stefan88

Normally the tram museum is pretty sleepy with nothing happening, but the last few visits I seem to have caught the odd bit of action, be it a charter set coming back or leaving, or the odd vehicle not usually on display parked up outside. This time was no different, former type T2 (1950s rebuild of type T trams from 1901) had survived withdrawal of the type in 1982 by being used as a works vehicle until withdrawal in 1989 when it moved to the museum collection. This works vehicle was converted for works use from a 1900s tram in the 1950s and in use until the early 1990s, now used by the museum as a shunter. The WLB (Wiener Lokalbahn), a tram/light rail that goes along tram lines from central Vienna until it reaches its own right of way in the southern suburbs and continues to the nearby spa town of Baden, used to maintain a fleet of historic vehicles. When they shut down and demolished their old depot in Vienna (replaced with new build depot on the outskirts) the historic fleet was disposed of, tram 224 from 1928 (in use until 1990) had recently arrived at the museum. Inside is a beautifully restored carriage from the original Stadtbahn, this was steam operated with tank engines (similarly to the Metropolitan Railway) until electrification in the mid 1920s. One of the placards documenting the development of the Vienna underground had an amusing photo! An underground unit accidentally rammed the buffers at the end of the line in a depot and popped out the window slightly! Not train or tram related, but also interesting curiosities, outside the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (military museum) are a couple of former Austrian Airforce jets, a Saab J-29F Flying Barrel and a Saab 35OE Draken. There used to be a de Havilland Vampire but this seems to have been moved to their dedicated aviation museum in Zeltweg. And one of the most famous cars in history, the 1910 Gräf & Stift Tourer that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in, sparking WW1.

Sadly yes, though those scenes continued to the late 1990s when the first diesel set was introduced! I just about remember going as a kid in the early 1990s. I think only 2 of the 5 Schneeberg steam locos have been kept in running condition, they run steam services once a month through the summer months. Not sure what has happened to the other 2.

Gmünd is a good place for cross-border traffic to the Czech Republic. After our excursion we wandered over to the mainline station and a former ÖBB class 1142 electric now owned by Grampet Cargo rolled in with an empty rake of newish Slovak registered stake wagons. At the weekend a lot of push-pull sets are parked up here, ready for the commuter services to Vienna the following Monday morning. Due to a shortage of rolling stock (the ÖBB offloaded too much stock thinking they wouldn't need it) the sets are usually a mix of new double deck coaches and older converted single deck stock, these formations are nicknamed camels. Usual traction are class 1144 electrics, but class 1116s belonging to the cross-border Austro-Hungarian GySEV and Hungarian MAV are also used a lot (to balance out the mileage of ÖBB locos running services on GySEV and MAV owned lines). Just as we were heading to the car a freight rolled in from CZ, headed by ER20-009. The modern narrow gauge station. Whilst I'm usually nostalgic and miss the old stations, the old narrow gauge station for Gmünd was literally just the pavement along the road that separated the narrow gauge yard from the standard gauge lines, there wasn't even a shelter! So whilst I miss the extensive narrow gauge sidings that existed for the freight traffic that ceased in the early 2000s, a proper terminal for what is now a tourist line was a must! The main rake of stock and the railcars are parked inside the 2 track terminus overnight and locked in with roller shutters. The spare rake of stock can be seen in a siding behind the build, usually it is parked on platform 3 outside the front of the building. A fourth 5090 railcar also just about exists here, 5090 014 seems to have been retained as a spares donor. The two former ÖBB class 2095 diesel hydraulics that haul the coaches at weekends and Wednesdays were parked outside the new engine and maintenance shed. Mh4 is usually parked up inside when not in use.

The Waldviertel narrow gauge lines were also visited in 2021. The northern branch from Gmünd to Litschau was done on a steam special, these run once a month, on the Saturday running the longer southern branch to Gross Gerungs and back and on Sundays working the northern branch to Litschau and back once in the morning and twice in the afternoon. Journey times are around 2 hrs 45 mins each way on the southern and 55 minutes each way on the northern. The active steam loco retained for use on the line is Mh4, an 0-8-0 with an articulated tender, six were originally built for the Mariazellerbahn in the 1900s, a superheated development of the earlier Mv class of which only 2 were built, but quickly replaced by electric traction on that line and spent most of their working lives in the Waldviertel until they were eventually officially retired in the early 1980s. 3 are still active today, Mh3 on the Pinzgauer Lokalbahn, Mh4, and Mh6 on the Mariazellerbahn. 2 more are being restored and the last ended up as a parts donor. In Alt Nagelberg where the northern branch splits in 2 with another branch heading to Heidenreichstein. By this point that branch, operated by the Waldviertler Schmalspur Verein (Waldviertler Narrowgauge Society) had finished their summer season and weren't running any more. The water tower at Alt Nagelberg The two northern branches then leave the station and run parallel to each other for a couple of km before turning away from each other. Back at Gmünd two of the three active former ÖBB class 5090 railcars were parked up, these run the normal services on both lines. And a spare luggage/guards van, converted from a goods wagon, was also parked up under cover.

The only bit of luck is that HMRC are effectively ignoring anything under £135!

A former WW2 German railcar trailer seemed to have been painted recently. Several of these passed on to the ÖBB after the war, often pulled by steam engines rather than diesel railcars. ÖBB class 2062 ÖBB class 2045 diesel electric, this was the first new build Austrian diesel loco after WW2. Its restoration has recently been completed and it was seen running around the station not long ago. The main station building is now a patisserie, unfortunately it was closed at the time. The goods shed seemingly wasn't being used for anything any more.

We went to visit the plot of land my mother had bought after selling her old house in the UK. It was in a place called St Aegyd im Neuwalde in the foothills of the alps. The small town also sits on the end of a branchline, the Traisentalbahn, that peels off the Leobersdorferbahn secondary line that used to connect St. Pölten with Wiener Neustadt without having to go via Vienna before the central section was needlessly lifted. The Traisentalbahn used to continue on to a village called Kernhof but the line was cut short to St Aegyd at the end of the 1980s. Passenger traffic on the branch ceased in 2010 and has been kept open for occasional goods traffic. In St Aegyd a now defunct preservation society (Österreichischer Club für Diesellokgeschichte, ÖCD, Austrian club for diesel loco history) had moved their collection here as the location was ideal - lots of track and next to no traffic as well as a small engine shed. I don't know why the club is defunct or who now owns the stock let alone what will become of it all, I have seen a video on facebook showing one the locos running recently. This former works coach was originally a pre-WW1 coach from one of the railway companies in Austria-Hungary, probably the kkStB (Kaiserlich Königliche Staatsbahn). This class 2067 shunter looked in pretty decent condition in its original paintjob. The class 5046 railcar however was in need of some work. This Spantenwagen coach had also seen better days. It had at some point been parked up somewhere and used as a youth club. A former German army HF DL 2001 and later ÖBB class 2061. Numerous spares Pre-WW2 diesel railcar class 5044 (5044.06) used to be part of the ÖBB historic fleet until this was binned off and all their stock dispersed to museums.

The Schneeberg was also visited, though that day it was overcast and a lot colder than the visit in 2023. At the intermediate stop Baumgartner there is a 10 minute stop to allow travellers to buy sweet pastries from the Gasthof at the station. Steam services would stop here to take water for the final climb to the summit. Here it can be seen from the top. In the station at the top a works wagon with rubble was parked up. Back at Puchberg at the bottom of the rack railway the plinthed loco Z1.

The VEF (Verband der Eisenbahn Freunde) preservation society ran historic trams from the underground station Schlachthausgasse (next to the tram museum) to the depot and then on to the central cemetary (Zentralfriedhof) and back all day. I think there were 3 different sets running, one was a Type L + l3 set - trams originally built between around 1910-1920 rebodied in the 1950s, and a pair of M + m3 sets from the late 1920s.

2021 was the first time I managed to be in town during the annual Tramway Day. It was held in their Simmering tram depot. Several trams were on display, some with the innards exposed, and various maintenance and rescue equipment was demonstrated. The type E1 (license built DÜWAG GT6) and type c4 trailers were still in use then and an example of each was on display, the last of these were withdrawn at the end of 2022. A type E2 (license built DÜWAG GT6 type Mannheim) had been intentionally derailed to demonstrate how a tram is re-railed. A low floor type ULF (Ultra Low Floor) had its side panels removed to show the complicated drive mechanism and suspension - each wheel, except the pair at the front, has its own motor vertically mounted above it, the lack of axles or floor mounted motors allowing a completely level low floor throughout.

Just before reaching Bad Pirawarth the former line to Mistelbach can be seen, a short section of it remains as a siding. Here they park a couple more Draisinen to help with shunting manoeuvres as the museum line wasn't allowed access to the actual station and had to stop short, with just a single dead-end siding. The ÖBB even went as far as removing 10m of track to cut off the main through line, access between the ÖBB line and the museum line was only possible through a loop leading on to the dead-end siding, and then reversing back on to the museum end of the main through line. A Draisine takes the two coaches on to the siding, allowing the loco to move back to the other end of the point, the Draisine then pushes the coaches back in to place, uncouples and returns to the siding, and the loco can then couple to the rear of the train to haul it back to Sulz. Sadly this operation ceased after the 2022 season.

Back at the station a more rudementary and older Draisine was parked up. Various buses from the owner Gschwindl were also parked up here waiting for use during the week. At another station, Hohenruppersdorf, a license built Uerdinger railbus (ÖBB class 5081) and another N28 coach were parked up on a goods shed siding. An extension had been built to the side of it to provide some cover. You can't beat open platform coaches when the weather is hot and sunny. These days there aren't so many vineyards left with a lot of field plots now used for growing sunflowers or livestock grazing, but there are still plenty of patches. This part of Austria is a lot flatter than you'd expect, still quite hilly.

Before my twin visits in 2023 my previous trip was at the end of September to early October 2021. That year a section of one of the former branchlines in the Weinviertel (Wine Quarter) of Niederösterreich had reopened as a Museum line, from Bad Pirawarth to Sulz. This was part of a vast network of branchlines that linked various towns villages between the mainlines heading out of Vienna going north to Bohemia and northeast to Moravia. The last of these to carry any passenger traffic closed at the end of 2019, running from Gänserndorf (on the mainline to Brno) to Gross Schweinbarth and then splitting with a line on to Obersdorf (on the mainline to Laa an der Thaya where the line used to continue to Stammersdorf, a suburb of Vienna) and another to Bad Pirawarth, where again the line split and used to go north to Mistelbach and northeast to Dobermannsdorf. It is this latter route that had been reopened as a museum line, with Sulz having a living museum. This section of the line had been bought from the ÖBB by the owner of a private bus company, Gschwindl. Although it had been planned to run services behind a steam loco from the nearby museum in Strasshof, this plan never came to fruition. Instead services were hauled behind a former industrial diesel shunter from Jenbacher Werke, probably a JW DH200 (Diesel Hydraulic 200PS). The coaches were a 2nd class N28 (originally a third class coach built from 1928) and a 2nd/luggage 'Spantenwagen' (rebuilt from pre-war stock in the 1950s). Upon arrival in Sulz the loco had to push some stock back to be able to run around the train for the journey back to Bad Pirawarth. The line continues for a few hundred metres beyond the station and this is used as a long storage siding with a series of gazebos as cover. Next to the station were several apple trees and in between them a large Quince tree, sadly all out of reach due to all the undergrowth. At the other end of the station next to the huge grain silo was a small shed and what was left of the siding to the silo. In the shed a Köf shunter was lurking, with a works trolley (Draisine in Austria) behind it. Another Draisine was parked up on the siding. Due to their shape and yellow paintjob these were nicknamed 'Postkastl' - postbox, which are painted yellow in Austria.

The £135 rule is central to this topic though. What is clear is that HMRC have taken the position of assuming VAT has already been paid to the retailer at the point of sale for any goods totalling £135 or less. This would then also assume VAT has been paid on the postage cost too, which is not part of the value of the goods. VAT may be chargeable on both but there is differentiation between the value of the goods and the total package value. The value of the goods as far as the £135 rule is concerned does not include the postage cost. A VAT calculation would. In the real world it is as per my previous comment, goods £135 or less sail through with no charges, anything above will be charged at point of delivery. No need to create a debate regarding VAT procedures, this is what happens. On a side note re. VAT on postage, some traders remove VAT from the postage cost as well as on the goods, some don't, and eBay add VAT on even though the listed postage rate will have already included domestic VAT in the cost.

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty So long story short, as experience has shown over the last 3 years, any goods worth £135 or less sail through. The value of the postage is only taken in to account when UK VAT is being charged to the person it is being delivered to, which is only when the goods are worth more than £135.

Then why have I not been charged UK VAT and handling fees on everything I have ordered over the last 3 years under the magic £135 (usually just under by anywhere between a few quid to a few pence)? And I'm talking about probably around 100 separate orders if not more. Customs documentation states value, i.e. say €150, and separately states the postage cost, say €15. Every single time adding the postage cost to the order value would have pushed it over the £135 limit. This has almost exclusively been items delivered by Parcelforce, who have always billed me for VAT and handling fee for anything that was over the £135 value. Only once have I had something slip through that was declared at over the £135 value, by Royal Mail a week or so after the rules came in and it had been sent before the year end when the old system still applied. I suspect that guidance is for a business that is importing goods, not an end customer buying goods from abroad. An end customer would not be calculating VAT, they would just be handed a bill for it.

Postage charges should not count as part of the value of the goods, so if Fedex are doing this then this is incorrect. Ebay do this too (and add on VAT to the postage amount). Whilst this is incorrect you are highly unlikely to get them to change this. I have had a few things sent from Germany and Italy with Fedex and didn't have this problem, this was however in 2022 if I recall, so perhaps they have changed their policy since then. I usually just use DHL from MyGermany which is then delivered by Parcelforce. Re. Hattons, they are the only UK retailer I've heard of to actually bother registering with various EU tax authorities. Perhaps this didn't pan out as well as they thought it would and EU-based buyers just switched to EU-based sellers of British outline models? Modellbahn Union for example stock a lot of Hornby and Bachmann stuff. If you're really lucky there are the odd retailers in the EU who either don't know how to correctly fill in the customs forms or just can't be bothered, and declare the value as €1. Hypothetically if one such trader had a 30% off sale, then minus 19% German VAT, one could end up with some huge bargains 😉

Wikipedia suggests the 810s have no MU equipment, if they did you'd expect matching driving trailers would have been built.

You could remove the pick-ups from all but 1 trailer and fit twin pole coupling bars wired up to the lights, then run it all from a single decoder in only one of the trailers, Would save on decoders too. I have seen photos of various combos with an 810 at each end, as these don't have multiple unit controls I assume the one at the rear is dragged along dead. But this would allow you to run a motorised 810 at each end and solve the traction issue.

Can't have enough Bardotkas on a Czech layout! Especially with so many different liveries.

My Mums 60th brought us back to Austria again at the end of October/start of November. We went to the Höllentalbahn again for the last operating day of the year. Standing room only on the first train out, thankfully less busy on the return. Both of the restored original trailers were out of service pending repairs, so an ex-Mariazellerbahn coach was put to service behind the railcar. There was some cloud this time so the lighting was better than the previous trip. Having taken the first rides of the day this allowed enough time to get some lunch in Payerbach and then take the 2 hourly stopping service over the Semmering to Mürzuschlag and back to Wiener Neustadt. It was in a Siemens Desiro ML (Cityjet) which has tinted glazing and no openable windows so no photos of the journey. In Wiener Neustadt I had wanted to take the alternative route back to Vienna along the Pottendorfer line, but it would have meant nearly an hours wait (our train came in less than 5 minutes after the S60 leaves) and it was getting dark, so we just switched to a semi-fast train straight back to Vienna. In Wien Hauptbahnhof a RegioJet service from Prague had arrived some time ago and was waiting for a delayed ICE from Dortmund to arrive and leave on the other half of the same platform before it could proceed to the stabling yard at Matzleinsdorf. This time I was also able to have a quick look around the museum at Zwettl, last time this had been closed as all the staff were busy running a special on the line. Their preserved kkSTB class 178 0-8-0 tank 92.2271 (ex- Wiener Lokalbahn nr. 72) was being worked on in preparation for the next steam service in December.

Require - no, without opening the can of worms that is brexit and orders >£135 from abroad it is effectively voluntary as the UK has no way of enforcing it on foreign companies operating outside the UK, and Roco send direct orders without VAT.

Roco has an exclusivity agreement with Gaugemaster too (every other UK trader has to get Roco stuff via Gaugemaster) but still sell parts and models directly to customers in the UK through their webshop. Unless things have changed since the last time I ordered parts from them the postage was very reasonable too. Either Piko specifically included spare parts with their agreement, or they can't be bothered to sell anything directly to customers outside of the EU because of the additional couple of text boxes they'd have to fill out for the postage (though any decent webshop would have this automated). Another peeve is their tendency to continuously change the part numbers for the same parts but leaving the old part numbers in the system (showing as not available) and not linking them to the new p/n - for example the detailing pack for Desiro DMUs is identical on nearly every model they've made for the last 15+ years, but gets a new part number at almost every new release, typically with only the very latest number or one for a really obscure release being available and having to search through all the variations to find one in stock.

Piko spares for the UK are exclusively through Gaugemaster. I did this once, ordered 4 of something, didn't hear anything for months after an initial confirmation, then randomly a single pack of the parts I ordered turned up in the post. Alternatively use a Germany-based freight forwarder and have the parts shipped there and then on to yourself, or order through a German dealer that ships to the UK. You'll find some of them even sell the parts cheaper than Piko!

Guessing Kühn saw an opportunity to offload the TT business at a tidy profit, perhaps prior to retirement.