Stefan88

They had a clear out of all their spares for the much older stuff (i.e. over 15 years old) a couple of years ago. Sometimes you have to play around looking for more recent releases of a loco type to find a spare, particularly if the part number has changed, but for some stuff there won't be anything left. Parts though might not necessarily be the issue here, the question was about repairs - what kind of repairs need doing?

I was somewhat fortunate with the dates that I was there this time, several of the trips aren't regular events and I've not been in the right place at the right time previously, such as the trip on the Kaltenleutgeben branch south of Vienna and from Zwettl to Waldhausen, these are relatively sporadic events. A tip to anyone going to Vienna and surrounding Niederösterreich and planning on making 3 or more trips on NÖVOG oeprated lines (i.e. Waldviertel lines, Mariazellerbahn, Schneebergbahn, Wachaubahn) is to get the Niederösterreich Card - it costs €65 (or €60 to renew) and gives you free entry to hundreds of places in Niederösterreich and some in Vienna. This includes a return on the full length of each of the Waldviertel branches, their other lines, a full length single on the Mariazellerbahn and entry to various museums like Schwechat, the Vienna tram museum and Straßhof (the later including on steam days). I racked up entries and rides totalling over €230 on this latest trip for the nominal €60 renewal (of a card that expired last year - they run April-March). Exclusions are that it is not valid on steam services on the NÖVOG lines, but it is valid for the diesel loco hauled services on the Waldviertel lines and the electric loco hauled Ötscherbär services on the Mariazellerbahn. https://www.niederoesterreich-card.at/

Italy is another place that is not homogeneously 3kV DC, most of the newer high speed lines are 25kV AC (presumably because its easier and cheaper to run at 300km/h on 25kV AC than 3kV DC).

Instead of getting the REX straight back to Vienna I had something more interesting in mind to make use of my regional day pass. Instead of taking the direct Südbahn route back, I opted for the Innere (inner) Aspangbahn, a non-electrified branch that links Wiener Neustadt to Vienna operated entirely with 5047 railcars, and one of the few places you will still find semaphore signals, mechanically operated signal boxes and 'Fahrdienstleiter' (train controllers) at 3 of the intermediate stations to control the movement of trains. Our 5047 arrives from the engine sheds in Wiener Neustadt. Bizarrely in the middle at Traiskirchen we have to swap on to the railcar that arrives from the other direction. 2 5047s operate at any one time and meet in the middle at Traiskirchen, but instead of continuing on they then go back, but the drivers swap railcars and do the full journey! The Fahrdienstleiter at Traiskirchen also had the joyous task of operating the hand operated level crossing barriers every time a train came and went on the handles in the foreground! And arrival at Vienna Hauptbahnhof. And that was it for the day. Out of the various trains travelled on the 5047 was by far the most comfortable - seats that predate the current trend of plastic crap with minimal cushioning, and half windows that open! I found the A/C units in almost all the trains utterly underpowered and useless, they were barely able to maintain the 30C+ temps and didn't cool anything lower, even when there weren't many people in the train. The 5047 has 2 compartments, with all windows opening. So in our compartment we had 10 open windows, and once we got moving the airflow cooled things down very nicely. One final trip the next day was on the light rail route from Vienna to Baden, a nearby spa town. This is operated with trams that run on tramway sections in Vienna, Baden, and a couple of the villages it passes through inbetween, and light rail the rest of the time. With the delivery of new Flexity trams from Alstom (Bombardier, internal classification TW500) the older high floor units loosely based on the DüWAG Mannheim type built by SGP (type TW100) are heading towards retirement. Several units have already been withdrawn so I wanted to ride one while I still could. We took a brand new Flexity from the Vienna terminus outside the Operahouse to Baden, and waited there for the next service that was composed of a TW100 and a TW400 (older low floor tram based on a Vienna U6 class T LRV) and rode in the TW100 all the way back to Vienna. And that was it, all that was left was some quick shopping for some food and drink to bring back to blighty, pack my bags and fly back the next day. Train-itch well and truly scratched!

To get to the Rax cable car we had to board this quirky thing, seems to be based on a 1980s van chassis. Here the nearby Rax, the hotel with cable car station at the top can just be made out. On the way back the power conked out 1.7km from the end. Initially I decided to wait it out, but then it became apparent that it would take a considerable amount of time to get it back on so I opted to walk it, along the track bed, with a heavy rucksack and even heavier toddler on my back! We got back to Payerbach with a good 20 minutes to spare before the next REX back to Vienna left.

The next day we finally went somewhere on the train! Weekends have some offers on tickets, I chose the €20 ticket that allows travel across all of Niederösterreich (except for Intercity, Eurocity and sleeper services). We took the REX (Regional EXpress) semi-fast stopping service on the Südbahn headed for the end of the route in Payerbach-Reichenau at the foot of the Semmering pass. This is as far as the doubledeck coaches are allowed to travel on the Semmering line so they terminate here, stopping services beyond here are run using singledeck EMUs. After Wiener Neustadt the semi-fast service becomes less fast and stops everywhere, this is because the S-bahn routes all end in Wiener Neustadt so the REX to Payerbach and the 2 hourly service over the Semmering are the only trains that stop along there. In Wiener Neustadt this class 5022 Desiro DMU waits to head to Puchberg am Schneeberg. Interestingly the logos and writing on the side indicate it has come from the S-bahn Kärnten in and around Klagenfurt in the far south. In Payerbach-Reichenau a solitary Taurus passed through, the double deck service we took can be seen in the background. At the station a few items are on display, a 2-10-2 class 95 tank that used to be used as a banking engine over the Semmering pass, also there but no photos of them are a small 0-4-0 electric loco from the 760mm gauge line from here to Hirschwang, and an original cable car from the 1950s for the cable car that goes up the second highest mountain in Niederösterreich, the Rax, right next to the Schneeberg and our ultimate destination. The primary reason for the trip - to take a ride on the Austrian Höllentalbahn - a short electrified 760mm line that links the mainline station with the nearby town of Reichenau and the former mill at Hirschwang at the foot of the Rax, it used to connect with the cable car but now stops 1km short. When first reopened as a museum line it was steam hauled using U class U1 now on the Ybbstalbahn, then the electric was restored along with one of the small electric locos for freights. Passenger services were originally covered using tram-like power cars and trailers, these had all been sold to the Zillertalbahn upon closure who converted the powercars to trailers. Some of these were eventually repatriated to the Höllentalbahn and a powercar and trailer have been restored. This was another one on my bucketlist to tick off, having visited once and walked the track because it wasn't open, this one only runs on Sundays during the summer. In Payerbach-Reichenau next to the mainline station having just arrived and uncoupled the trailer that it will leave here. At Reichenau intermediate station. Rax in the background At the end terminus near Hirschwang.

A class 52 (52.100) was the last steam offering, with a short goods train. Then a new class 1293 Siemens Vectron with some modern goods wagons. A new snow blower did its party trick of fully rotating. And last up was another Taurus in special 100 years of ÖBB livery (not a particularly exciting or creative livery in my view). After that we darted back to the bus as it was getting on a bit and we were both exhausted!

310.23 had to make an appearance: Class 1670 1A-Bo-A1 electric from the 1920's, each of the 4 powered axles have a motor, mounted vertically! This is one of several locos that had been worked on by the museum over the past months to get it working again after being out of use for many years. Class 1010 Co-Co from the 1950s Class 5145 DMU 'Blauerblitz' (Blue lightning) from the 1950's, originally used for express services such as the Vindobona to Berlin and services to Italy, quickly made obsolete in this role by the electrification of the mainlines in the 50s and 60s and relegated to local services around Vienna until withdrawal in the 1990s. The museum has 3 power cars, at least 1 restored driving trailer and several intermediate coaches, meaning anything from a 2 car powercar & driving trailer up to a 5 car unit with twin power cars and a restaurant coach can be formed. Here we have a 3 car formation with driving trailer and restaurant car.

More maintenance vehicles old and new: The driver was dressed as Super Mario and going for the Mariokart look Another 1016/1116 Taurus with a measurement coach: A 2016 Hercules with a recovery coach (used to haul broken down or derailed vehicles, full of equipment such as jacks and lifts). The swiss army knife with all its platforms and equipment fully extended.

The same 5047 railcar that passed overhead when we arrived at the station earlier. Then things start getting blurry thanks to the dark and light effects! Class 1142 with a CityShuttle single deck push-pull rake. Doubledeck rake propelled by a class 1016 Taurus, all in the new CityJet livery these are being repainted in to. Brand new maintenance/repair vehicle that is due to replace various older types, kept being referred to as a swiss army knife due to all the equipment it has onboard. These are primarily battery electric powered, with a small diesel range extender. It parked in the background while and slowly extended every piece of equipment onboard while the parade continued. A couple of much older maintenance vehicles, the X512 is from the museum and the X534 is still (just) in service. Progress with the swiss army knife:

The next generation S-bahn, class 4020, still in use but its days are numbered. Built from 1978-1987, also make a nice noise, and other than the high floors and entry steps they are the ideal vehicle on the network - nice and open inside leaving plenty of standing room and large open vestibules. Half windows are also much more preferable to weak A/C units in 30C+ heat! Bombadier Talent, classed as 4023 for 3-car units (mostly used on the Salzburg S-bahn) and 4024 for 4-car units, also 4124 for the 4-car multisystem units that can operate over the border to Hungary, in use since 2004. The newest type, class 4746 Cityjet from Siemens (Desiro ML) in 6 door S-bahn version, there is also a 4 door per side version for rural areas, and soon a 4 car 8 door per side unit for the S-bahn in Vorarlberg. These sound quite fun too with their weird whirring noises. Then came a steam break - former rack loco for the Erzbergbahn that hauled iron ore from the Erzberg mine down to the mainlines, class 97.2 (97.208) that had been restored to working order a couple of years ago in the museum at Strasshof. Only the adhesion mechanisms have been restored, the rack mechanisms were removed some years ago. Then it was time for some diesels, a license built Uerdinger railbus (5081.15) leading a class 5042 (5042.14) pre-war diesel electric railcar (the later had a mechanical problem and had to be towed). Class 2050 diesel electric (2050.04), 20 of these license built GM's were built by Henschel in the 1950s.

After some dinner it was time for the second big event of the day - a parade celebrating 100 years of the state railways that were originally formed in the aftermath of the first world war and the breakup of Austria-Hungary. The parade took place in the goods sidings of Strasshof station, a few km down the line from the museum. A huge parade took place here in 1987 to celebrate 150 years of railways in Austria, this wasn't anywhere near as large as that but still a once in a lifetime (or generation) event, having not been born yet when the last one took place! There were 2 parades, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The afternoon one sold out while I was thinking about which one to go for, so I immediately booked a seat in the grandstand - cost a whopping €6 and included vouchers for 2 drinks! This time I took the schnellbahn to Strasshof station, from the bus stop outside a trio of buses ferried people to the event - a new battery bus belonging to Postbus (a subsidiary of the ÖBB state railways), an old Mercedes O 302 in ÖBB livery and another regular contemporary bus. Unfortunately the evening show began at sunset, so most of it was during dusk and in the dark, this meant floodlighting and a lightshow. The afternoon show apparently wasn't any better for photography as it was more blistering sunshine and searing heat. Here is a selection of the least poor of some pretty poor photos of the event, there was a fair bit more but the photos were really bad. The whole thing lasted around an hour and a half. On the way from the station to the bus stop some of the trains from the earlier show were returning back to their starting points, here a 5047, or to be exact 5047 001, the first of its type, and which also took part in the 1987 parade when it was brand new. Once in the grandstand just during sunset you could catch a glimpse of what was to come. The parade kicked off with the ÖBBs world record locomotive, class 1216 Taurus II, the fastest electric locomotive in the world. Then it was on to Schnellbahn (S-bahn) types past through to present. First the class 4030, this was the EMU type built for the newly opened Vienna S-bahn in the early 1960's, with the last withdrawn at the end of 2004. This was always my favourite type, very loud and noisey, and for a long time a staple on the S7 line that goes to the airport - why they always used the oldest stock on the airport line for decades always baffled me! This is the only complete unit left in existence, and was restored to working order last year by the VEF to celebrate the 60th birthday of the Vienna S-bahn system.

Saturday 9th September was another busy day - 2 key events, first the annual Tramway day in Vienna (renamed Öffitag - Öffi short for Öffentlicher Verkehr - public transport), organised by the public transport operator in Vienna (Wiener Linien) with support from the VEF (Verband der Eisenbahn Freunde - preservation society that have a large collection of operational trams). The exhibition wasn't overly interesting (a Hydrogen bus on display, various simulators with long lines and various stands about various things to do with public transport), when I went previously 2 years ago it was in one of their tram depots so there were various trams on display, lots of maintenance equipment on display, displays with their rescue vehicles etc. However I knew this would be the case this time, what with it being in a public park next to a major underground hub station (Karlsplatz), the draw for me were the free tram rides in preserved historic trams running a circular route around the Ring (boulevard that encircles the city centre). After this we did a quick visit to the railway museum at Schwechat on the outskirts of Vienna near the airport, this is also run by the VEF. No photos this time as I'd already photographed what I could on a previous visit, it is generally all stored indoors and space is too tight for decent photos. Here are a couple from a previous visit 2 years ago, Bo-Bo electric class 1045 from the 1920s, and an old wooden 4 wheeler being rebuilt from the ground up - it looked about the same 2 years later.

Another weekday trip was to the Schneeberg, the highest mountain in the State of Niederösterreich that surrounds Vienna. It has a metergauge rack railway running up it, and a non-electrified branchline to the town of Puchberg am Schneeberg at the foot of the mountain. As much as I wanted to get there by train, the pricing was expensive, so it made more sense to take the car. I had planned to get the Austrian regional 'Klimaticket', but unlike Germany which has made cheap public transport passes easily and readily available, typically on a phone app and pay as you go on a monthly basis, they are considerably more old fashioned to obtain in Austria - I needed to get an annual pass, that is only valid from the 1st of the month (not great when my trip spanned the end of one month and start of another almost equally), and needs a photocard being sent in the post, or you can get a temporary one if applying at a station ticket office. Half of the trips I wanted to do would have been on replacement bus services due to works closures, and everything would have to be crammed in to the final week. Now I know whats involved I can look in to getting one in advance the next time I'm over there for more than a week though. The branch to Puchberg from Wiener Neustadt is served mostly by class 5022 2-piece Desiro DMU's, 5047 railcars are still used during peak hours early in the morning and in the evening/at night. Service is largely hourly from the early hours right the way through to 1am, pretty impressive I thought for a branchline through not particularly built up areas. From Puchberg the rack railway goes up the Schneeberg, until the late 1990's it had been almost entirely steam operated using the original 0-4-2 tank engines from the 1890's (other than a brief forray with diesel railcars in the 60s that ended up being used on another line). Since the late 90s DMUs consisting of a loco part on the valley end, pushing a centre coach, a driving trailer, and in front of that a low level covered wagon that brings up supplies and takes down rubbish from the hotel/restaurant at the top. They are called Salamanders and painted like a Fire salamander which are native to the area. Here you can see the silhouette of the Schneeberg, taken while travelling on the train on a later date. The rack railway gets you to around the peak on the left of the massif, to reach the higher peaks you have to walk! With my toddler on my shoulders I got as far as where the path in the middle disappears, that took about half an hour (about half the time the signs said it would take 😉 ). As you have to book on to which train you want to take down (provided it has any free seats) I had a time limit of an hour and a half at the top, so headed for the lower of the 3 peaks where I took this photo. On the other side it overlooks the end of the rack railway and a large chapel, the hotel/restaurant is out of frame to the left. The starting point, Puchberg am Schneeberg. In Puchberg there is a small museum in the former staff building at the far end of the station (only open weekends), and outside the new station building extension built for the rack railway one of the original tank engines is on display. 2 of the original 6 are still operational if I recall, and one comes out to play once a month or so during the summer. The diesels take about 40 minutes each way, the steam special take at least an hour longer going up, and the same amount of time coming down.

During the week I ended up getting off at the Grillgasse station in Vienna, here a class 2143 has been parked up for years. There was also a rather curious transfer table for the sidings, seems a bit overkill for a few sidings in the middle of nowhere, there was plenty of space for the extra points!

One way the museum makes some money is to provide storage space for mainline operators as the place is quite out of the way (reducing risk of graffiti) and they have plenty of sidings, here some prototype Nightjet coaches from Siemens are being stored. These will form a 7 coach push-pull sleeper set to replace the current sleeper stock, and speed up reversing out of some terminus stations such as Frankfurt. They also make some money repainting locomotives, some of the class 1014's briefly used by ZTT and Grampet Cargo class 1142's were tarted up here. After taking some up close photos of some locos and stock knocking around here to aid with my modelling we headed home, again the cars aircon proved a welcome relief!

After lunch we jumped in the car and drove to the railway museum at Strasshof. Normally I would have taken the S-bahn but this was ending short with replacement bus services taking over part way there, with a 2 year old and 32C sunshine I opted for the car, especially after having fixed the aircon (suspected Pine Martin chewed through the wires for the pressure sensor!). Whilst I have been to Strasshof many times, I hadn't been there when they had a loco in steam! And what a loco, it was the Gölsdorf kkStB 310.23! The place is similar to Didcot Railway Centre, being in a former steam loco depot and having rides that go from one end of the site to the other and back. Weirdly that same day later in the evening I finally won a model of this loco on ebay! I've been after the highly detailed Roco model of this loco for over 8 years!

Another busy day the next day, early start to get to the Modellbahnbörse in Liesing, a model railway fleamarket held monthly outside of the summer and winter holiday seasons next to Liesing railway station on the southern edge of Vienna. I had never managed to be in town when one of these was held, and have heard of various rare and unusual models cropping up here, sadly (not for my wallet) nothing of interest for me this time, prices weren't anything special either that I noticed, but I was in a rush with the little one on my shoulders. After making thoroughly sure there wasn't anything I fancied buying we hopped back on the train for the Hauptbahnhof, where after a little waiting this turned up: An 0-6-0 class 2067 shunter with a rake of 4 wheelers and an 0-4-0 class 2062 shunter on the other end, hauling a special to Perchtoldsdorf, a small village just outside the city limits on a short branchline that goes on to a quary at Kaltenleutgeben. The line beyond Perchtoldsdorf is currently out of use as it requires some repairs. After an hour and a half the train returned to Hauptbahnhof (took around 20-30 mins each way) for the second of three return trips of the day. Before setting off the push-pull set running between Vienna and Bratislava pulled in next to us, these are typically composed of an Austrian ÖBB driving trailer and 1 or 2 matching intermediate coaches, and then 1 or 2 Slovak ZSSK coaches (used to be a 1st class but only saw 2nd class coaches this time). Strangely the locomotive was uncoupled and drove off, and an identical class 2016 'Hercules' turned up and took its place. After arriving in Perchtoldsdorf, where we were greeted with a brass band and some food stands. After returning to the Hauptbahnhof: Then back to my mums for a barbeque at lunch!

Once back at Kienberg-Gaming I noticed they had left the front doors of the engine shed open, so naturally I had to have a nose. The lines only steam engine, U class U1, a former German Army 0-6-0 diesel (HF130C if I recall), 0-4-0 diesel 2190.01 buried in the background inaccessible (which if I recall correctly derailed and slid down the embankment last year) and 2099.01, a Romanian Faur LH45. In the mean time the 2093 had run around its train and backed it in to the platform siding before then returning to the shed.

Arrival in Lunz am See: For me a rather depressing sight, these two coaches were part of a set of 4 painted in this livery, the third is displayed in one of the former stations on the ripped up section and the fourth, a buffet/bar coach, is in use on the Waldviertel network. I travelled on this full set 20 years ago in 2003, on a steam special behind Yv2, an 0-6-4 tank another club/society had restored to working order, along the full length of the then still in use line from Waidhofen to Lunz. The two trestlework viaducts on the return trip:

Upon arrival in Kienberg-Gaming the train was parked up waiting. This station used to also be the end of a standard gauge branchline, this has since been cut back to the nearest major town of Scheibbs. Either the entire line to Scheibbs or just the track itself was offered to the Museum railway, who ripped it all up and sold the rail for scrap. Short-sighted in my view, they could have had themselves a standard gauge heritage line to complement their narrow gauge one, something in very short supply in Austria, or even extended the narrow gauge along the standard gauge trackbed. Given the disgusting fate the rest of the Ybbstalbahn, promptly being ripped up and paved over as a cycle path on all but a few km in Waidhofen an der Ybbs not long after the state railways offloaded it on to the regional operator, either of these options would have been preferable. As it stands there is now a vast wasteland of ballast where all the standard gauge tracks used to be. The loco is a unique diesel electric built in the 1920's, nicknamed tramway because of its appearance. The line quickly starts gaining height, riding up the valley side high above the town of Gaming and its monastery before disappearing off to the next valley and over a pass and then heading down to Lunz am See. There are 2 iron trestlework viaducts, one called the Hühnernest (chicken nest). At the midway pass station of Pfaffenschlag.

Here the new tram route leaves the trackbed of the old railway line. A turning triangle has been erected and the standard gauge follows the old trackbed for a few hundred meters more. Interestingly the old overhead of the railway has been retained and is mixed in with the tramway overhead. Passing the parked 'Himmelstreppe' (stairway to heaven) EMU on the way back to the lake. Then once back at the lake we immediately set off to head back to the Ybbstalbahn to make sure we arrived with plenty of time to spare. In hindsight we should have had a quick lunch before leaving as there was nothing beyond a few packaged snacks at the Ybbstalbahn.

The next day was another busy one. Plan was to do whats left of the Ybbstalbahn first, then afterwards head over to Mariazell to ride on the museum tramway and a little boat ride around the Erlaufsee lake. Plan didn't pan out naturally, got to the Ybbstalbahn Bergstrecke (Ybbstal railway mountain section) starting point in Kienberg-Gaming 5 minutes too late, so switched my plans around to do the other stuff first and return to Kienberg later for the afternoon return trip. Annoyed I then drove on having seen the train wasn't in the station, and then passed it on the level crossing a few hundred meters down the road! On we went to the Erlaufsee to do the boat ride. And from the edge of the lake we caught the tram. It is rather unusual in that it is entirely a standard gauge museum operation built from scratch, there was never a tramway here. It originally ran from the station at Mariazell on the 760mm gauge Mariazellerbahn down to the nearby Erlaufsee lake, and now has been extended to the edge of Mariazell (the station is some distance away from the town centre) using some of the former 760mm trackbed from the section from Mariazell to Gußwerk that has been out of use since 1988 and a newly created alignment from where the old line curves away from the town. It is only partially electrified - the section from the railway station down to the lake mostly has no overhead to diesel and steam locomotives are used, the rest has overhead to operate the electric trams in their collection. At the lake there is a turning loop. At Mariazell they have some lines laid along the back edge of the station area. The Mariazellerbahn used to be my favourite line in Austria - narrow gauge, electric, run entirely with electric locos from 1910-14 (rebodied in the 1950-60s), colourful passenger stock in a variety of liveries, platforms made of heaped ballast, lots of double-heading. Sadly all long gone, since 2013 run entirely with modern Stadler EMUs in a hideous gold/dark grey livery, concrete platforms, sidings removed from most stations. A handful of the old locos and a small quantity of coaches have been retained and are run on weekends but you need to get up very early to catch them - usually leave around 8:45 from St. Pölten, which would mean leaving Vienna an hour and a half earlier at the very least, and I'm not a morning person! Anyhow here is some of the ghastly stock - the 'nostalgie' rake of coaches wasn't in Mariazell as I had expected, a technical fault with the old loco meant the train had been cancelled that day. This EMU has some 1st class panorama coach coupled to it for a later service back to St. Pölten. The tram was being delayed from leaving because the service from St. Pölten was running late. Despite being composed of a pair of 3-car units it was completely packed. The set was then split with the rear unit leaving pretty quickly to head back to St. Pölten and the leading set following the track to park in the stub siding on the former route to Gußwerk.

After a brief wonder around the town centre and an icecream we drove back to Vienna.

As we approach Retz we wind our way through the many vineyards surrounding the small town. After seeing the 2143 run around its train and set off for the third and final time the shunter crew of the 2070 parked it up for the day. A former ÖBB (state railways) bicycle van (ex covered goods wagon, type Gbs) was parked up at the end of the carpark. Goods traffic was largely containers, these are for wood chippings, however some log wagons were also knocking around.