Archive for the ‘Austria’ Category
This years Sudbahnmusuem summer open day at Murzzschlag saw the Slovenian’s convinced to send a 644 from Ljubljana and despite fairly late notice a plan was drafted to get out there for it largely thanks to Ryanair having a dirt cheap flight to Linz available the previous day.
Our afternoon was taking Taurus power south from Salzburg on the scenic run via the Tauern south across the Apls. 1116 163 was the power, arriving at Freilassing with the 0818 Frankfurt – Klagenfurt / Zagreb. This is basically the only great international train pair left running north-south between Germany and the Balkans. 1116 163 here would work to Klagenfurt (1116 083 on rear detached at Salzburg), 1216 143 from Villach to Dobova and a HZ 1142 for the final leg to Zagreb.
With a whipped set of traincrew it was a most enjoyable run with 644016 from Ljubljana via Graz enjoying the sounds of the roots blown 12-645 power unit.
There was even some sun as we arrived at Murzzuschlag! The 644 then trundled off to the open day which housed a few bits however it was busy and I didn’t have enough patience to wait for photos when the pub beckoned!
Very orange 1142 635 arrived on the rear of a charter from Budapest (one of three!) with a Nostalgiezug Vienna portion. This is now a privately owned loco registered to whoever “D-PLOK” are and was vice the advertised 1141.
All the bloody way to the top of Austria and this is here! 47375 had worked a continental rail services charter from Budapest which had laid over from the previous night and as the heavens opened is seen getting ready to lead its 1554 Murzzuschlag – Budapest return charter. It was a mega money operation with a coach of brits, fair play to them but for me it was to join 86218 at Keleti in flagging UK locos abroad!
We’d planned to take the 644 back to Graz before heading to the hotel in Vienna but with the weather not fit for bellowing and signalling problems delaying service trains changed our plan to leap on this lash up of M61 001 leading MAV chuff 424 247 and OBB 1142 635 back instead. All three powered up to Semmering, the electric then doing most of the “work” rolling downhill to Wiener Neustadt where we leapt for an IC in as the splitting of the Vienna portion took something daft like two hours to do the last stretch! Having diesel, steam and electric on the front was certainly new for me.
All over the place this one – Friday to Monday of a long weekend to cover the DR 107 tour, which thanks are due to European Traction for the gen and in particular that it wasn’t all that hard to cover something that as far as I could tell went from one inaccesible field to another. Started in Hamburg after a post-work flight from Manchester, ended in Munich via Czech Republic and a few hours transit in Austria.
One of the more talked about summer 2017 workings was the use of pairs of 218s on the 06.55 Hamburg – Berlin IRE, reportedly due to use of a non-electrified route between Stendal and Berlin (which parallels the mainline) being a possibility due to SLW on the mainline. You can guess what happened most of the time and we had 218387 and 218484 under the wires throughout with a dead 182021 on the rear. Still not to complain at a long, fast mainline run on a decent load with these “real” bunnies.
Crowdfunded Open-Access outfit “Locomore” make a welcome return having been purchased/bailed out by Leo Express of Czech Disastercart fame, but here is a far more acceptable 182517 (now carrying Swedish number 242517) getting underway from Berlin Hbf on the final leg of its 0655 from Stuttgart. The train was wedged, hopefully this company can keep going with larger parent backers now?
Ex DR 107018 – last survivor of twenty built for the Germans – now owned by German privateers Railsystems, on its annual railtour outing from Schwarzenburg with CD Nostalgia’s 720145* as partner. This is at Streda or at least somewhere on the route from Karlovy Vary to Rakovnik. ‘145 was shut down by now, as its silenced this mattered little!
Well its one place to terminate a railtour I suppose. CD 720145 & DR 107018 at the metropolis of Chysne having depositied five coach of normals there for four hours. The ‘town’ as it was a mile or so’s hike and only one of 500ish inhabitants and looked about as exciting as the shack. We were on the next 810 to bounce out of dodge, felt a bit sorry for the few old dears who were not up to the walk and were clearly going to spend all afternoon admiring the coaches!
Quite helpfully, the 810 from Crysne dropped us into Rakovnik nicely onto the KZC turn, 749006 doing the honours. Due to some more Czech SLW on the mainline after Beroun the last few miles were most entertaining as the Prague man was in a rush to get home!
Now unusual track for these old girls, 242213 at Rybnik after arrival from Ceske Bud, August 2017 and on a very real rake of stock. This was vice Taurus and cityshuttle set, due to engineering work between Rybnik and Linz which meant it was all off for a bus here (unless you were off to play 210s on the branch that is!)
However due to going to play on 210s, we did have to suffer the bus from Rybnik to be able to get to the hotel in Munich! It was fairly painless in fairness and helpfully dropped us straight onto 1142 564 at Linz working the 1821 to Bad Aussee which we were able to take to Wels for a couple of Railjets west.
Not a huge amount going at Munich but the evening peak did kick out winner 111201 on the 1616 Augsburg P train which was taken in time honoured fashion to Pasing where it is seen awaiting the tip
MRCE’s 189924 was provided for the afternoon Meridian kickout turn and seen awaiting departure of the 1711 Munich – Kufstein. So its a loco working a meridian service, operated by Lokomotion, owned by MRCE and with TXL branding – hope thats clear to everyone!!
Not got much in the way of trips until next year, so here are a few photos from part of a March trip. As I’ve leaned quite heavily towards Czech and Slovakia this year, decided to put up what was really just under a full a day around Linz largely aiming to cover the 1142s. The challenge of finding them amongst 1144s with classes working each other’s diagrams and Linz liking to take locos off sets and into a whirlpool makes it less straightforward than the diagrams suggest! Few of these are phone photos but seem to have come up alright.
1116 191 and a rake of Cityshuttle stock had been my transit into the country working the 1802 Ceske Bud to Linz. I was glad to have grabbed some supplies because this stops at every lamppost between the two places!
1142 623 at Linz prior to working the 0852 to Passau. There was at least one other 1142 kicking around in the old livery as well for a bit of variety
1142 673 departs Wels with the 0952 Linz – Passau service. The old lights certainly have more character, if a bit PKP style.
2016 076 sits at Wels with a short set of tanks awaiting to follow up the Passau line
1116 191 at Linz arriving with the 0534 from Praha hl n, the through trains are formed of Czech aircons and the Taurus will have replaced a CD 362 at Ceske Bud
1142 653 at Polgarn with the 1415 Linz-Summerau. This was about the only loco that didn’t swap turns as the Summerau line isn’t great for moves, it was a unit back off this.
I’m sure everyone who has leapt out of Linz has a photo here… 1142 613 at Marchtrenk on the 1521 Linz – Stainach. 1144 253 shortly took me back to Linz.
1142 655 and 2016 076 have been kicked off shed for the afternoon rush and await respective departure from Linz. Didn’t do either of these so can’t be sure but I think the ‘Tony’ 2016 is on the Grein Bad Kreuzen turn.
Part 2: Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria
A much needed full week away! There will be a couple of parts to this as I managed to take quite a few photos, by my standards anyway, and as we did a whistlestop tour there is enough variety to (hopefully) keep it interesting.
So having crossed the Danube at Komarno – Komaron, we were in Hungary for until Monday afternoon, when the tension was mounting as a V43 whisked us east towards Hodos. The week basically hinged on this – we were looking for a possible last blast on the Citadella but with two ‘Tony’ 2016 silent junk out and about, would we be bowled? No, 664106! They even found a 363 to work forward, Thanks Very Much SZ! We then pottered around Croatia on 2044s for a couple of days before going for a three-legged 664 move on the Friday – both Citadella’s and the overnight. Once again we’d pleased the right people as all three dropped ‘biblical volume’ 664s – even got the pen out twice taking me to 11 of the 20. Don’t know if I’ll get another though with the wires well on the way now… After the (good for engines, not much sleep!) overnight we had a leisurely day around Lake Balaton then just a long way home on the Sunday, Gyor-Vienna-Brno-Stansted, just to add an extra pair of countries to the week!
Captions on individual photos.
For the previous few days photos from Slovakia please click ‘ere!
Very quick trip courtesy of some cheap flights to Cologne to get some engines in the book for the year – most of you can probably guess what locations feature in the moves book!
Weeks Austrian trip harvesting OBB electrics, mainly around Vienna and then Graz to have a day out covering the Citadella and GySev 651 turn in Hungary for a blast of diesels more interesting than 2016s!
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