Volume 1: Austria Standard Gauge
Compiled by Andrew Fox
1. Vienna
2. Oberösterreich and Linz
3. Niederösterreich and Wiener Neustadt
4. Steiermark and Graz
5. Kärnten
6. The Erzbergbahn
7. The Graz-Köflacher Bahn
8.
Peter Waymouth Gray
From an early age, Peter Gray’s interest in railways was encouraged by his father, an employee of the GWR.
Peter’s railway photography began in Basra, Iraq, whilst serving in the Army, at a time when rows of Stanier ‘8Fs’ awaited post-war shipment back to the UK. Returned home from National Service, purchase of a new bicycle led to wider exploration of the photographic opportunities presented by the railways of the West Country. He profited from bank holiday weekends to undertake excursions around Devon and Cornwall, and further afield to places such as Bridgwater North, Bath, Westbury, Weymouth, and even by ferry across the Severn into South Wales.
Eventually, mechanisation took over in the form of two Velocette motorbikes, and in his late fifties a car licence enabled him to him expand his railway photography to include other regions of Britain. His colour photography of lines in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset would become highly regarded through a series of very successful books, whilst his black & white photographs of railways in the south-west were the basis of his very popular weekly ‘Rail Trail’ feature in Torbay’s Herald Express newspaper.
From the mid-1950s Peter’s activities spread to railways beyond Britain, and he began an extensive and varied series of overseas travels, at first around Ireland and Europe (including many Eastern Bloc countries), and later taking in large parts of Africa, North and South America, and Indonesia. His colour slide film of choice was Kodachrome, which guaranteed an absence of grain, with reliable colour reproduction, and has fortunately survived the passage of time with minimal deterioration since he first used it in the late 1950s.
An enthusiastic and active member of the Railway Correspondence & Travel Society, Peter was a familiar presence on the RCTS stand at exhibitions, and many of his overseas travels were undertaken as a member of RCTS tours. For many years he presented his popular slide shows across the country, until a fall left him unable to travel for the last 18 months of his life.
Above: Giesl ejector-fitted No 77.263 seen passing Wien Ost with a lengthy suburban passenger train on 2 September 1963, was another member of Class 77 to be built by Krauss, Linz in 1927, entering service as BBÖ No 629.78. It would remain in traffic until May 1973. This view illustrates the widespread use of four-wheel, end balcony coaches by ÖBB at this period.
Right: The kkStB’s magnificent Class 310 four-cylinder compound 2-6-4 locomotives, of which 90 were built between 1911 and 1916, constituted a high point of steam locomotive development in Austria. The last examples were withdrawn as ÖBB Class 16 in 1957, but No 16.08, built by StEG in 1911, was retained for preservation and restored to its original condition as kkStB No 310.23. For some time No 310.23, together with other locomotives, was stored at Wien Süd shed, where it is seen on 2 September 1963.
The most peculiar-looking steam locomotives operated by the ÖBB were surely the 18 members of Class 3071. No 3071.05, is seen at Schwarzenau on 1 September 1963 with a special train from Wien Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof to Gmünd for the RCTS Austrian tour party. Schwarzenau was an important operational centre on the Franz-Josefs-Bahn, situated 23.6km (14¾ miles) east of Gmünd.
Wiener Neustadt
Situated 48km (30 miles) south of Vienna on the Südbahn towards Graz, Wiener Neustadt is an important railway centre, with one of the largest and busiest stations in Austria. It is the junction for the lines to Aspang and Fehring, Sopron (in Hungary), Puchberg am Schneeberg, Gutenstein and Mattersburg. The Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik was once the largest locomotive manufacturer in the Austro-Hungarian empire, but as a result of the economic crisis of the late 1920s / early 1930s was taken over by the Wiener Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf.
An extremely grimy No 77.31, built by Krauss, Linz in 1920 as BBÖ No 629.46, runs light engine through Wiener Neustadt station early on the morning of 3 September 1963, with some fine semaphore signals as a background. Despite its neglected external appearance, No 77.31 would survive for a further nine years before being withdrawn in September 1972. The electrification of the Südbahn main line between Wien Südbahnhof and Gloggnitz had been implemented seven years earlier, in September 1956.
Class 93s Nos 93.1392 and 93.1415 forge across a girder bridge over the Lavant river near Twimberg on the Lavanttalbahn with train ZD 20, the 1.55pm Wolfsberg - Zeltweg service on 6 September 1963, due to arrive at Zeltweg at 3.23pm. The summit of the line is located at the Obdacher Sattel pass, approximately 20km further north, between the towns of Reichenfels-St. Peter in Kärnten and Obdach in Steiermark.
No 671 stands at Köflach with the RCTS special on 4 September 1963. Of the four ex-Südbahn Class 29s still in service with the GKB after World War 2, three would be withdrawn in 1964 and 1965, leaving just No 671 operational.
This volume contains fascinating images of Austria’s standard gauge railways from the late 1950s until the early 1970s - a period when a wide variety of steam power remained in use, ranging from veteran classes more than 50 years old to modern ex-Deutsche Reichsbahn wartime locomotives. In the years that followed, the country’s railways would be transformed by the relentless effects of rationalisation and modernisation.
Peter’s remarkable colour photographs are a wonderful record of a bygone era, allowing us to step back in time to an Austria now long disappeared, but captured for posterity by the lens of an accomplished photographer and enthusiast. The pages of this book depict not just the state railway system - the Österreichische Bundesbahnen - with a section devoted to the extraordinary Erzbergbahn, but also the fascinating Graz-Köflacher Bahn, and the sole steam-worked standard gauge line of the Steiermärkische Landesbahnen.
A companion volume, PETER GRAY’S TRAVELS Volume 2: Austria Narrow Gauge & Industry covers the country’s fascinating narrow gauge and industrial lines.
ISBN 978-1-913893-59-0
£17.50
Peter Gray's