The BeerTrain

  The Mariazell Railway is an electrically operated 760mm   ( 2 ft  5  15 ⁄ 16  in )   narrow gauge  line which connects the Lower Austrian  capital of Sankt Pölten   with the Styrian Alpine pilgrimage  centre of Mariazell .  The line was opened in stages between 1898 and 1907, with a now closed branch to Wieselburg an der Erlauf . The railway is currently operated by NÖVOG . Electrification (unprecedented at the time) began in 1911 (using Alternating Current ) as the route & traffic requirements were proving too arduous for the original Steam locos , 16 E series locomotives (still used today as class   1099 ) were delivered between 1909 and 1914. The experience gained from the electrification proved to be the benchmark for later projects of the same kind. The locomotive  design with two separate powered bogies  is widespread today. The route runs from St.Pölten to Ober-Grafendorf , the lines only majo...

A trip to Vienna to do an OBB Nostalgiezug to Keszthely, lots of required track for an Austrian loco and planned to be an OBB 2050 diesel throughout. We flew in on the 5th for 2 nights in Vienna. Friday 06/06/2008 Some pre-breakfast moves: 2016004#  Wien Sud - Wiener Neustadt  0542 Wien Sud - Wiener Neustadt 50km                   (Via Baden) 2016004    Wiener Neustadt - Wien Sud  0632 Wiener Neustadt - Wien Sud 56km                   (Via Ebenfurth & Achau) Some new track under the wires for diesel done there. 1044064    Wien Sud - Wien Meidling 0747 Wien Sud - Passau 4km 2016043#  Wien Meidling - Wien Sud 0640 Aspang Markt - Wien Sud 4km A day with the wife doing the more touristy side of Vienna, taking in some castles and gardens along the way. Followed by a night at the Theatre to watch Ben Elton's Queen epic "We will Rock You", very good fun it was t...

A trip to celebrate Simon Brazels birthday - his Fiftieth. A large drinking party of the 3 Brazels Simon, Sean & David, with at least Trog, Betty, Howey (armed with an advance copy of Neath's Good Beer Guide Germany) & myself. Not for the feint hearted! (New locos again denoted by #). Thursday 18/05/2006 I actually flew to Linz as required track had appeared as the Krems - Linz now ran direct instead of via St.Valentin. 1144 270#  Hörsching - Linz       1559 Attnang Pucheim - Linz 10km Unit            Linz - Grein Stadt     1706 Linz - St Nikola Studen 62km 2043 016    Grein Stadt - Linz     1701 Krems - Linz 62km Quite a few hours here I wonder what I did - of course Beers (& a little food) in the brewpub! 101 090#    Linz - München Ost  2030 Budapest - München 280km Daily Total = 414km Friday 19/05/2006 A whole morning in Munchen to kill - Rabbits! Increase my Klik...