Steam and Steeple Cab Electric Locos at the Mariazell Tramway in Austria

The Museumstramway Mariazell is often overshadowed by the more famous, very long and very mountainous narrow gauge railway (760 mm Bosnian gauge) that leads from St. Pölten to Mariazell.

From the remote and inconvienently located Mariazell railway station, the standard gauge heritage tramway provides a key link to either the pretty Lake Erlauf Alpine nature spot or the town center. It has been in development since the late 1970s/early 80s and now has a few km in length, plus one of the most attractive collections of preserved and fully operational early 20th century tramway vehicles from various Austrian cities.

Highlights are also the three steam locos, of which the 0-6-0 tank engine No. 31 "Stammersdorf" is currently operational. Rarely used is the green Bo-Bo steeple cab Eg 5, originally built in 1913 for the interurban tramway known as Lokalbahn Wien -Pressburg from Vienna to Bratislava. Since 2003 this green loco in visual mint condition has been in Mariazell. It is rarely used, but this past week was in service for a British group and a charter by the Railway Touring Company.

Here are some impressions of this archaic yet elegant interurban tramway locomotive with classic styling and old school look. It currently can't pull coaches as there is not enough juice in the overhead DC power line, so it just propels itself and gives cab rides. It still looks the part, while the steam loco does the heavy lifting.

Here are film impressions of all these wonderful historic treasures in use in the splendid Austrian Alpine scenery at Mariazell.

 

A selection of my photos. Note reduced on size.

 

A wonderful collection of trams in the shed.