114-year old Austrian 0-8-0 loco back in steam on the main line

Last weekend the archaic tender locomotive 414.096 ran several public steam specials from the CD Museum in Luzna on the scenic, non-electrified main line.

This ornate 0-8-0 was built in Vienna in 1906 as one of 453 examples of the kkStB Class 73. It's original number was 73.368 and the loco got the new classification then in 1924.

In service until 1967, the loco was saved by being plinthed and would stay static for 42 years until 2009, when a complete overhaul started. In April 2019 the loco was steamed for the first time in 52 years and since autumn 2019 it has operated on the main line.

With its elegant style and small wheels, the locomotive is vintage Austro-Hungarian in style and locos of the Class 73 originally operated on the famed Arlberg route. After the Austro-Hungarian Empire was broken up, the class was distributed among countless successor railways. Today, 3 locos are preserved in Austria, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, but only 414.096 is operational.

Here is a short film from last Saturday, showing the loco in action at the museum grounds and hauling passenger trains on the main line:

 

Lovely looking bit of kit. I always like the way the Austro-Hungarian locos look about 30 years older than they really are. It must be the smokebox doors.
I also like the open coaches. I wonder if we could get a similar rebuild of a Southern PMV past the ORR? (I know, no chance )
Pat

 

Why would the ORR object, provided you have a robust safety case? The Middleton Railway use converted PMVs with an open varanda for many years now.

Peter

 

Not surprising that the loco looks 30 years older. Although this one dates from 1906, the class had been in production for the Austrian State Railways since 1885, and had been developed from an earlier class of 1873. The engine was built with a "dovecote" spark arrestor, which the Czechs later replaced with the current chimney arrangement.

It is certainly curious that Austria continued to build locos with "baker's oven" smokebox doors until WW1, long after everyone else seems to have abandoned them. I think the GS&WR(I) was another late user, until around 1900?

 

Thanks a lot for mention this for us Fenham. It`s a really lovely looking engine this one equipped with this special sort of driving wheels that also other Austrian engines had. I wonder why they were constructed that way?

Knut

 

Pretty sure I've seen a photo of an Irish Class 2 (McDonnell's 4-4-0 'Kerry Bogies') and a couple of other older locos still sporting those in early GSR days (post-1925).

Dunno whether the Talyllyn gave any serious thought to re-equipping either No.1 or 2 with such doors, to go with their recent brick red repaint, or if the '1863 Mountaineer' project will go the whole hog, as all those locos originally came thus fitted.