On The Rack
On The Rack
The village of Vordernberg in Austria was the place to see steam locos working very hard on the Erzbergbahn - Iron Mountain - rack and adhesion railway, 20 kms long with a maximum gradient of 7% (1 in 14). As well as frequent ore trains bound for steelworks at Donawitz and Linz, passengers trains also ran over the rack.
Top left: One of the railway's class 97 0-6-2T heads along the railway in the mid 1970s. There were fourteen of this class, introduced in 1891.
Bottom left: From 1912 the railway had three class 197 0-12-0T - a rare wheel arrangement! There was also a huge 2-12-2T built for the line during World War 2, but it was in storage. The 0-12-0T in this photo has a Giesl ejector, invented by an Austrian and fitted to a good number of locos in that country. It cut down the smoke emitted by a loco as well as improving its performance. A 97 0-6-2T is banking. And the bankers did work hard as seen above.....
Left: Giesl ejector fitted 0-6-2T 97 217 under the wires at Vordernberg on a snowy 9 February 1975. It worked the 12.39 passenger to Hieflau, two carriages and a fourgon, propelling up the inclines out of Vordernberg, running round at Prabichl to continue to Eisenerz where another loco took over. Some passengers were railcar worked.