Austria 10/05 to 12/05 2008 "In the Footsteps of the Pope"
I got a call from Stewart Medhurst, out of the blue, that although the narrow gauge line from St.Pölten to Mariazell was currently closed north of Laubenbachmuhle due to a programme of track replacement & complete renewal of the overhead electric equipment (including masts), the Styrian Alpine town of Mariazell was aghast at the prospect of no visitors on their most Sacred of days, Easter Sunday.
Mariazell Basilica, also known as Basilica Maria Geburt (Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary) is the most important pilgrimage destination in Austria and one of the most visited shrines in Europe with about a million visitors each year. It is the only church named as a national shrine of all German-speaking countries. It is also the first destination (accordingly to a plaque I read inside the Basilica) that each newly ordained Pope heads to on a pilgrimage of his own.
I was going to Southern Italy a couple of weeks after this but couldn't contemplate missing this outrageous working so after re-arranging my shifts by calling in some favours I managed to leap - if only for 3 days.
Saturday 10/05/08
An early start to get down to Luton Airport for my hastily arranged flight to Vienna. Never fear - there's no plane gen in this report!
158906 Barnsley - Sheffield 0518 Barnsley - Sheffield 16m
43064) Sheffield - Leicester 0616 Sheffield - St.Pancras 66m
43047)
Possibly the only time I'd ever recorded Power Car numbers, normally just shown as "Tram" or not recorded at all - it didn't last.
HST Leicester - Luton Airport Parkway xxxx Nottingham - St.Pancras 70m
No info from the Airport or flight so must have gone ok, I had a plan to visit a couple of Vienna's brewpubs which were a bit further out of the City than ones I had done before, I had all Saturday afternoon to find them.
I think I did 2 new Brewpubs, the only one I recorded was Brigitta-Bräu, Dresdener Strasse 38-44, where I sampled their Helles & Schnitt. I see on RateBeer they permanently closed in 2011.
Hotel-Gasthof Graz opposite the station. Hopefully via a few winner locos (# = new loco).
1142 575# Hütteldorf - Tullnerbach Pressbaum 1804 Wien West - St.Valentin 14km
1142 639# Tullnerbach Pressbaum - St.Polten 1808 Wien West - St.Pölten 40km
I checked into the Hotel but as the 2 Brewpubs formerly to be found here in St.Pölten had both shut down in recent years I went back out to look for more winners.
1144 272# St.Pölten - Pottenbrunn 2050 St.Pölten - Wien West 6km
1144 266# Pottenbrunn - St.Pölten 2002 Wien West - St.Pölten 6km
Then I scouted around the nearby bars to find the one with the best beer range, as me & Medhurst would be drinking in town the following evening. A couple of beers then back to the Hotel with a Chinese takeaway.
Daily Total = 66 KM
Easter Sunday 11/05/08
I even had time for the proper breakfast in the Hotel, a good start to the day. Stewart was arriving off an overnight so would be meeting me at the Bahnhof.
I crossed the square to the station where I was met by an excited Medhurst - the 0816 to St.Aegyd am Neuwalde was a hauled train conveying a bicycle car, not only was it winner track for both of us but was hauled by 2143 069 - a winner loco for us both.
Unfortunately we couldn't do it, unless the pair of 2095's didn't produce, for which the stock was not yet in. A tense couple of minutes before the stock appeared, propelled in from the narrow gauge depot a kilometre away, normal practise here - by the massive pair of 2095's!
We boarded the stock, front coach of course, we were soon hanging out the windows watching the 2143 depart - what a racket it made too, definitely a Loud One!
We both vowed to change our plans next day if the train produced 2143 069 again.
Departure time came and we were off with a deafening roar from the 2 locos, in no time we were approaching St.Pölten Alpenbahnhof station with it's narrow gauge depot.
The route from here to Ober-Grafendorf, the lines only major junction, where the line to Weiselburg begins, was a very well trodden one for us both, behind both 2095's and the 1909 built 1099 electrics that were the mainstay of the route. Both classes being Hellfire!
From Ober-Grafendorf you gradually start climbing, we'd had single 2095's a reasonable number of times up the route as far as Laubenbachmuhle on booked turns that the locos started to get in latter years - a real slog for a 2095 mind you, with plenty of Thrash throughout.
It is from Laubenbachmuhle, however, that the route really starts to climb - and the reason neither of us had ever been lucky enough to have a 2095 beyond this point. You climb to such effect that it's not long before you can look down & see a miniature version of Laubenbachmuhle station in the valley down below, looking for all the world like a model railway layout, as you swing back along the valley above it.
The twists and turns, small & long tunnels, rushing streams and huge drops down mountain sides below that the route throws at you up here are amazing - doing it behind a pair of 2095's on full bore was nothing short of astonishing. I got my mobile phone out & recorded the deafening thrash for about ten minutes, it was no good trying to talk to Stewart at this point as the noise was too much!
By the time we got to the top of the line at Mariazell you could say we were both finished - a totally mind-blowing run.
2095 011) St.Pölten - Mariazell 6837 0835 St.Pölten - Mariazell 85km
2095 013)
I took many, many (digital) photographs this day, all unfortunately lost when my home computer crashed the same week that the fotopix website (that I'd also uploaded them all onto) went down - sorry!
Here are a few from previous trips to give a flavour.
Six hours in Mariazell - with no other trains running, and wanting to do the pair back down later anyway, we were left with little choice other than to be outside the door of the towns Brewpub at opening time!
This is the Brauhaus Mariazell, run by the family Girrer, at Wienerstrasse 5.
The Girrer's had opened 2 Bedrooms the previous year, becoming officially the smallest 4 star hotel in Austria. In April 2007 me & my wife stayed in one of the rooms, on our way to Budapest for a railtour behind M61017 - the next time I tried doing this the prices had gone up four-fold, they must be doing well!
We then reached another dilemma - they closed on a Sunday at 2pm, what to do until train departure time just before 5pm? We could go and find a normal pub in town, but the beer almost certainly wouldn't be as good.
Stewart decided to ask if it was possible for us to stay on after the Brewpub closed, we would sit at a small table opposite the bar, play cards & drink beer while they cleared up? He explained that our train was still a few hours away - and Mr Girrer said "no problem!"
Excellent - a lock-in!
Good to our word we quietly played cards, asking for our glasses to be replenished as occasion demanded, but only when someone was clearly free to do so, we didn't want to distract them from their tasks.
When it came time to leave the pub we thanked them profusely - what a result!
Back to the station where, of course, the pair awaited - it being the only train of the day they couldn't have gone on anything else.
2095 013) Mariazell - St.Pölten 6842 1657 Mariazell - St.Pölten 85km
2095 011)
I'd like to say the return trip was as hellfire as the outward, but of course being at the top of a mountainous route - it's all downhill from Mariazell! You do, of course, get the thrash out of each station stop to enjoy.
Once again, as we'd already had plenty of beer, we opted for a couple of winner locos before a couple of beers in the bar I'd gone to the night before.
1044 004# St.Pölten - Böheimkirchen 1710 Passau - Wien Süd 11km
1144 258# Böheimkirchen - St.Pölten 2002 Wien West - St.Pölten 11km
Daily Total = 66 KM
Easter Monday 12/05/08
Luckily for us, Easter Monday being another public holiday meant that the hauled turn at 0816 was indeed booked to run again today - but would they have swopped the loco? The answer was no - it was 2143 069 again, another result!
We soon assumed the position, out the window in the front bay behind the loco, when the stock for todays run to Mariazell backed in, again with 2095 011 & 013 at the helm. Then, about 90 seconds before we were due to depart I saw Barney Rubble (Phil Wormald) & 2 or 3 other Bashers walking up the platform towards the 2095's. I shouted over to Phil and he replied "why aren't you doing this" whilst pointing to the 2095's - "We did it yesterday and need this!" was my reply. Then a whistle and we left St.Polten with the 2143 wide open and us bellowing at Phil & Co.
It was a cracking run with the 2143 probably the loudest example of the class either of us had ever had, but it was only a 30km journey and we rolled into St.Aegyd am Neuwalde station all too soon.
2143 069# St.Pölten - St.Aegyd am Neuwalde 0816 St.Pölten - St.Aegyd am Neuwalde 30km
A few photo's later we noticed outside that a couple of buses linked the town over to Kirchberg an der Pielach on the Mariazell line, so when trains were running normally up to Mariazell this wouldn't just be a one-way move like we had just done (the train would sit here all day returning at 16xx to convey any day-trippers or cyclists back again).
Even more annoying we both thought this to be the terminus on this branch line, but the line actually finishes at "Markt" station, the other side of town. There are no run-round facilities there so never likely to be do-able hauled. We did the following unit in & out of Markt - we had nothing better to do.
5047 xxx St.Aegyd am Neuwalde - St.A.a.Neuwalde Markt 0919 St.P - St.A.a.Neuwalde Markt 1km
5047 xxx St.A.a.Neuwalde Markt - St.Pölten 1047 St.A.a.Neuwalde Markt - St.Pölten 31km
We then went our separate ways, Medhurst was in the middle of his visit but I was returning home already.
1116 026# St.Pölten - Linz 1140 Wien West - Innsbruck 130km
101 093 Linz - Wels 1144 Wien West - Salzburg 25km
1044 123 Wels - Marchtrenk 1310 Passau - Linz 7km
1142 610# Marchtrenk - Hörsching 1201 Obertraun Koppenbrüllerhöle (!) - Linz 18km
(!) That would be a mouthful. A bus to the quiet Linz (Hörsching) airport, probably a couple of wheat beers in their little bar, followed by an uneventful flight back to Blighty. I expect I flew back to Stansted but my next move was out of St.Pancras so I will never know.
43045) St.Pancras - Sheffield 2025 St.Pancras - Sheffield 165m
43xxx)
I obviously ran out of enthusiasm for writing down the power car numbers before I got to the other end of the train...
Unit Sheffield - Barnsley 2241 Sheffield - Barnsley 16m
Daily Total = 66 KM
Total KM = 500 KM Daily Average = 167 KM
Total Moves = 15 Average Per Move = 33.3 KM
The only aim of the trip, a pair of 2095's for winner track from Laubenbachmuhle to Mariazell up a truly mountainous route was duly met. As always this line never disappoints.
The bonus winner track behind the 2143 the following day was a welcome surprise extra!
A late notice leap but one that lives long in the memory, Cheers Poodle (Richard Mann)
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