European Railroad Discussion > About an Hour in Mürzzuschlag, Austria

I had one day free in Vienna so, of course, forget all that historical and cultural stuff in Vienna, I am heading for Semmering Pass. I wanted to both ride the entirety of the pass as well as railfan at least one location on the pass itself. Being limited to train travel, my options were somewhat limited for the latter. The first stop south of Semmering Pass is Mürzzuschlag so that was my first destination and it also happens to be where the south portal of the new base tunnel is located that will bypass the steep, twisty-turny Semmering Pass route for freights on this busy line. The north portal is just west of Gloggnitz. And the weather was perfect. September 23, 2024.

1. An OBB cityjet EMU arrives from the south with a final destination of Mürzzuschlag. At this location the track is running east-west.

2. Operating in push-mode, a southbound passenger departs from Mürzzuschlag with a City Shuttle cab control car, four standard coaches, and an 1144-class OBB electric that appears to be named 'Herbert.'

3. Unfortunately, all the northbound freights took this track and there was no good location for a shot on the sunny side in the vicinity of the station. Two German DB 193-class Vectrons lead a train of Stante Logistics containers. Stante Logistics is an Italian company.

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4. Not sure what kind of maintenance of way or emergency response equipment this is, but it was new and different. The only thing it says on the side is "service."

5. An OBB cityjet EMU departs Mürzzuschlag for Friesach which is quite a ways down the line towards Villach or Klagenfurt. Note that the signal has not yet changed.

6. A second freight was a rare triple-header with two OBB 1116-class Taurus locomotives and an 1144-class. The train consisted of half gondolas and half tank cars.

At this point it was time to board a northbound cityjet for the town of Semmering at the top of the pass.

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Here's a photo I took in 1964 at just about the location of your shots, also looking "RR south".  As you can see, not much has changed........

This Austrian series is another one of your very enjoyable photo tours -- thank you for posting them.

With best regards,  SZ

The locomotive is  392.2519, an 0-8-0T blt in 1927, former BBÖ 478 class [ and DRB 92.25 ]

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