The Semmering trials A competition was held in 1851 to decide which locomotives would be bought for operation on the Semmering Railway. One stretch of the line had gradients of 1 in 40 (2.5%) and curves with a
minimum radius of and a maximum radius of . A speed of was required to be maintained and a maximum
axle loading of , with a
boiler pressure not exceeding .
Entrants There were four entrants,
Bavaria, built by
Maffei;
Neustadt built by
Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik;
Seraing built by
Société anonyme John Cockerill in Belgium; and
Vindobona built by the Locomotive Factory of Wien-Gloggnitzer Bahn in
Vienna. All four locomotives fulfilled the conditions of the trial, but did not prove reliable in practice. File:SB Bavaria.png|Bavaria File:SB Neustadt.png|Neustadt Image:SB Seraing.png|The "Seraing“ locomotive from an 1851 locomotive design. Note the similarity to a double
Fairlie locomotive Developments The Semmering Trials led to a number of developments in locomotive design: Fairlie's Patent of 1863, the
Meyer locomotive and the
Mallet locomotive.
Engerth design (2004) The Engerth design articulated the
tender with the main locomotive frame, allowing some of the weight of the fuel and water to be carried on the
driving wheels to improve
adhesion. Because the tender was articulated, rather than directly attached to the frame, the locomotive could traverse relatively sharp curves, while still enjoying the advantage of the additional adhesive weight gain. The original design also included an indirect drive from the main driving wheels to the wheels under the tender. This arrangement proved too complex to maintain and was dropped from the design. Sixteen locomotives were supplied to the Semmering Railway between November 1853 and May 1854. They proved capable of uphill on gradients of 1 in 40 (2.5%). An Engerth locomotive was featured on an Austrian stamp commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Semmering Railway in 2004. The Engerth locomotive also appeared on a
25 Euro coin issued by Austria in 2004.
Present day Currently, the Semmering railway uses the well-known
Siemens ES64U2 locomotives for this route as the main workhorse of the ÖBB. Starting with 1963 it also uses
ÖBB class 1142 locomotives, now used as
banking engines on the line, and also the
ÖBB Class 1144 since 1977 as banking engines and also freight/passenger engines. In 1971 this is where a
SJ Rc locomotive conducted trials that put the basis of the
ÖBB Class 1043. For local trains the
Bombardier Talent (ÖBB Class 4024) and
Siemens Desiro ML (ÖBB Class 4744) are used. ==Semmering Base Tunnel==