Austrian Railways of Yesteryear - Narrow Gauge Lines at work in the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies 52 mins B & W and Colour Ste

Austria’s topography meant that it was ideal narrow gauge territory, and numerous narrow gauge systems, mainly 760mm gauge, were constructed down valleys to make connection with the standard gauge main lines. When Ton Pruissen visited Austria in the 1960s and early 1970s, even if the legendary Salzkammergut-Lokalbahn had gone in 1957, many of the other systems were still operational, and the majority of the trains steam operated, with just a few diesels to be seen. Only adhension lines are featured here; no rack railways, although the Pöstlingbergbahn in Linz was then, and still is, the steepest adhension railway in the world. This is electrified, as are two of the other lines Ton filmed - these include the Waldviertalbahn, the Steyrtalbahn, the Vellachtalbahn, the Zillertalbahn, the Radmer industrial railway, the Murtalbahn, the Lokalbahn Mixnitz-St. Erhard and the Feistritztalbahn. Of these only the Pöstlingbergbahn and the Zillertalbahn remain as full commercial operations so, whilst parts of some of the other lines still operate as preserved railways, this DVD really does show a world now gone for ever. English commentary.