Bernschlag

Not yet 7am on a September morning in 1975 as OeBB 2-8-2T No. 93 1418, hotly pursued by a track workers' trolley, steams through the woods at Bernschlag in north-east Austria with the 06:49 short working from Schwarzenau to Zwettl, on the long, straggling branch southwards to Martinsberg-Gutenbrunn. Schwarzenau was once an important junction station on the Franz-Josefs-Bahn from Vienna to Eger (now Cheb), a main line whose importance was diminished following the dissolution of the Austrian Empire, and particularly after WW2 with the Iron Curtain running through the town of Gmuend, which then effectively became the terminus, barring a meagre cross border service.

Location: Bernschlag

Original line: OBB

Photographer: Bill Jamieson

Contact photographer: Bill Jamieson

Contact editor

Date: 09/09/1975

Image number: 51229