Steam Locomotives in Three Countries, Spain, Austria & Italy in the 1970s

Our program begins with a 1972 trip to Europe and a visit to Spain where we see Broad-Gauge action with 2-8-2’s on the Renfe (National Railway of Spain). We stuck to an area west of Zaragoza, which featured steam in Castejon, which had a roundhouse full of steam, and Pamplona. Pamplona you might recognize as the city where you can run with the bulls each year, but we were there for some steam operations and caught a couple of daily passenger trains to Castejon. There is a cool shot of a train passing through an ancient Roman aqueduct, plus two passenger trains meeting. Seeing nothing but steam at the Castejon roundhouse was pretty special, even if they were all oil burners.

Next we head to Austria in 1974. We see a little steam in Vienna, and Linz, before moving to the Linz-Summerau line which is the Austrian Railway standard gauge. Most traffic on this line was steam hauled with the Kreig-Lok German designed 052 2-10-0’s working both freight and passenger trains. We also see a Czech 4-8-2 (475 class), which was on a cross-border train in Summerau. This was during the cold war and a guard was sent so the engine crews did not defect to the west.

After the Linz-Summerau line, we see a little bit of action the narrow gauge line from Gmund, and see a meet, and do some pacing on one train. These trains hauled some standard gauge cars on their narrow gauge flats. After this we spent a days on the “Iron Mountain” at Vordernberg for this unique Rack line with steep grades. Empty trains went up the grade with an engine on either end, and besides good action there was great scenery as well. This line stopped running steam a few years after we were there.

We visited Italy in 1974 and 1975, grabbing shots in the northern part of Italy (Tyrol), on the Fortezza to San Candido line. This very scenic line featured some freight action and a couple of passenger trains each day. Power was 2-8-0 class 740, and the unique class 741. The 741 2-8-0’s were converted 740 class engines that had Franco-Crosti boilers which had modified boilers to preheat the water, and a side-stack for exhausting smoke and steam. We have good coverage of these unique locomotives, and an explanation of the basic design.