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Yaaawn! I just woke up from a nap. I am still having issues with my BP going up and down, so that nap did me good. Todd said: "It amazes me how clean Austria and Germany appear" - [yeah], appear is the right word, there are some pretty filthy places as well. However, Vienna is about the cleanest and safest city I have ever been too. The absence of "paintings" on the walls is just stunning. You can even take a walk past midnight without meeting your friendly neighborhood mugger. Try to do that in Berlin, Frankfurt or Hamburg! By this time, we have arrived at St. Poelten train station, ready to board our steam train to Mariazell. Time for some mor info on this line. The pilgrimage center of Mariazell was one of Austria-Hungary's most visited places by foreigners in the 19th century. Much thought was already being given to building a railway from St. Pölten to Mariazell even at the time when the West railway opened in 1858. Many variations on the idea of extending the standard-gauge line through the Lower Austrian foothills of the Alps were considered. Only after the Lower Austrian State Railway Law was passed in 1895 did work begin on the project, and owing to the difficult terrain that the railway would have to cross, it was decided to build it to a narrow gauge. The gauge of 760 mm, as with all narrow-gauge railway undertakings in the "Danube Monarchy", was made necessary by the military administration, as rolling stock used in military service on railways in Bosnia and Hercegovina – which used the 760 mm gauge – would need to be brought in. The railway's alignment would be built to a minimum curve radius of 80 m. In 1896, building work by the Lower Austrian State Railway Office began with acting director Engineer Josef Fogowitz in charge. The mainline from St. Pölten to Kirchberg and the branch to Mank were opened on 4 July 1898; the operators were the state's own Lower Austrian State Railways. As of 1902, building was continued and in 1905, the stretch through the Pielach valley as far as Laubenbachmühle and the branchline extension to Ruprechtshofen were completed. In 1906, the Mountain Line was pushed through far enough for freight traffic to be taken through to Mariazell. On 2 May 1907, passenger service to Mariazell began running, and that same summer, the stretch through to Gußwerk was brought into service. The "Lower Austrian-Styrian Alp Railway" (Niederösterreichisch-Steirische Alpenbahn) as the railway was known in Austro-Hungarian officialese, was thereby complete. Far-reaching plans for an extension over the Styrian Seeberg and a connection with the likewise narrow-gauge Thörlerbahn, and thereby with the Styrian railway network, had no work done on them owing to the outbreak of the First World War. Likewise, a connection to the Ybbstalbahn was never built. On the Mountain Line, the service was for the time being run with steam locomotives specially designed for the line of series Mh and Mv, which very quickly turned out not to be up to the job. The rush of passengers was so great that for a time, the railway, which had become enormously popular overnight, did not even bother with advertising. Among the various kinds of freight carried on the railway were agricultural products, ores from local mines, and above all wood from the heavily forested mountain region. Wood remained the most important kind of goods on the railway right up until freight operations were discontinued on the Mariazell Railway. As early as 1909, standard-gauge goods wagons were being transported along the Mariazellerbahn on transporter wagons, insofar as the railway's narrow loading gauge would allow it. Between 1907 and 1911, Mariazellerbahn was electrified. At that time, the locomotive series E (now ÖBB 1099), still used now, were acquired. <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/thumb/2/24/NoeLB_E1_1911.jpg/800px-NoeLB_E1_1911.jpg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/thumb/2/24/NoeLB_E1_1911.jpg/800px-NoeLB_E1_1911.jpg" alt=" " border="0" /></a> <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/thumb/2/24/NoeLB_E1_1911.jpg/800px-NoeLB_E1_1911.jpg"></a>Between 1959 and 1961, these locos underwent modernization, which included a complete new loco body. <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Oebb1099_01.jpg/800px-Oebb1099_01.jpg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Oebb1099_01.jpg/800px-Oebb1099_01.jpg" alt=" " border="0" /></a> <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Mariazellerbahn_05.jpg/800px-Mariazellerbahn_05.jpg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Mariazellerbahn_05.jpg/800px-Mariazellerbahn_05.jpg" alt=" " border="0" /></a> Service on the mainline is today still mainly done using the now nearly 100-year-old series 1099 electric locomotives together with passenger coaches not much less old than the locomotives. The class 1099 can therefore claim to be the world's oldest electric locomotive still running on the line for which it was originally built. Since 1994, two newly developed electric multiple unit trains (ÖBB 4090) have come into service. For lighter runs diesel multiple unit trains (ÖBB 5090) are used, as well as on the Krumpe, where series 2095 diesel locomotives are also used. For nostalgic runs, the Mh.6 steam engine stationed in Ober-Grafendorf is brought in. This was a private initiative in the 1990s by several Mariazell Railway employees, who managed to fetch back the Mountain Line's original locomotive. The line´s future is secure - beginning in March this year, the entire line will be revamped and new rolling stock is on order at the Swiss Stadler company, looking like this: <a href="http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/ee398/bahnsinn/472125_m3w580h251q75s1v9019_440_0008_5000508_pie09pie_himmelstreppe_3sp.jpg"><img src="http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/ee398/bahnsinn/472125_m3w580h251q75s1v9019_440_0008_5000508_pie09pie_himmelstreppe_3sp.jpg" alt=" " border="0" /></a>
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