Liliputbahn Prater

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Liliputbahn
Liliputbahn with steam locomotive Da2
Liliputbahn with steam locomotive Da2
Route length: 3.9 km
Gauge : 381 mm ( Liliputbahn )
Legend
BSicon STR + l.svgBSicon STRq.svgBSicon STR + r.svg
BSicon BHF (R) f.svgBSicon .svgBSicon BHF (L) g.svg
Prater main station
BSicon STRf.svgBSicon KDSTa.svgBSicon STRg.svg
Remise
BSicon KRWl.svgBSicon KRWg + lr.svgBSicon KRWr.svg
   
 Schweizerhaus-Luftburg
Station, station
 rotunda
BSicon BS2 + l.svgBSicon BS2 + r.svg
BSicon BHF (R) f.svgBSicon STRg.svg
Stadion
BSicon STRl.svgBSicon STRr.svg
Reverse loop

The Liliputbahn in Vienna's Prater is a 3.9 km long, narrow-gauge park railway on a circular route. The name of the small train refers to the Roman Lilliput (German: Gulliver's Travels ) by Jonathan Swift , in which tiny people ( "Lilliputians") on an island Liliput live.

General

Train in the loop by the ferris wheel, this is where the "tunnel" is now.

The Liliputbahn runs from mid-March to mid-October. As is common in the Prater, the daily operating times are handled flexibly. The first train usually leaves at 10 a.m. Before the school holidays, i.e. from the end of May to the end of June, drives start at 9 a.m., as many schools and kindergartens come to the Prater. The closing time depends on demand; Usually it closes at 5 p.m. in the cooler season and at 8 p.m. in midsummer.

On working days, one diesel locomotive usually runs every 30 minutes until 1 p.m., after that two diesel locomotives run every 15 minutes. On weekends and on public holidays, the whole day is driven at 15-minute intervals; one of the two steam locomotives is also used. Since heating up takes five hours, it only comes on the track from midday. If there is great demand, a third locomotive is used. A round trip costs € 4 (children € 2.50), a section € 2.20.

history

prehistory

Ernst-Happel-Stadion station

The first railroad in the Prater was the "Schaubahn", a 227.5 m long horse-drawn tram that was built in the autumn of 1824. The short railway line served the builder Franz Anton von Gerstner to find interested parties and financiers for a railway line from Linz to Budweis . In fact, the Schaubahn made the trading houses Geymüller  & Co., J. H. Stametz & Co. and Georg Simon von Sina interested in the project; In 1825 the construction of the Budweis-Linz horse-drawn railway began. The Schaubahn in the Prater was removed again.

In 1834 the optician Peter Wilhelm Friedrich von Voigtländer built a short stretch in the Prater, which, however, was not provided with rails, but was to be operated as a steam bus . The line acted as a trial run for a planned Vienna – Pressburg line . Voigtländer acquired the vehicle (“steam train cart”) for 600 pounds from Walter Hancock in England. From August 27, 1834, Voigtländer exhibited the road locomotive in the Prater, with an entrance fee of 24 Kreuzers to be paid. On October 26, 1834, Voigtländer then drove the vehicle in the Hauptallee in front of 15,000 spectators. The rail project was ultimately never implemented and the vehicle was sold to Russia.

Another forerunner of the Liliputbahn in the Prater was the so-called "Schnackerlbahn", which ran around 1890 from the Venediger Au , where the Circus Busch was located, to the south portal of the Wiener Messe with the rotunda . The reason for its establishment was the agriculture, forestry, industry and art exhibition . The success was so great that the builder, Josef Bierenz, had the operating permit extended three times. The track had a track width of 600 millimeters. The open railcar was equipped with a petroleum engine from Daimler ; it is now in the warehouse of the Technical Museum .

planning

The Prater entrepreneur Ludwig Pretscher visited the German Transport Exhibition in Munich in 1925 and was enthusiastic about the Liliputbahn. He wanted to build such an attraction in the Vienna Prater and quickly found approval and capital from numerous restaurateurs and showmen in the Prater. In the same year the civil engineer Franz Gaudernack developed a corresponding project. A 4.7 km long route was planned from the Ferris wheel to the Maria Grün church , which would have crossed almost the entire Prater parallel to the main avenue. The plans were quickly approved by the Federal Ministry of Trade and Transport as the highest railway authority; only the name of the terminus was not permitted, as the name of the stop Maria Grün already existed in Styria. The construction ultimately failed due to the municipality of Vienna, which did not want to cede the necessary land.

The 10th German Singers Association meeting was planned for July 1928 in the Prater on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Franz Schubert's death . In view of this crowd puller, Ludwig Pretscher and his "Working Committee for the Construction of a Small Railway in Vienna's Volksprater" applied for approval again, but this time in a shortened form: the route should only lead from the Ferris wheel to the south portal of the rotunda and was therefore entirely within the range of the Prater administration. A permit under railway law was not required, as the Ministry of Transport found that it was not a matter of public transport, but rather "amusement" in the Prater. So nothing stood in the way of construction from 1927 onwards. In contrast, the biological experimental station of the Academy of Sciences , the vivarium , caused unexpected problems ; It ran against the Sturm project, as the noise, the smoke and the vibrations of the ground were feared to interfere with the tests. As a result, the plans were changed and a large bend around the research institute was planned.

The Liliputbahn was built from 1927 by the Leipzig field railway company Brangsch (later: VEB Baumechanik Engelsdorf). The track systems, a boiler house, an administration building, a coach house with six tracks and ticket booths at the two stations were built in a very short time. There were three locomotives Martens'sche Einheitsliliputlok of Krauss & Co. , Munich , ordered, of which initially but only two were delivered. Six wagon sets of six wagons each were procured from Waggon- und Maschinenbau AG (WUMAG) in Görlitz . The budget for the construction of the entire railway system was 600,000 schillings (around 2.5 million euros in today's currency).

The initiator of the project, Ludwig Pretscher, died on March 28, 1928, four weeks before the opening. His successor was restaurateur Joe Lesti, owner of the Zum Eisvogel restaurant in the Prater.

The Liliputbahn 1928–1945

Rotunda station

The two locomotives "1" and "2" were delivered on April 23 and 25, 1928 by horse-drawn vehicles. Invited guests took the train for the first time on April 28, the official opening took place on May 1, 1928. At first, the Viennese stormed the new attraction, and the number of visitors was also high during the Vienna Autumn Fair in 1928, but the poor economic situation put pressure on business . As a result, the purchase of the third locomotive was canceled. In order to make the railway more attractive, the route was extended from 2.5 to 3.9 kilometers in 1933 to the Prater Stadium , which had been built two years earlier , but this did not significantly improve its economic success.

Economically, things only got better after the annexation of Austria to the German Reich , when a large number of Wehrmacht soldiers and Nazi functionaries also frequented the Liliputbahn when exploring the city. In 1942 a third, identical Martens' standard liliput locomotive was procured, which was parked on the factory premises of the Brangsch company in Leipzig without being used and could therefore be bought cheaply.

In the spring of 1945 the battle for Vienna broke out , in which the Wurstelprater was almost completely destroyed. Almost all buildings of the Liliputbahn burned down, only the Stadion station remained intact and still exists today. The three locomotives survived the fire; the wagons burned, but the chassis remained. The track system was badly damaged by countless bombs and grenade hits.

The Liliputbahn since 1945

Train with locomotive D4 towards the end of the season in October 2012

During the Nazi era , the seven owners of the Liliputbahn were ousted or Aryanized ; they were replaced by seven owners who had a clear connection to National Socialism. After the end of the war, these people went into hiding, so that the Liliputbahn was without a guide. It was therefore placed under public administration with a provisional manager.

Material for the reconstruction was initially not available. Therefore, all still usable rails and sleepers were collected and a new, short stretch between the Schweizerhaus and the rotunda was built. In 1946 the timpani factory in Vienna-Floridsdorf was able to make locomotives 1 and 3 operational again, and on April 30, 1947 the railway went back into operation. The crowd was enormous. In the 1947 summer season, 1,444 trains were operated and 132,000 passengers were carried. In the following year, locomotive 2 was also available again.

At that time, the Jewish textile merchant Jakob Passweg, who had survived the Nazi era in hiding as a “submarine”, was busy collecting debts. One of his debtors offered him his share of the Liliputbahn as payment, which Passweg accepted. In the following months he managed to track down the six other owners and buy their shares, so that in 1950 he became the sole owner of the Praterbahn. He partially withdrew from the textile trade and made the Liliputbahn his life's work.

In 1958 the first diesel locomotive was put into service. Later , a diesel locomotive was installed on the chassis of locomotive 3, which was bought in 1942 and whose steam boiler had become damaged. Finally, two more diesel locomotives expanded the fleet. Jakob Passweg died in 1980. The business was now run by his wife Lola Passweg, who later passed them on to her daughter Susanna Kleindienst-Passweg; today their daughter Anna Kleindienst is the owner.

In 2011, the Schweizerhaus-Luftburg stop was built, which opens up the surrounding restaurants. The station is only observed in the direction of travel to the stadium. The opposite track has a gradient of 14 ‰, which could lead to problems when starting. Also in 2011, an 18-meter-long tunnel was built shortly before the main train station, a steel construction with rock imitation. It runs under a waterway - also operated by the Liliputbahn - and prevents the passengers from being splashed by the water. For the next few years it is planned to double-track the main train station with a central platform and to build a visitor center to the north of it.

Prominent passengers

Passengers in the Liliputbahn

Prominent passengers on the Liliputbahn were mainly Austrian politicians:

technology

The ultra-narrow gauge

Switch in front of the coach house

The very narrow gauge of 15 inches (381 mm) was propagated in England by Arthur Percival Heywood for local and industrial railways. The engineer Henry Greenly then built miniature trains of this kind. As a result, numerous wealthy Englishmen installed 15-inch railway systems on their property for their pleasure.

In Germany, 15-inch tracks were used as an attraction at exhibitions. The company Krauss & Co in Munich developed the standard Liliput locomotive based on the English model , 15 of which were built. The very shapely locomotives correspond to a Pacific express locomotive on a scale of 1: 3.

The rails laid in 1928 are a modified version of the S10 profile, but were no longer used in this form at that time. It is believed that the Brangsch company still had remnants of field railway tracks from the First World War and that they were installed in Vienna. These original rails can still be found today in the Schweizerhaus – Rotunda section, the rails on the rest of the route are more recent.

Used grooved rails of the Viennese tram were installed at street crossings. These have a much larger cross-section than the other rails of the Liliputbahn; but since they are set in concrete in the street, this is not visible.

route

The track length is 3.9 kilometers, the track gauge used is 381 mm (15 inches ). The route runs in a circular course that is driven counter-clockwise. Most of it runs within sight of the main avenue and the tracks in both directions of travel are double-tracked over a considerable distance. The train has four stations:

  • Prater Hauptbahnhof (near the planetarium )
  • Schweizerhaus-Luftburg (only in the direction of the stadium)
  • Rotunda (at Kaiserallee)
  • Stadium (then turnaround loop)

This distance is covered in about 20 minutes. The narrowest curve radius of the route is 20 meters, the greatest gradient - on an approximately 100 meter long section - 14 ‰.

  • Central Station

  • Station Schweizerhaus-Luftburg

  • Rotunda station

  • Station stadium

buildings

The Liliputbahn has a three-track boiler house . It was built in 1947 as a temporary solution from war rubble, which can be seen from the rough-looking wooden gates and the various windows. Nonetheless, it is still in use today.

The car depot was also built after the war, but was replaced by a new building in 1992. It is 42.5 m long, 12.5 m wide and has eight tracks. The roof of the concrete-brick composite structure is greened throughout. The building also serves as a garage for the railless Prater trains operated by the same company.

The Liliputbahn originally had no, later only a very modest workshop. It was not until 1960 that a comfortable workshop was added to the boiler house. The middle heating house track was extended so that vehicles can be moved into the workshop through a wall opening. In the immediate vicinity is the company's "main workshop", where the other rides are mainly serviced. Here, too, you can work on the vehicles of the Liliputbahn. The administration is also located in this building.

The stadium station building is the original from 1933, the Hauptbahnhof station was rebuilt according to the original after the war; the Rotunda station as well, but it has recently been replaced by a new building. The coal bunker of the Liliputbahn is located directly at the main train station. The water tank originally located above was not rebuilt; the steam locomotives now run on tap water that is decalcified using an ion exchanger .

  • Coal bunker

  • Heizhaus (left) and Remise

  • In the coach house

  • In the workshop

vehicles

Steam locomotives Da1 (green until the end of 2015, black since 2016) and Da2 (black)

The two identical steam locomotives Da1 (company number 8441) and Da2 (company number 8442) come from Krauss & Co in Munich and were developed by the engineer Roland Martens. The wheel sequence is 2'C1 '. They are 7.42 m long over the buffers (including the tender ), their service weight is 7,200 kilograms, that of the tender 2,000 kilograms. The boiler holds around 500 liters of water and allows a maximum operating pressure of 13 bar.

The tender holds 250 kilograms of coal and 750 liters of water. Around 150 liters of water and 15 kilograms of coal are used per lap. With an output of 22 kilowatts, the locomotives reach a speed of around 30 kilometers per hour.

The steam locomotives are mainly used on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Since it takes about five hours to heat up the locomotives, they are only ready for use around noon. Dry wood is used for heating, and coal is used for heating during operation.

The Da3 locomotive was converted into a diesel locomotive; The steam boiler, which was no longer needed, was installed in the Da2 locomotive in 1965. In 1969 the two locomotives were completely refurbished at the SGP company on Leberstrasse. In 1983 Da2 received a completely new boiler. In 1991 Da1 also got a new boiler; the removed old boiler from 1928 is now erected as a memorial on a meadow in front of the main train station.

In 1975 an offer from England to buy the two steam locomotives for two million Austrian Schillings was rejected.

  • Steam locomotive Da1

  • Da1 is a guest at the 2017 model building fair, now in black

  • Steam locomotive Da2

  • Driver's cab of the Da2 locomotive

  • Old Da1 boiler next to the D4 locomotive

Diesel locomotive D1 (blue)

Engine of the D1 locomotive
Driver's cab of the D1 locomotive
The switch for vegetable oil

Steam locomotives were increasingly perceived as old-fashioned in the post-war period, and they are also very expensive to operate. As a result, diesel locomotives were procured from 1957. The D1 diesel locomotive was built in 1957 by Gebus in a workshop at the Nordbahnhof, not far from the Prater. Externally, the locomotive is based on the German V 80 diesel locomotive . The very robust WD 213 tractor engine from Steyr serves as the drive ; it has an output of 22 kW (30 hp) at a top speed of 22 km / h. The power is transmitted mechanically via chains and a gearbox. The entire drive train, including the driver's seat, is mounted on the front bogie in order to increase the weight on the very large drive wheels, which leads to an enormous pulling power of the machine, so that it can easily pull ten car trains. For the driver, this design means a certain amount of driving fun, he moves opposite the car body while driving, but he has to cope with extreme heat, especially in the summer months, as there is no structural separation between the driver's cab and the engine room. Moisture and wetness hardly cause problems for the locomotive in autumn either, in rainy weather it is unpopular due to its open driver's cab and the lack of windshield wipers, and it has been possible to close the roof for some time now, but hardly provides a remedy due to the massive increase in noise associated with it. The length of the locomotive is 5,300 mm and the service weight is 3,600 kg. In the years 2012–2013 the vehicle was in the workshop because of an urgently needed, extremely thorough main repair and has been in operation since then mostly reliably with a suitably painted set.

Diesel locomotive D2 (red-ivory)

The D2 diesel locomotive was created in 1962 by converting the Da3 steam locomotive. The steam boiler was removed and later built into the Da2. Instead of the boiler, the same engine and gearbox were installed as in the D1 diesel locomotive. The body looked futuristic and resembled a bus; it was destroyed by a collision with a car after just one year. In 1964, the Schreiner & Sons company built the body that still exists today. In the mid-1970s, the machine was transferred to the Donaupark in exchange with the D4 and served there for a number of years, as it is very powerful due to its axis arrangement, the large drive wheels and the rod drive and is therefore very well suited for the incline there. The length of the locomotive is now 4,250 mm, the service weight 4,500 kg. The steam locomotive chassis is very maintenance-intensive in day-to-day operation, all slide bearing points must be lubricated before the start of operation, and the ride comfort in this vehicle is modest due to the historical leaf springs and the relatively high seating position compared to other locomotives, although the latter allows a very good view of the route. In winter 2017 the locomotive was subjected to a thorough general inspection. The drive rod bearings were replaced by maintenance-free plastic bearings, the body was painted in the original design from 1964 after thorough refurbishment with the help of old photographs, the driver's cab refurbished in the style of the sixties and the engine overhauled. The power is transmitted via a chain to an intermediate shaft and from there via another chain to the rear drive axle. This idiosyncratic drive had some design defects that led to a very high noise level in the driver's cab. By installing plastic sliding elements, considerable improvements could also be achieved here. Since then, the locomotive has been used more often again, especially when there is a large number of visitors, in operation or with the saloon car.

Diesel locomotive D3 (pink)

For the Vienna International Garden Show in 1964, the Liliputbahn-Gesellschaft built the Donauparkbahn , for which four diesel locomotives were built from 1963 to 1964 . The fourth locomotive had massive problems overcoming the incline and therefore came to the Prater in 1964 as the D3. The locomotive comes from the Viennese company Rudolf Bauer. The company specialized in the repair of stationary diesel engines, had no railway experience, but was unrivaled cheap. The technical design of the machine is therefore quite poor and the handling takes some getting used to. The short incline at the Schweizerhaus does not cause the locomotive any problems in dry weather, but if the weather is damp, this requires great sensitivity on the part of the driver. In autumn with leaves and permanent moisture, just starting off on a flat stretch can be a challenge. The six-axle vehicle (wheel arrangement 2 'B ​​2') is very long at 5,300 mm and extremely heavy at 6,700 kg. The six wheels on each side are unusually small at 300 mm. The engine and gearbox correspond to the D1 and D2 locomotives, the body comes from Schreiner & Söhne. The machine is very popular with train drivers because of its high level of seating comfort. In 2007 the red and blue vehicle was painted with Manner advertising paint on a pink background. It received a general inspection in the winter of 2008, and since then it has been observed daily in passenger operations. Due to its extremely poor technical design, it will be replaced by more modern equipment in the foreseeable future.

Diesel locomotive D4 (yellow)

After the Rudolf Bauer company delivered a vehicle completely unusable for the Danube Park when the fourth locomotive was delivered, the Tobisch company in Favoriten was commissioned in 1967 to develop and build a completely different type of locomotive. The locomotive was given a conventional four-axle chassis and a 35 kW air-cooled 4-cylinder engine from Deutz with direct injection. The power transmission was done hydraulically, which enabled stepless and very comfortable driving. The two inner axles were driven by worm gears, the two outer axles were driven by very characteristic coupling rods. Braking was also done hydraulically. The body was partly made from molded GRP parts.

When it was delivered, this locomotive, known as the D5 in the Danube Park, had problems negotiating the incline, so it had to be improved. As a result, the rear bogie broke due to overuse and had to be redesigned. The locomotive has been running reliably in the Danube Park since then, until it was transferred to the Prater in 1974 and from then on used as the D4 with the train called "Eisengarnitur". There, during the maintenance of the hydrostatic drive, there were problems that could not be further explored, so around 1980 a manual transmission for a truck was installed in the Liliput railway tradition. This measure overstrained the worm gears of the axle drives, which led to a high level of maintenance. So it was decided at the beginning of the nineties to shut down the machine in a partially dismantled state as unsuitable. Between 2008 and 2010 the drive, the bogies and the electrical equipment were rebuilt by the in-house workshop. The power is now transmitted to the two inner axles via a fluid coupling, reversing gear and cardan shafts; the characteristic coupling rod drive has been retained. In terms of driving comfort, the locomotive overshadows everything that has been seen so far: it is controlled by means of a lever drive switch, the direction of travel is switched via a hand crank, braking is carried out via a driver's brake valve with compressed air-operated disc brakes. The machine also has a safety driving circuit which monitors the driver's fitness. Despite the lack of a sand system, wetness and leaves are not a problem. Forward and reverse travel are again possible, as with the original construction. Therefore, the locomotive is often used in heavy shunting and for construction trains. Many of the components used are prototypical; they can be seen as preparation for a new, electrically powered generation of locomotives. In the summer of 2017, the bright yellow painted traction vehicle got new springs to further optimize driving comfort. With the partial new construction of the locomotive, the workshop has prepared itself to possibly build new locomotives independently in the future.

  • Diesel locomotive D1

  • Diesel locomotive D2

  • Diesel locomotive D3 with train in "Manner" advertising paint

  • Diesel locomotive D4

dare

The wagons of the Liliputbahn were built in 1928 by Waggon- und Maschinenbau Aktiengesellschaft Görlitz (WUMAG) in Görlitz . Each train set consists of six cars that are permanently connected to one another by Jakobs bogies ; There are conventional bogies at both ends of the train. Six sets were procured.

The superstructures of the vehicles were originally very simple; they consisted of about one meter high wooden planks and wooden benches and had no roof. If necessary, poles could be used on which a canvas roof was stretched. Each car consisted of four compartments with four seats each; with 16 passengers per car, a complete train could transport 96 people.

In the spring of 1945 the wooden superstructures burned down; in the following years four of the sets were restored. The reconstruction did not follow the original, rather the wagons received better superstructures, which are still open on the sides, but are now covered. Due to the weather, the structures have a lifespan of 20 to 30 years and have already been renewed several times. The Liliputbahn has its own joinery for this purpose. In the post-war period, experiments were carried out with row seating. This brought 18 instead of 16 seats per car, but it was so uncomfortable that the original arrangement with compartments was restored. In the 1970s, the superstructures of one set of cars were made from sheet steel. As in earlier times, this "iron set" is used with the very powerful D4 diesel locomotive and can be recognized by its green paintwork. The disadvantage is that the train is very heavy and relatively loud.

Today's wagons are much better than the original; they drive quieter and produce less squeaking noises, as the bogies have been revised and significantly modernized in recent years. Each set now has three multi-purpose compartments for taking wheelchairs and strollers with you. There are three sets with wooden superstructures in red with Almdudler advertising, in pink as “Manner advertising” and in white / blue with the advertising lettering “blitz blank”. The “Eisengarnitur” is kept in green and carries advertising for the “Wiener Bezirkszeitung”, the latter has only 89 seats, while the “wooden trains” hold 91 people plus conductors.

From 2007 to 2012 there was also a carriage known as the “dining car” in the male train. He owned corner benches and small tables, but was not managed. In 2013, the car was replaced by an ordinary seating car, as it was rather a hindrance on busy days. After extensive renovation work, including equipping it with newly designed, particularly smooth-running bogies and a sound system, the wagon was converted into an independent four-axle "saloon car". Since spring 2015, this car, henceforth designated with the number 101, can be rented for special occasions. For optical and technical reasons, it is particularly popular with the red D2 diesel locomotive.

  • Wagons in the Rotunda station

  • Waggon, detail

  • The 101 saloon car since 2015

  • Badge of the wagon manufacturer

Auxiliary vehicles

The Liliputbahn has a number of auxiliary vehicles that are used to transport loads and are mostly pushed or pulled by hand. Originally there was a petrol trolley from 1960 that had a 22 hp two-cylinder engine and could be used for shunting tasks. The vehicle had no name or number and was called “Gigerl” by the staff, an Austrian dialect expression for a little horse. The vehicle was parked in the mid-1990s after an engine failure.

Since then, only small, partly hand-operated vehicles have existed: the auxiliary train car X 100 as a tool transporter, the ballast car X 99, the transport car X 98, the platform cars X 97 and X 96 and the water car X 95. A new trolley (X 92) was installed in the Own workshop completely rebuilt in 2014. It is powered by a two-cylinder diesel engine and the drive technology of an Aixam and is named "Gigerl II". The vehicle can drive forwards and backwards equally and is used for light shuttles and construction sites.

  • New X92 trolley with X95 water truck

Signal and security technology

The bell (left)

There are no crossings or switches along the route; the trains run on sight. So there is no safety technology required. From the beginning there were some signals next to the tracks, but these were functionless dummies and only served as decoration.

This changed in 1941 with the commissioning of the third locomotive. Now it could happen that a train arrived at the main station while another was still at the station. As a solution, a bell system was installed immediately to the left of the coal bunker , which was controlled via track contacts. When the signal sounded, the train driver standing at the station was instructed to drive off as quickly as possible to clear the track. The "Mantelbuden-Läutewerk" with two bells was bought second-hand. It was built around 1870 by the Viennese company Leopolder . As if by a miracle, the bell survived the Second World War and is therefore the oldest object on the Liliputbahn. The device was subsequently restored and modernized several times and is now fully functional. It is the only bell in Austria that is still in operational use.

In the past few years two functional light signals have been set up at the main station. Although they are not absolutely necessary for operational purposes, they give the Liliputbahn a more professional look.

business

The Liliputbahn does not have a license as a railway company and does not need one. It is licensed as a Prater ride . The company operates as "Liliputbahn im Prater GesmbH"; The sole shareholder is Anna Kleindienst, a granddaughter of Jakob Passweg. Philipp Fabschütz has been the managing director since July 1, 2019. In addition to the Liliputbahn, the company also operates the Donauparkbahn and other rides in the Prater, such as the “ Super 8er Bahn ”, “Dizzy-Mouse”, “Aquagaudi”, “Sturmboot”, “Laser-Spy” and the rail-less “Praterzug”.

Most of the employees are seasonal. In winter only the workshop operation is maintained, in the summer season the number of employees is around 15.

Oddities

Da1 with the anniversary train “85 years of Liliputbahn” on May 1st, 2013.
The Hydro-Lilly hydrogen locomotive at the Vienna model building fair 2018

The Liliputbahn acted as a “troublemaker” towards the artists performing in the Leicht variety theater (which burned down in 1945). Since the tracks led directly past the Leicht-Varieté, the driving noises and the whistling of the locomotives drowned out the speakers. They then had to delay the punch lines of their jokes so that they were not lost in the noise.

Because a non-publicized statement came in late summer 1965, a pedestrian and a train driver of Liliputbahn in dispute, where the passer threatened the rail members, such as in the process Lilliputians or Liliputler called and expressed a hostile attitude. The case went up before the Supreme Court , which stated in its judgment that the miniature railway is legally a railway and therefore its staff protection than magisterial people enjoy, regardless of wearing a service uniform .

Since March 2009, scouts have been organizing the world's craziest handcar race every year . Up to 16 teams of two, with a minimum age of 8, pilot self-built hand - lever trolleys on the 381 mm track in a carnival parade .

The busiest day on the Liliputbahn is May 1st. The Labor Day was celebrated in Vienna from 1890, beginning with a rally in the Prater. The main street of the Wurstelprater, Straße des 1. Mai , commemorates this. The date has a further meaning for the Liliputbahn, since it is its birthday - it was opened on May 1st, 1928. If the weather is nice, the rush is enormous. Usually four trains are used and both steam engines are running. The yellow D4 locomotive does not normally run on this day, but serves as a tactical reserve: While the other locomotives only have a slow reverse gear, the D4 can run equally fast in both directions. She is therefore on standby to quickly pull a defective train off the track if necessary.

Since the D3 diesel locomotive has had a so-called "hanging" (locomotive is not parallel to the track axis) since its main inspection in 2008 for an unknown reason, a device in the form of a "feed rail" had to be installed in the entrance area of ​​the main station to straighten the locomotive to avoid damage and Avoid generating noise through contact between the platform edge and the locomotive chassis.

In April 2018, a vehicle on the Liliputbahn was temporarily fitted with a hydrogen fuel cell hybrid drive in order to serve as a demonstration object for the Transport Research Arena on the subject after a hybrid locomotive from Great Britain was unexpectedly unavailable.

In the summer of 2018, the orange D2 diesel locomotive of the Donauparkbahn, called the "roller locomotive", was temporarily transferred to the Prater because of its rear drive wheels, which were designed as rollers without a flange, and used for the anniversary celebrations where the machine was already in operation for a short time in 1963 for testing purposes .

Accidents

On May 24, 1954, there was a sensational accident when the Liliputbahn running in the direction of Praterstern rammed a historic Fiaker team ( Landauer ) pulled by four Schimmeln , which crossed the tracks despite warning signals at the level crossing leading to Waldsteingartenstrasse ( ). The occupants of the carriage were injured as well as several visitors to the nearest inn, who were trampled down by the shy horses in the guest garden. At the trial in early December 1955, the train driver was acquitted of all guilt, but the 71-year-old cab driver was sentenced to three months' conditional arrest for an offense against the safety of life . World icon

On June 26, 2020, a minibus, manned only with the driver, driving backwards at an open level crossing, secured with stop signs and double St. Andrew's crosses , rammed the yellow diesel locomotive of a train that was probably only occupied by one passenger due to heavy rain and hail . The locomotive derailed, came to a stop at an incline of about 40 ° and was only slightly damaged, the bus considerably.

literature

  • Ronald Durstmüller: A round for pleasure. History, technology and operation of the Viennese Liliputbahn. Liliputbahn im Prater Ges.mbH self-published, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-200-03216-3
  • Martin Fuchs, Marcello La Speranza, Karl Pischl: Liliputbahn in the Viennese Pater - a railway is celebrating its 70s . Self-published by Martin Fuchs, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-9501257-0-1 .
  • Alfred Niel: Viennese Railway Pleasure . Jugend und Volk, Vienna / Munich 1982, ISBN 3-224-16012-8 .
  • Johann Stockklausner: Liliputbahn Wien-Prater . Railway collective booklet, Volume 6, ZDB -ID 47388-1 . Slezak, Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-900134-42-1 .
  • Walter Strauss: Liliputbahnen. An overview of miniature trains transporting people with an appendix on man-made ship models. With 44 tables . Kichler, Darmstadt 1938.

DVD

  • Erich Reisenberger: Steaming through Austria: The Liliputbahn - Through the Vienna Prater . Gladbeck 2003.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfred Horn: 175 years of railways in Austria in: Eisenbahnverkehr aktuell . No. 5/2012, ZDB ID 568412-2 . Minirex Verlag, Luzern 2012, p. 232.
  2. ↑ The first steam wagons and their acceptance (PDF; 3.8 MB). In: Jutta Czabaun: The reactions of the population to the early automobilism in Austria . Thesis. University of Vienna, Vienna 2008, p. 24 f., Accessed on June 14, 2012.
  3. ^ W. Hancock: Report on the performances and journeys of the two steam cars Autopsy and Era. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 55, 1835, pp. 16-22.
  4. ↑ a b c Fuchs: Liliputbahn in the Viennese Pater - a railway celebrates its 70s .
  5. ↑ a b Niel: Wiener Eisenbahnvergnügen , p. 73.
  6. ^ Niel: Wiener Eisenbahnvergnügen , p. 75.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g Ronald Durstmüller: A round for pleasure. History, technology and operation of the Viennese Liliputbahn. Liliputbahn im Prater Ges.mbH self-published, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-200-03216-3
  8. ↑ With full steam through the Prater. In:  Neuigkeits -Welt-Blatt , No. 103/1928 (LV. Volume), May 3, 1928, p. 17. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nwb.
  9. ↑ a b Niel: Wiener Eisenbahnvergnügen , p. 80.
  10. ↑ Railway Atlas , p. 109.
  11. ↑ Technical data of the Liliputbahn ( Memento from May 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).
  12. ↑ a b Reisenberger: Steaming through Austria: The Liliputbahn - The Vienna Prater . (DVD).
  13. ↑ Technical data of the Liliputbahn ( Memento from May 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ↑ Weblink: https://www.flickr.com/photos/opa_jimmy/6951926409/in/album-72157629435748090/
  15. ↑ Even in order not to have two million . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna August 5, 1975, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  16. ↑ Weblink: http://www.liliputbahn.com/liliput_te.htm
  17. ^ Aquagaudi website , accessed March 12, 2014.
  18. ↑ Liliputbahn website , accessed on August 2, 2009.
  19. ^ Niel: Wiener Eisenbahnvergnügen , p. 78.
  20. ↑ Liliputbahn staff is "authority". Dispute with train driver in front of the Supreme Court. The Praterbahn is legally considered a railway . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna June 14, 1966, p. 5 , Mitte ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized). Niel: Wiener Eisenbahnvergnügen , p. 81.
  21. ↑ http://www.draisinenrennen.at/ The craziest draisine race in the world, event website, Viennese scouts and girl scouts, scout group 13 "Erdberg", accessed on February 23, 2014
  22. ^ WZ Online, APA: Liliputbahn tests hydrogen locomotive . In: Out and about - on foot - by bike - car - public transport - Wiener Zeitung Online . ( wienerzeitung.at [accessed on April 21, 2018]).
  23. ↑ Shy Fiaker horses in the inn garden. Bad incident at the Fiaker driveway in the Prater . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna May 25, 1954, p. 3 , Mitte ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  24. ↑ In court. Fiaker against Liliputbahn . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 3, 1955, p. 4 , Mitte ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  25. ^ New Austria of December 3, 1955, p. 4.
  26. ↑ Liliputbahn derailed after an accident orf.at, June 27, 2020, accessed June 27, 2020.
  27. ↑ Crash in the Vienna Prater! Liliputbahn dergleist heute.at, June 27, 2020, accessed June 27, 2020. - Series of images.

Web links

Commons : Liliputbahn Prater  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 36.2 "  N , 16 ° 24 ′ 23.6"  E