Full Steam over the Eastern Alps by Andy Davies – 19 March 2026

Unfortunately, our booked speaker had to pull out at very short notice due to work requirements.  Andy very kindly agreed to step in with a presentation he was working on as a tribute to our late committee member Tom Kolisch,  originally intended for our pre-Christmas meeting in December later this year.  This meant a hurried effort to complete the presentation in just a few extra hours.  It is a record of a Railway Touring Company (RTC) journey that Tom took in September 2016, based on his notes and a selection of his photographs.

The presentation began with the programme covers both from RTC and IGE (Internationale Gesellschaft für Eisenbahnverkehr) and was immediately followed by a map providing an outline of the route together with outline details of traction from the start and end point in Nürnberg.  Tom set off from Woking to reach St Pancras where he picked up Eurostar to Bruxelles Midi, Thalys from there to Köln, on to Frankfurt (Main) by ICE before taking another ICE to Nürnberg where he enjoyed an overnight stay.

The following morning saw the start of the tour proper with photographs showing the Barwagen and Speiseraum (restaurant) cars.  These photographs came as no surprise to those who knew of Tom’s interest in and fondness for fine wine and dining – one of his hobbies included working on the dining train on the Mid-Hants Railway aka the Watercress Line.  Day 1 followed the route from Nürnberg to Zurich via Ludwigsburn, Singen and Schaffhausen with traction provided by Class 1 number 519 build by Herchel in 1936 and currently owned by the Friends of the Zollernbahn eV and a second locomotive 141R number 1244 – a 2-8-2 built originally for SNCF but now based in Switzerland.  Sunday 11 September the tour continued from Zürich to Chiasso via Erstfeld and Bellinzona with another 01 Class loco, a Crossrail Class 430 112-3 and a Swiss badged 420 number 11663 both using the overhead wiring.  This last was used because of the requirement on an ETCS section on the old Goddard route which was part of the itinerary.  The next locomotive photograph was an Ae 4/7 number 10997, another interesting example of classic electric traction, being used on the ‘chase’ train running alongside of the main train to enable the taking of video footage.  A little more mountainous scenery and alpine style architecture provided the backdrop.

The tour moved on from Chiasso to Verona through Lecco, Bergamo and Brescia the next day starting with 2-6-0 Class 625 number 625.100 gently steaming in the station with a modern car transporter wagon in the background.  There were clearly plenty of opportunities to take photographs, as well as travel and enjoy the scenery.  Other photographs included an ALn 668 Railcar number 1114 and a Class D145 number 1006 diesel loco at Lecco as well as Class D145 number 1006 and Unit Le 562-037.  Judging by the photographs, there was much of railway interest to see at Lecco.  Rovato was another stop along the way with a splendid photograph of the old station façade with its name in large letters.  This was notable largely because it was not possible to precisely place the location for quite a few of the photographs, which is where help from the audience was welcomed and added to the presentation.

Tuesday took the tour onwards from Verona to Triest starting with 2-6-2 number 685.169 at Verona Porta Nuova showing part of the splendid platform canopy.  It was interesting to see the contrast between this locomotive and the Trenitalia Class 445 alongside at Cervignano-Aquileia-Garado en-route.  Wednesday’s itinerary departed from Triest to Ljubljana via Nova Gorica and Jesenice with a different class of locomotive as traction, this time 2-8-0 number 728.022.  Plenty of photo opportunities at Aurisina and again at Opicina with a Class D145 number 145.1034 built by Fiat, very handily identified by the nameboard on the platform!  Still at the same location, we saw Slovenia Railways Class 664, typical for the area.  Nova Gorica station has been beautifully restored showing a splendid large station building, attractive platform canopy and the low platforms associated with some areas of Eastern Europe plus an elderly and dusty 2-8-2 plinthed nearby and clearly not in working order – some parts were obviously missing.  A much graffitied pair of Trenitalia Class 345s added to the scene.  The next few photographs showed more of the alpine scenery and a colourfully graffitied Class 911 railcar!  Traction for the tour train moved on to a Slovakian Railways 2-10-0 number 33.037 with its remarkable tender and smartly liveried crew members.

The following day continued from Ljubljana to Graz initially hauled by 2-6-4 number 310.23 and Andy managed to find a photograph of a smiling Tom standing on the platform together with a young lady crew member in full uniform.  There is a railway museum at Ljubljana which is definitely worth a visit with some great exhibits from the small to the large, some with extraordinary chimneys depending on the fuel used to power the loco.  There is also a roundhouse with working turntable, in use on the day of the visit, and the interesting truck used to coal the tender for the onward journey.  From here on it became harder to identify locations in the photographs eg the brightly liveried fireless loco at an unnamed industrial site adjacent to the railway line, and another photo labelled for two different places.  Nevertheless, there were some excellent examples of a variety of well identified locomotives even if the locations could not be precisely identified as yet.

Friday took the tour group from Graz to Wien via Fehring, Friedberg and Wiener Neustadt with 52.1227 and 52.100 and their huge tenders at the front.  At Friedberg a smart looking Bo-Bo Class 2050 was added to the front of the train.  Seeing the local fire brigade waiting to provide water for the steam locos at Ebenfurth added both colour and interest.  Saturday’s itinerary continued from Wien to Linz via Gloggnitz, Selzthal and Kleinreifling with the first photograph of the day showing Class 109.13 coupling up to Class 310.23 at Wien Hbf.  At Gloggnitz the tour was welcomed by the local brass band in bright livery playing on the platform, not sure why.  There was a great selection of photographs in this section of the presentation but also quite a debate about the locations which was very useful.  Some of the scenes at Selzthal were easily identifiable thanks to signage with the name clearly visible!  Sunday was the final day of the tour completing the circular itinerary returning to Nürnberg via Attnang Puchheim and Passau, again mainly steam hauled starting with 657.2770 before changing later in the day to 4-6-2 number 001 180-9 at Passau.

On Monday 19 September 2016, Tom returned home taking the 0900hrs ICE to Frankfurt, ICE from Frankfurt to Köln Hbf, Thalys to Bruxelles Midi before catching a Eurostar service from Bruxelles Midi to St Pancras; then back to Woking on South West Trains.  Acknowledgements were made to Tom Kolisch for starting to assemble the presentation, RTC for the itinerary and IGE for the maps used, taken from their brochure.

Although the presentation was shorter than intended for a regular meeting, it produced excellent collaboration on missing information, and allowed for a longer refreshment time afterwards which led to some extended and interesting discussion amongst those present.  As a last minute replacement, it had some unexpected bonuses and our thanks go to Andy for stepping in at such short notice without being given the time to complete the presentation as he would have liked.  It turned out to be a really good evening.