The Strasshof Railway Museum, Vienna, September 2025

Known as 'Das Heizhaus' or 'Boiler House', it originated as a post WW2 infrastructure project, basically a 10 road shed with attached workshops, locomotive control office, 23m turntable, wooden water tower and water columns, coaling elevator and what seems like kilometre after kilometre of storage sidings. Sadly, it never achieved its potential as its concept was already outdated; the shed closed in 1978 and in 1984 it was designated as a railway museum. Since when, it has never had the funds to join the exclusive club of showpiece railways museums like those at York (UK), Mulhouse in France and Utrecht in the Netherlands and as such it has always been an attraction for the dedicated railway enthusiast rather than the general public. 

The website https://eisenbahnmuseum-heizhaus.com contains essential visitor in formation but is necessarily a monster too, the collection page seems to run forever listing over 30 steam locomotives together with innumerable diesel and electric locomotives, multiple units, coaches, freight wagons and auxiliary equipment etc, very few of which are illustrated here. Despite the size of the shed, necessarily much of the collection is stored in the open where some is quietly rusting away, apparently unloved. The museum is some 25km NE of Vienna and is easily accessed by the S1 suburban railway line although, counter intuitively, the nearest station is actually Silberwald, the one after Strasshof!

On operating days, the museum runs a short shuttle of about 1km from a platform towards the mainline connection. During his visit it was being operated by Kriegslok 52.100 as can be seen. Clive easily filled two hours here but recommends a longer visit especially as the optimum sun angles will be different for the various exhibits.

Details below are as supplied by Clive, much more information is available from the museum's own website linked above. Abbreviations used:

DR - Deutsche Reichsbahnen

kkStB - k.k. Staatsbahnen (Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways)

ÖBB - Österreichische Bundesbahnen

The builders

StEG - Lokomotivfabrik der Staatseisenbahngesellschaft, Wien

(Lokomotivfabrik) Floridsdorf

WN - Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik

	This the impressive 10 road shed with some 'modern' motive power stored in front.		Further such items are stored in an adjacent siding.
	The grass in front of the shed is kept trimmed but not all the stock is that lucky.		Several locomotives are assembled beside the turntable. From the left they are Fusch 106 0-6-0 Wiener Neustädter (652/1868), 55.708 0-8-0 Wiener Neustädter (3169/1887), 93.1403 2-8-2T StEG (4827/1928) and 156.3423 2-8-0 Floridsdorf. (2617/1920)
	Kriegslok 52.100 2-10-0 Krauss-Maffei, Munchen (16411/1943) ex DR and Yugoslavian State Railway. This is the shuttle train.		The same locomotive doing some shunting of stock.
	Most of the operational locomotives are stored Inside the shed. Shown are 97.208 0-6-2RT Floridsdorf (820/1892), 30.33 2-6-2T Wiener Neustädter (4027/1897), 197.301 0-12-0RT Floridsdorf (2090/1912) and 109.13 4-6-0 Wiener Neustädter (5080/1912).		This close up shows one of the rack locomotives from the famous 'Iron Mountain' at Vordenberg, 97.208 0-6-2RT Floridsdorf (820/1892)
	This is the second rack locomotive, OBB 197.301 0-12-0RT Floridsdorf (2090/1912)		OBB 30771.07, an operational steam railcar with a central enclosed cab from Floridsdorf, a 2-4-2T (3081/1935)
	Operational kkStB 30.33 2-6-2T Wiener Neustädter (4027/1897).		OBB 58.7444 2-10-0 Wiener Neustädter (5754/1923)
	The locomotive operated on Wien - Krakow expresses and the Orient Express. 310.23 2-6-4 StEG (3791/1911)		SB 109.13 4-6-0 Wiener Neustädter (5080/1912), designed for express passenger work between Graz and Innsbruck
	The oldest Wiener Neustädter locomotive in the collection,  KEB 106 0-6-0 Fusch (652/1868) built for the Empress Elisabeth Railway. It retired in 1958 and has since lost its tender.		54.014 2-6-0 Floridsdorf (4221/1899)
	BBÖ 12.02 Built as an 0-6-0T by Krauss-Linz (3822/1898) and converted to a 2-2-2T at Floridsdorf in 1935.		kkStB 97.73 0-6-0T StEG (2404/1894)
	OBB 15.13 2-6-2 Wiener Neustädter (4995/1910)		Ö.ZI 0-4-0T StEG (4692/1923) from Bruck an der Leitha sugar factory
	OBB 580.03 2-10-0 StEG (3826/1912}		OBB 2-10-0 33.102 StEG (4694/1923). It was fitted with a Giesel ejector in 1956
	OBB 2-10-0 42.2708 Floridsdorf (17591/1946), the first of the post-war express passenger and freight locomotives		Ex- DR and OBB 2-10-0 52.7594 Floridsdorf (16942/1944)
	Zuckerfabrik Durnkrut No.2 0-6-0T, a brewery shunting locomotive from Floridsdorf (3007/1930).		No.1 Lagerhaus der Stade Wien 0-4-0T StEG (3841/1912).
	Turntable line-up including snow blower Henschel (26692/1942) and 1665 0-6-0 StEG (2466/1895), ex-Hungarian State Railway 333.002 and retired in 1969.		kkStB 229.222 2-6-2T Wiener Neustädter (5444/1918), the locomotive worked in Czechoslovakia from 1925 until retirement.
	The 20m high wooden water tower was built in 1943 and supplied the depot's water cranes.		One of the two coaling facilities at Strasshof