In the mid-1920s, the Austrian Federal Railways had powerful electric locomotives with the “Arlberg Crocodile” class 1100 for mountain use and with the class 1029 passenger electric locomotives for the lowlands, but there was no suitable locomotive for heavier trains on the valley routes in Tyrol and Vorarlberg available. The new locomotive should be in the same power class as the 1100, but be faster.

Since both the traditional rod drive and the nose-suspended motor were not suitable for higher speeds, another form of transmission had to be found. Siemens-Schuckert in Vienna therefore developed a new type of vertical drive, which became the first single-axle drive for electric locomotives in Austria. The drive consisted of vertical shafts, each of which drove an axle directly via a conical gear wheel. This made it possible to accommodate powered and carrying axles in a common bogie at the same time.

The locomotives had a bogie at each end, which had a carrying axle on the outside and a powered axle on the inside. Two more powered axles were mounted in the middle under the locomotive body. With this chassis, the locomotives had sufficient adhesive weight and good ability to negotiate curves, but the transmissions required constant monitoring of the lubrication and thus made a second crew member necessary.

1570.01 in the Strasshof museum

Mö1997

Thus, the locomotives proved themselves in service, but the power was not sufficient. Therefore, production was stopped after only four examples and the class 1670 was developed as a replacement. The class 1570 locomotives came to the Reichsbahn after the annexation of Austria by Germany and were listed as E 22. They got their original number again in 1953 and were used by ÖBB until 1978. Today only the 1570.01 is preserved in a museum and is located in Strasshof.

The four examples built in 1925 from the class 1570 were considered relatively successful from a design point of view, but the power was not sufficient for the assigned applications. In order to increase power, it was decided to replace the four individual traction motors with four double motors, thus creating the power 1670. The additional weight in the electrical system was compensated for by the mechanical equipment being designed to achieve the maximum possible lightweight construction. A series of 29 locomotives was ordered, which were initially manufactured by Krauss in Linz. When Krauss closed the factory in Linz after 24 units, the rest were built in Floridsdorf. The locomotives were stationed in Innsbruck and used from there along the valleys.

Due to the exaggerated lightweight construction, damage frequently occurred, which led to the shutdown of all locomotives. Now all the necessary points on the design have been reinforced, which increased the weight by around ten tonnes and reduced failures. In 1932, five more locomotives were ordered, which were built more sturdily from the factory and were designated as class 1670.1. In the period that followed, there was still damage to the drives, which mainly occurred when the locomotives were being towed. However, it was possible to rework the drives in such a way that the second man to monitor the lubrication could be omitted and less damage occurred in the future. The two series became E 22¹ and E 22² during the German occupation and they got their old numbers back in 1953. They were used until 1983 and today two examples of the 1670 and one example of the 1670.1 have been preserved. These are the locomotives numbered 09, 25 and 140 and all of them are still running.

Around 1960, as electrification progressed, the ÖBB required sufficiently powerful electric locomotives, especially for the southern railway. An hourly output of 3,500 kW at a top speed of 130 km/h were specified. Since there were bad experiences with the running characteristics of six-axle locomotives on winding mountain routes such as the Semmeringbahn, these requirements had to be met by a four-axle locomotive.

The electrics of the locomotives were produced by ELIN, BBC and Siemens, while the mechanical part came from Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf. The latter later merged into SGP Graz. The running gear, the frame and the roof structures were taken over from the class 1046. The power was transmitted via a modified Siemens rubber ring spring drive. The dynamic brake was designed as a new type of combined regenerative and resistance brake. 

The traction motors used in the 1042.0 initially caused problems, so new ones with an hourly output of 1,000 kW each were developed. These allowed 150 km/h and were used from the 61st locomotive built. The dynamic brake, which was now controlled by a thyristor, also had to be strengthened. This new variant was designated as class 1042.5 and was built until 1977.

1142.621 in July 2014 in Gmunden

Simon Legner

From the mid-1990s, the fronts were redesigned as part of a repair, which was particularly evident in the lamps. 174 of the 177 newer units received push-pull train controls by 2001 and thus became the class 1142.

The 1142 was not only used in push-pull operation with CityShuttle and double-decker cars, but also in front of freight trains. Freight trains were also pulled double-headed and the 1142 was also used as pilot on the Semmering Railway. With increasing use of the Taurus, the 1142 were rarely needed in front of freight trains and some were retired. The unconverted 1042s were already retired in large numbers from 2002.

While the last 1042s were sold to Widmer Rail Services in Switzerland by 2012, the 1142 was increasingly needed again from 2013 because the class 1116 Taurus were used on new connections to Eastern Europe. Even after 2020, the 1142 is still being used in push-pull traffic, but will increasingly be replaced by CityJet sets. Their use is planned until 2028.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, ÖBB found new routes to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where the network is electrified at 25,000 volts and 50 Hertz. The class 1014 was built as a multi-system locomotive for light express trains on these routes, which took over a lot of the electrical part from the two prototypes of the class 1146 and looked like the 1822. Two locomotives of a lighter variant, which were designed for running through curves at high speeds, were designated as the class 1114 and later rebuilt as the 1014. The 1014 was only used in scheduled service until 2009 and was transferred to Romania in 2016. Zeller Transporttechnik (ZTT) bought 16 of the locomotives in 2018 and brought them back to Austria. After ZTT's bankruptcy, four were sold to Tanzania.