For the opening of Austria's first steam-powered railway, the Kaiser-Ferdinands-Nordbahn ordered two two-axle steam locomotives from Stephenson in Newcastle. They were of a standard type offered at the time and had a rear driven axle with five foot wheels. After a voyage across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, they were unloaded in Trieste and transported across the Semmering by horse-drawn carriage. They were baptized with the names “Austria” and “Moravia”.
After all, “Austria” was the locomotive that undertook the first test run on the line between Floridsdorf and Deutsch-Wagram on November 13, 1837. It is therefore considered the first steam locomotive that ran in Austria. A memorial in Deutsch-Wagram has been commemorating this journey since 1987.
With their 20 hp, they were soon too weak for most tasks. As a result, they had to hand over more and more services to the three-axle locomotives ordered directly after them. Since the operation of two-axle locomotives in Austria was forbidden after a serious accident in France in 1842 and a conversion to three-axle locomotives was not possible, they were soon parked and scrapped.