Product Features and Details
Model: The Liliput L131962 is a very interesting locomotive. With it large smoke stack and unusual design the class 671 is truly unique.
Model Features:
- all metal body, chassis, rods & wheels
- 5-pole skew-wound motor with flywheel
- traction tires
- close locomotive & tender coupling
- digital interface for plug-in 21-pin decoder
- prepared for loud speaker
- NEM 362 coupler pocket
- LED headlights alternating with direction of travel
- prepared for smoke generator
Prototype: From 1860 onwards the “k.k. private Southern State Railway Company” received more than 200 3-axle goods locomotives from the locomotive factory StEG and gave them the class designation 29. Among the first locomotives delivered in 1860 was loco 671, which has been in service with the Graz-Köflacher-Bahn (GKB ) since 1925 and is still in running condition today. It is considered the oldest operating steam locomotive in the world, which – apart from maintenance work – has been in uninterrupted service. The “671” has protected status and is only deployed these days as part of special trains. Over the course of its 151 year service history it changed to the BBÖ under the class designation 49. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Austrian locomotives were incorporated in the German locomotive numbering system. The old Austrian 49 class engines were renumbered as the 53.71 class. The 53 class included all 0-6-0 engines with a tender inherited by the Reichsbahn (DRG) from the former state railroads after WWI. Most of these engines were from the 19th century, and many were retired in the late 20’s and early 30’s. With a top speed of around 30 mph, they served out their years on branch lines or as switch engines. After the war the Austrian railroad retired the last of these locomotives only in 1953.
Modellers Tip: The modeler can use this locomotive with almost any light train consisting of cars labeled for Era II. With some modeling license, this locomotive can also be used in the early Era III since the Austrian State Railroad did not renumber locomotives until the mid 50’s. It is hard to recommend any passenger cars for this locomotive since there are no models of Austrian cars of the appropriate era available from Liliput. The modeler might have to look at some Bavarian branch line cars from Fleischmann or Roco. While not a perfect match, some might have been used in Austria after 1938. Liliput used to have a set of Austrian branch line cars, and these would fit very well. Freight trains should also be short. However, one of these locomotives has survived as a working museum exhibit. Thus, anyone modeling from the 1950’s onward can use this locomotive.
