Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf
Encyclopedia
Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf was an Austrian locomotive works founded on 6 September 1869 that achieved a pre-eminent place amongst European locomotive builders thanks to the quality and diversity of its designs.
Common abbreviations for the company include Flor, WLF (Wiener Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf) and LOFAG (Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf AG).
Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf was the third factory of its type to emerge in Austria following the Lokomotivfabrik der Staatseisenbahngesellschaft (StEG, Vienna
) and that of Georg Sigl, the Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik
, both based in Vienna
.
near Vienna
between the North railway and the Northwest railway
. The generously scaled factory site was erected in 1870/71 by Bernhard Demmer – previously technical director with the StEG. In addition to the buildings needed for production and management, seven workers blocks were built with 117 flats.
Even whilst the factory was being built the company's management were busy looking for business and so, as early as 10 June 1871, the first locomotive
, the HUMBOLDT was handed over to its owners, the ÖNWB.
In 1881 the first rack locomotive
was designed and built. Its customer was the industrial railway of a Hungarian
steelworks. This engine was designed as a narrow gauge
locomotive (790 mm rail gauge
). Because they were the only licence holders for the Abt
rack system in the Danube monarchy, orders for locomotives for the Erzbergbahn and the Bosnia-Hercegovina State Railways (760mm gauge) went to Floridsdorf.
After the military ('Railway Bureau of the General Staff' or Eisenbahnbureau des Generalstabs) had given the go ahead for the electrification of railway lines, the first electric locomotives were built in 1911 for normal rail services.
Like the overall economic situation, orders for locomotives ebbed and flowed. For example, after the crash of the Vienna stock market in 1873 only seven locomotives were sold. The numbers of employees rose and fell correspondingly. In lean years there were fewer than 1,000 workers, whilst in good years over 1,500 personnel were employed. During the Second World War the number of workers climbed to 8,000.
Because a large number of customers were lost after the end of the First World War, company policy had to change. General inspections of steam locomotives were carried out for the Austrian Federal Railways
and, from 1922, steam rollers were produced, followed in 1926 by static boiler
systems. The construction of industrial facilities was also taken on.
In 1924/1925 former Russian
goods train locomotives were converted from broad gauge to standard gauge on behalf of the Polish State Railways
and general inspections were carried out.
Of the four locomotive factories in Austria's history during the inter-war years - the others being the StEG in Vienna, Krauss & Co
in Linz
, Lokomotivfabrik Wiener Neustadt (formerly G. Sigl - only the Floridsdorf locomotive works survived.
During the Second World War the factory suffered from heavy bombing raids, but was able to continue production. It produced mainly steam locomotives of the DRB Class 52: over 1,172 units for the Deutsche Reichsbahn
and 20 for the Rumanian CFR
(where it was classified as the CFR 150), the highest production figures of all locomotive works involved in the manufacture of the Class 52!
From spring 1944, production was switched to the DRB Class 42 and on 13 June 1944, number 42 2301 was handed over to the Reichsbahn. The last and 2,115th, engine built during the war, number 42 2580, left the factory on 9 March 1945.
In mid-April 1945, after the end of the fighting in Vienna, a large part of the factory was dismantled and transported to the Soviet Union
. In addition to machinery, raw materials were also spirited away, reportedly 800 wagon loads. In spite of that, at the end of October the first locomotive built after the war, a D 42, stood in front of the factory shed. In addition to the construction of new locomotives, the general inspection of ÖStB locomotives was the main task of the factory due to the destruction of the neighbouring main repair shop at Floridsdorf.
In 1946 the Soviet occupying forces placed the management of the Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf under the USIA - an organisation that managed 'Soviet property' in Austria. At the same time the factory was to be transferred to the ownership of the Austrian Republic under the nationalisation law passed on 26 July 1946. This law could not be fully enacted in the Soviet-occupied areas however until the conclusion of negotiations over the Austrian state treaty in 1955.
During its time as a USIA operation, only a few locomotives were built, but the firm manufactured of central heating boilers, cable winches and undercarriages for railway cranes . Not until 1953 was locomotive construction started up again. Initially 99 replacement boilers were delivered to India
, then 140 locomotives (60 WG, 30 WP
and 50 YG locomotives) were built up to 1958.
On the transfer of the Floridsdorf locomotive works to the Austrian government on 13 August 1955 the nationalisation law of 1945 finally came into effect.
The main products in the time to 1955 were diesel locomotives for home and abroad, including some for Czechoslovakia
. Nevertheless the numbers reduced, which gave the appearance of lower productivity, whereas in fact bogies were being produced as sub-orders for Henschel and the Simmering-Graz-Pauker
factory in Simmering
. 158 bogies were ordered for railcars on the electric high-speed line from Cairo
– Heluan in Egypt
.
On 14 February 1958 the merger of the Floridsdorf Lokomotivfabrik with the Simmering-Graz-Pauker AG
was completed, which spelt the end of Floridsdorf's existence as an independent company.
There was a large order of 50 diesel locomotives for the Bulgarian State Railways
, but overall the books were empty. The production of tank wagons was simply an emergency measure.
On 19 September 1969 the last of 6,043 Floridsdorf locomotives was handed over to the ÖBB, a 1042.540 electric locomotive.
Shortly before the closure of all the facilities in the 1980s, there were discussions about establishing an Austrian transport museum on the site of the locomotive works in the buildings, which were largely still in good condition. However they came to nought and today the factory is no longer there. In its place, in addition to various small firms, are a DIY store and furniture shops, part of Shopping City Nord. One last relict is an obelisk that commemorates the victims of the Nazi regime who were employees at the factory.
Common abbreviations for the company include Flor, WLF (Wiener Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf) and LOFAG (Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf AG).
Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf was the third factory of its type to emerge in Austria following the Lokomotivfabrik der Staatseisenbahngesellschaft (StEG, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
) and that of Georg Sigl, the Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik
Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik
The Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik was the largest locomotive and engineering factory in the Austro-Hungarian Empire...
, both based in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
.
History
The site of the factory, which was founded in 1869, was a piece of open land in FloridsdorfFloridsdorf
Floridsdorf is the 21st district of Vienna, Austria .Floridsdorf is located in the northern part of Vienna.The District Office and the centre of Floridsdorf are located round Am Spitz, at the junction of Prager Straße and Brünner Straße .Since 2004, Floridsdorf has had its own tower: the...
near Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
between the North railway and the Northwest railway
Austrian Northwestern Railway
The Austrian Northwestern Railway was the name of a former railway company during the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy...
. The generously scaled factory site was erected in 1870/71 by Bernhard Demmer – previously technical director with the StEG. In addition to the buildings needed for production and management, seven workers blocks were built with 117 flats.
Even whilst the factory was being built the company's management were busy looking for business and so, as early as 10 June 1871, the first locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
, the HUMBOLDT was handed over to its owners, the ÖNWB.
In 1881 the first rack locomotive
Rack railway
A rack-and-pinion railway is a railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with this rack rail...
was designed and built. Its customer was the industrial railway of a Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
steelworks. This engine was designed as a narrow gauge
Narrow gauge
A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...
locomotive (790 mm rail gauge
Rail gauge
Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers...
). Because they were the only licence holders for the Abt
Abt
-Abt:*Abt, a German, Dutch and Estonian word for the regular clerical title of Abbot, as well as a common surname, derived from that title**Alexander Abt -Abt:*Abt, a German, Dutch and Estonian word for the regular clerical title of Abbot, as well as a common surname, derived from that...
rack system in the Danube monarchy, orders for locomotives for the Erzbergbahn and the Bosnia-Hercegovina State Railways (760mm gauge) went to Floridsdorf.
After the military ('Railway Bureau of the General Staff' or Eisenbahnbureau des Generalstabs) had given the go ahead for the electrification of railway lines, the first electric locomotives were built in 1911 for normal rail services.
Like the overall economic situation, orders for locomotives ebbed and flowed. For example, after the crash of the Vienna stock market in 1873 only seven locomotives were sold. The numbers of employees rose and fell correspondingly. In lean years there were fewer than 1,000 workers, whilst in good years over 1,500 personnel were employed. During the Second World War the number of workers climbed to 8,000.
Because a large number of customers were lost after the end of the First World War, company policy had to change. General inspections of steam locomotives were carried out for the Austrian Federal Railways
ÖBB
The Austrian Federal Railways is the national railway system of Austria, and the administrators of Liechtenstein's railways...
and, from 1922, steam rollers were produced, followed in 1926 by static boiler
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...
systems. The construction of industrial facilities was also taken on.
In 1924/1925 former Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
goods train locomotives were converted from broad gauge to standard gauge on behalf of the Polish State Railways
Polish State Railways
is the dominant railway operator in Poland.The company was founded when the former state-owned operator was divided into several units based on the requirements laid down by the European Union...
and general inspections were carried out.
Of the four locomotive factories in Austria's history during the inter-war years - the others being the StEG in Vienna, Krauss & Co
Krauss-Maffei
The Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co KG or simply Krauss-Maffei is an injection molding machine manufacturer and defence company based in Munich, Germany...
in Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
, Lokomotivfabrik Wiener Neustadt (formerly G. Sigl - only the Floridsdorf locomotive works survived.
During the Second World War the factory suffered from heavy bombing raids, but was able to continue production. It produced mainly steam locomotives of the DRB Class 52: over 1,172 units for the Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
and 20 for the Rumanian CFR
Caile Ferate Române
Căile Ferate Române is the official designation of the state railway carrier of Romania. Romania has a railway network of of which are electrified and the total track length is . The network is significantly interconnected with other European railway networks, providing pan-European passenger...
(where it was classified as the CFR 150), the highest production figures of all locomotive works involved in the manufacture of the Class 52!
From spring 1944, production was switched to the DRB Class 42 and on 13 June 1944, number 42 2301 was handed over to the Reichsbahn. The last and 2,115th, engine built during the war, number 42 2580, left the factory on 9 March 1945.
In mid-April 1945, after the end of the fighting in Vienna, a large part of the factory was dismantled and transported to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. In addition to machinery, raw materials were also spirited away, reportedly 800 wagon loads. In spite of that, at the end of October the first locomotive built after the war, a D 42, stood in front of the factory shed. In addition to the construction of new locomotives, the general inspection of ÖStB locomotives was the main task of the factory due to the destruction of the neighbouring main repair shop at Floridsdorf.
In 1946 the Soviet occupying forces placed the management of the Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf under the USIA - an organisation that managed 'Soviet property' in Austria. At the same time the factory was to be transferred to the ownership of the Austrian Republic under the nationalisation law passed on 26 July 1946. This law could not be fully enacted in the Soviet-occupied areas however until the conclusion of negotiations over the Austrian state treaty in 1955.
During its time as a USIA operation, only a few locomotives were built, but the firm manufactured of central heating boilers, cable winches and undercarriages for railway cranes . Not until 1953 was locomotive construction started up again. Initially 99 replacement boilers were delivered to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, then 140 locomotives (60 WG, 30 WP
Indian locomotive class WP
Indian locomotive class WP is a class of 4-6-2 "Pacific" steam locomotives used in India. The class was introduced after World War II for passenger duties, marking the change from 'X' to 'W' for broad gauge locomotives. It was capable of doing up to and was easily recognized by the cone-shaped...
and 50 YG locomotives) were built up to 1958.
On the transfer of the Floridsdorf locomotive works to the Austrian government on 13 August 1955 the nationalisation law of 1945 finally came into effect.
The main products in the time to 1955 were diesel locomotives for home and abroad, including some for Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. Nevertheless the numbers reduced, which gave the appearance of lower productivity, whereas in fact bogies were being produced as sub-orders for Henschel and the Simmering-Graz-Pauker
Simmering-Graz-Pauker
Simmering-Graz-Pauker AG was one of the most important Austrian industrial conglomerates, which used to have several thousand employees all around the world.-Images:Heute das ist SIemmens SGP 2007...
factory in Simmering
Simmering
Simmering is a food preparation technique in which foods are cooked in hot liquids kept at or just below the boiling point of water , but higher than poaching temperature...
. 158 bogies were ordered for railcars on the electric high-speed line from Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
– Heluan in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
On 14 February 1958 the merger of the Floridsdorf Lokomotivfabrik with the Simmering-Graz-Pauker AG
Simmering-Graz-Pauker
Simmering-Graz-Pauker AG was one of the most important Austrian industrial conglomerates, which used to have several thousand employees all around the world.-Images:Heute das ist SIemmens SGP 2007...
was completed, which spelt the end of Floridsdorf's existence as an independent company.
There was a large order of 50 diesel locomotives for the Bulgarian State Railways
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, but overall the books were empty. The production of tank wagons was simply an emergency measure.
On 19 September 1969 the last of 6,043 Floridsdorf locomotives was handed over to the ÖBB, a 1042.540 electric locomotive.
Shortly before the closure of all the facilities in the 1980s, there were discussions about establishing an Austrian transport museum on the site of the locomotive works in the buildings, which were largely still in good condition. However they came to nought and today the factory is no longer there. In its place, in addition to various small firms, are a DIY store and furniture shops, part of Shopping City Nord. One last relict is an obelisk that commemorates the victims of the Nazi regime who were employees at the factory.
Prominent employees
- Adolph Giesl-GieslingenAdolph Giesl-GieslingenAdolph Giesl-Gieslingen was an Austrian locomotive designer and engineer.Giesl-Gieslingen was born in 1903 in Trient, Tirol, and studied at the Technical College in Vienna. In 1924 he published a technical article on smokebox design and chimneys...
: His work for the Floridsdorf locomotive factory was interrupted by a year in the USAUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In 1938 he returned and, after the Second World War became the chief engineer. - Franz JonasFranz JonasFranz Josef Jonas was an Austrian political figure. He served as the seventh President of Austria, between 1965 and 1974....
: The qualified printer worked after 1938 as an accountant at the Floridsdorf locomotive works. From 22 June 1951 he was the mayor and LandeshauptmannLandeshauptmannLandeshauptmann is a former German gubernatorial title equivalent to that of a governor of a province or a state....
of Vienna and from 1 June 1965 to his death on 24 April 1974 he was the President of AustriaPresident of AustriaThe President of Austria is the federal head of state of Austria. Though theoretically entrusted with great power by the constitution, in practice the President acts, for the most part, merely as a ceremonial figurehead...
.
Literature
- Johann Stockklausner: Die Wiener Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf. Eisenbahn-Kurier Verlag GmbH Freiburg, ISBN 3-88255-561-0
- Ingrid Trummer, Alexander Stollhof (Hrsg.): "...Bei uns in der Lofag...", Erinnerungen an die Floridsdorfer Lokomotivfabrik - Wiens größter Industriebetrieb. Edition Volkshochschule, Wien 2005, ISBN 3-900799-67-9