Steam locomotive 77.28 of the Austrian Federal Railways.

Mold variant !

■ Design with Giesl ejector
■ Free-standing lines
■ Metal buffer
■ Finely-detailed wheels with low wheel flanges
■ Drive and coupling rods made from fine cast metal
■ Driver’s cab and engine lighting installed, switchable in digital mode

At the beginning of the 1970s, Linz was still a veritable steam locomotive Eldorado with locomotives from the classes 50, 52, 77 and 93. Apart from the main or partly-overhauled engines, the locomotives tended to look rather dishevelled, being rusty and dirty.
A group of young men - who later went on to found the Austrian Society for Railway History - began to overhaul the appearance of individual steam locomotives.
One particularly colourful model was the 77.66. It received a “state railway livery”. The boiler was black, the water tanks and driver’s cab were green, the wheels were red and the wheel tyres and boiler rings glossy. In fact, this livery had never existed either on old Austrian locomotives or on locomotives from the time of the First Republic, but the young men liked it and soon railway enthusiasts and photographers began to take notice of the showpieces travelling along non-electrified routes in Upper Austria.
The 77.28 added later received a comparably colourful appearance to the 77.66. It retained this livery for a long time, even when after entering the possessions of the ÖGEG. However, at the latest following its last main inspection, it was given its original ÖBB livery once more.
Even though the two “colourful” class 77 locomotives were never accurate in terms of railway history, they still represent a piece of Austrian railway history, as they were put into operation in this livery.
J. Krumphuber