J Haswell

Few countries in Europe saw such political and economic changes over the hundred years between 1850 and 1950 as the Kingdom of Austria. In the 1800's Austria was part of the great Austro-Hungarian Empire, the two kingdoms being united under a common sovereign, and the early railways were in course of construc­tion.

In 1857 the Adriatic was reached for the first time by rail when the 470-mile Vienna-Trieste line was completed; a private company backed by Salomon de Rothschild himself took over this line, the Lombardy Venetian State Railway, the North Tyrol, the South Tyrol and the Kaiser Franz Josef Orientbahn.

At one step had been formed the mighty Sudbahn, as individual and influential as Britain's Great Western and destined to become one of Europe's great railways.

At that time one of the world's best-known railway engineers was a Scotsman, John Haswell, who in 1837 had founded the first locomotive works in Austria. In 1851 he had produced the first 0-8-0 locomotive on the continent, and in subsequent designs he introduced such features as thermic syphons and counter-pressure braking. His 'Duplex' of 1861 was the first 4-cylinder locomotive, and in 1869 the Sudbahn honoured Haswell by naming a new 0-6-0 engine after him.

No. 852 was an outside-framed locomotive with Stephenson valve gear outside the wheels, as can be seen in the picture. Withdrawn in 1938 as No. 153.7114 of the Austrian State Railways, the ' J. Haswell' is now preserved on display at Linz, in Upper Austria.