HLM - Vienna Hospital Battery Electric Loco
This article was published May 16, 2025.
Battery electric loco from the Vienna Hospital 500mm gauge line. Scale is 1:35 but easy to adapt for other scales.
Will soon be available for ordering at WinterZone.
Photos of the loco above is from WikiMedia which also contains several more photos of this line.
Key information about this loco
- Length: 3.6 meters
- Width: 1.27 meters
- Height: 2.24 meters
- Weight: 3.5 tons
- Track Gauge: 500 mm (narrow gauge)
- Power Supply: 108 V lead-acid battery
- Motor Output: 10 kW
- Drive Mechanism: Manual control via a rotary switch
- Usage: Transported meals from the central kitchen to hospital pavilions until 2011 when the line closed down.
Locomotive No. 7 was in operation until the end of the supply railway. The approximately 1000 kg battery was sufficient for one day´s operation. The locomotive was used together with two other battery-electric locomotives until the cessation of operations in 2011. The control of the 10 kW locomotive, built by the Vienna-based company Struppe, was manually operated via a switch drum. The energy supply was provided by a lead-acid battery pack with a total voltage of 108 volts. The sister locomotive No. 6 was fitted with electronic controls in the 1970s. The 500 mm gauge railway was primarily used to deliver food from the central kitchen to the individual pavilions. A track led to a loading ramp directly in the kitchen building. Each pavilion was connected to the track via a slightly inclined track, making it possible to let the wagons roll to the unloading point by gravity. The supply railway was shut down in November 2011 after the central kitchen was closed. With the relocation of the Geriatric Institution from the premises, necessary investments in the kitchen facilities were no longer made, and food supply was outsourced to an external caterer.