Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf

The generously scaled factory site was erected in 1870/71 by Bernhard Demmer – previously technical director with the StEG.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.