The ''Minotaurus'' and ''Ajax'' were a pair of 0-4-2 steam locomotives purchased by the ''Kaiser Ferdinands-Nordbahn'' (KFNB) –

Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway The Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway (german: Kaiser Ferdinands-Nordbahn; cs, Severní dráha císaře Ferdinanda; pl, Kolej Północna Cesarza Ferdynanda) was the name of a former railway company during the time of the Austrian Empire. Its m ...

from

Jones, Turner and Evans Jones, Turner and Evans was a locomotive manufacturer in Newton-le-Willows, England from 1837, known as Jones and Potts between 1844 and 1852. Jones, Turner and Evans The company opened in 1837 with subcontracts from Edward Bury and Robert Ste ...

Newton-le-Willows Newton-le-Willows is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, England. The population at the 2011 census was 22,114. Newton-le-Willows is on the eastern edge of St Helens, south of Wigan and north of Warrington. The ...

, England in 1841; ''Minotaurus'' has been scrapped, ''Ajax'' survives and is believed to be the oldest preserved steam locomotive on the European mainland and is currently exhibited at the ''

Technisches Museum Wien The Vienna Technical Museum (german: Technisches Museum Wien) is located in Vienna (Austria), in the Penzing district, at Mariahilferstraße 212. The decision to establish a technical museum was made in 1908, and construction of the building sta ...

'' (Vienna Technical Museum).

History

''Minotaurus'' and ''Ajax'' were acquired in 1841 to work the line between

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

Stockerau Stockerau () is a town in the district of Korneuburg (district), Korneuburg in Lower Austria, Austria. Stockerau has 15,921 inhabitants, which makes it the largest town in the Weinviertel.https://statistik.at/wcm/idc/idcplg?IdcService=GET_PDF_FILE ...

. They were a distinctively English design with inside cylinders. The two locomotives had to be disassembled for shipping. They were loaded onto carts and first shipped to Vienna, after which they were reassembled. They were used for both passenger and freight operations, especially transporting raw materials from

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

and

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

. ''Minotaurus'' was withdrawn from service in 1867 and used in the construction of the Moravian-Silesian Northern Railway, until it was retired in 1871. ''Ajax'' was given a new tender in 1847 and fitted with a replacement

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

in 1857. It was used until 1874 when it was withdrawn and stored in a locomotive shed but not scrapped. It was rediscovered and restored in 1909 for the railway line's 70th anniversary celebration. It was then kept at the ‘Heizhaus’ at Strasshof an der Nordbahn until it was transferred to its present location at the ''Technisches Museum Wien'' in 1992. It is described by the museum as ‘the oldest preserved steam locomotive on the European continent.’

References

0-4-2 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1841 Steam locomotives of Austria Standard gauge locomotives of Austria {{steam-loco-stub