The Branch Line Society has revealed that it is to run a two-day exploration of freight lines and tram lines in and around Vienna, in Austria.

The tour will run on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September.

The first day will include covering the lines that the first Vienna Explorer trip last year did not cover.

This includes the connection between the two dock areas in Vienna, which last year’s journey could not take in due to bridge problems.

The second day involves travelling in a comfortable vintage tram on a comprehensive tour of parts of the city’s huge tram network. Gamers can practice riding Vienna’s trams using Dovetail Games’ City Transport Simulator range.

The Branch Line Society has received a draft timetable for this tour, although it continues to negotiate with Austria’s award-winning federal railway company ÖBB and may yet agree some changes.

ÖBB has advised that the line running from Bruck a.d. Leith West to Weindel Logistik is out of use, but in better news, has confirmed that the tour will be able to travel lines 60A and 31A at Freudenau Hafen.

This will take visitors to both sides of Vienna’s harbour.

Tour participants may wish to spend some more time in Vienna.

They can do so by purchasing a ticket valid for all public transport (trams, S-bahn, buses and metro) in the city’s core area for eight euros per day.

They could use the Prater Liliputbahn, which runs for nearly four kilometres around Prater park, and the Donauparkbahn, which runs for 3.34km in the Donaupark.

Saturday’s highlights include the Floridsdorfer Hochbahn, which is a long elevated freight line which avoids Wien Praterstern and allows only electric trains.

Saturday will also include top-and-tail diesel haulage with former freight diesel 2050-09 and a class 2143 former mixed traffic loco, and rides along three different Vienna docks branches.

The tour will visit the huge Wien Zvbf freight yards and the complex of freight lines which run to the south of the yards.

Sunday’s highlights include some sections and curves in the tram system that last year’s tour was unable to include.

The Society has asked for an articulated railcar and a trailer car from the 1950s, which provide more space and are fitted with comfortable ‘Durofol’ seats.