Electric loco Rh 1142 ÖBB Digital Sound

Model: HO gauge DC. Austrian Federal Railways electric locomotive 1142 685. Prototypical with different front ends and long UIC number. Prototype: Between 1969 and 1977 the ÖBB procured a class 1042.5 (road numbers 1042.531 to 707) modified in accordance with technical progress with characteristic roof superstructures and single-arm pantographs that were reversed compared to the locomotives previously delivered. The assembly of the 1042.685 took place at Simmering-Graz-Pauker in Graz under the factory number 72813/1976, while BBC was responsible for the electrical part. In its first years of service, the locomotive was based at the Wien Süd train haulage line. In the 1990s, starting with serial number 1042.531, a reversing train control system was installed – among other conversions – and the locomotive was re-designated as series 1142. After a collision with a goods train in February 2002, 1142 685 was refurbished. The front side of driver’s cab 2 received the then new small headlights with adjacent tail lights, a larger push handle and handrails under the windows. The side of driver’s cab 1 still has the large lower head lamps, the smaller push handle and the handrails under the head windows, which extend to the driver’s cab doors. The blood orange paintwork has also been preserved. This hermaphroditic existence remained even after a T5 refurbishment with repainting in Valousek design. For decades, the locomotive was used in front of all types of trains, after the conversion to 1142 685 also in front of push-pull trains and heavy goods trains in multiple traction. The locomotive has recently been parked and will probably soon go the way of the old iron.