Electric locomotive 1044.01 of the Austrian Federal Railways. Mold variant! ■ Prototypical design with authentic roof ■ Authentic finely etched roof ventilator inserts and supressor grid tower ■ Larger driver's cab side windows without wind deflectors ■ Driver's cab lighting installed; switchable in digital mode ■ With set of etched signs included Steadily increasing performance requirements had prompted the Austrian locomotive industry to develop an entirely new high-performance electric traction unit with thyristor technology in the early 1970s. SGP, responsible for the mechanical part, and the companies BBC (today ABB), Elin and Siemens for the electrical equipment, delivered two prototype locomotives (1044.01 in December 1974 and 1044.02 in February 1975) to the ÖBB for testing on their account in the mid-1970s. The universally usable high-performance locomotives with an output of 5,280 kW and a maximum speed of 160 km/h were essentially convincing during their trials on the southern and western railway lines between Vienna and Salzburg. In April 1976, the ÖBB placed their order for the first series.
