Autumn Eurocrankhop- Day 12

Zirl v SV Innsbruck - Austria Landesliga Tiroler

Back down to a misty Murten station.

A direct service into Bern, took me to an IC service for Luzern.

Into Luzern, with its majestic entrance to the station.

It is part of the mother of all Transport interchanges.  The railway station on the right, the bus station in front of it, and then the ferry platform in front of that.  The Swiss Wemyss Bay.

The 1112 to ferry heads off from Luzern Barnhofquai, across the Luzernersee, heading for Vitznau.

Looking the other way, and the Kapellbrücke that the city is famous for.

Back to the station and on to my Zurich bound IC service.

This was formed of a double deck IC2000 set, which have a cracking snug area in the FC coaches.

They also give a great view from the top deck, here looking out onto the Zugersee.

I did have a connection at Zurich, but I decided to get off at Thalwill, for an RE services bound for Chur, which was happily being hauled by a Re 4/4, the quintessential Swiss loco.

This heads right along the shores of lake Zurich, with it's many car ferries....

....and some not quite so big vessels.

Past the lake, and across the agricultural plains, heading for the mountains.

Finally reaching them at Walansee.

I was off at Sargans, in the foothills of the mountains.

Where I picked up my Wien bound trans-Alpen Railjet.

Passing out of Switzerland, you first have to cross Liechtenstein, the entrance to which is the sportplatz Rheinwiese, the only stadium I have been to in the country, and done only to ensure I have done a game in every European nation, including disputed provinces (you’re no-one if you haven’t ticked Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia).

Five minutes later we were in Austria, this picture pretty much shows the sum total of Liechtenstein, who's main industry is false teeth.

It was now time to start climbing through the Alps.

By the time we are passing the summit, we are clinging to the side of the Tirol gorge, with the river far down below.

Football grounds visible from the train - the spectacularly located Mils-Au.

After three hours, we were dropping into Innsbruck.  Here the line over from Munich via Garmisch-Partenkirchen, can be seen on one of the viaducts of the excellently named Mount Wank, which sounds like more of an instruction than a geographical feature.

At Innsbruck I connected from my Railjet on the left, to the OBB unit on the right.

Not many stations are in full view of a ski jump.

We headed down the Brenner pass.

Arriving at Steinrach in Tirol.  The town is actually called Steinach am Brenner, and was chosen because the following morning I was heading south into Italy, so this gave a slightly more favourable 0545 start.

After dropping stuff off at the hotel, with the receptionists resolutely swigging from a large glass of wine as she checked me in, I headed back in to Innsbruck...

...for an S-bahn out to Zirl.  This is a small market town 10km west of Innsbruck.  Its location next to the river Inn means it gets flooded every few years.

The station is located to the south of the town, and conveniently, so is the football ground.

Walking down the lane to the ground, and it appeared to start hailing. 

Turning the corner, it became apparent that it was actually a split pipe which was refilling the adjacent open air ice rink.

The football ground was next door.

Zirl 3 v SV Innsbruck 1 - Austria Landesliga Tiroler

This game was in the Landesliga, which is the fourth tier of Austrian football, and split into nine areas.  I have no additional gen on either Zirl, other than this was third from bottom v mid table.

Sportverein Innsbruck were formed in 1905 and have played almost all the time in the Tiroler league or equivalent.  They have been relatively successful at this level, winning a number of titles, mainly based on bring through the best local youth players.  In the 1970s they had a go at getting to the top Austrian league, spending money on bringing in a number of professionals, but this was ultimately unsuccessful, and resulted in them crashing down to tier 7, before rising back up.

Zirl did have a team bus though.

The ground contained two pitches, arranged end on end, separated by a hedge.

Spanning half of each touchline was a large admin block and club house.

 

In front of this we're a couple of rows of open seating, although the clubhouse balcony above, was equally popular.

At the far end of this, was a separate, tiny stand...

...with a sagging roof that makes Crockenhill's structures seem like a stringent application of building regulations.

On the far side was a small grass bank, with a single concrete step, accessed only by wandering across the pitch.

The home side took the lead mid way through the half.

Then added another late on.

Half time came...

....the score still 2-0 on the more basic scoreboard than the previous evening.

However, there were some frustrated grime DJs in the announcer’s hut, as we were played a series of banging hardcore, containing a variety of expletives.  This one that rhymes mouse and albatross was a particular favourite.

There was more of an effort to dissuade free viewing, than that at Korzow.

Although the teams had all excited the pitch through the same entrance, where they were back out of was like a game of mole bash, as the home team emerged from some stairs, top left....

....the officials were bottom centre...

...and finally, the away team, bottom left.

Each team added a goal in the second half, the game ending 3 - 1.

I headed back to the station....

....for a unit back to Innsbruck.

This should have been a six minute connection onto a unit back to Steinrach, but on getting to the platform, I was delighted to find a ramshackle rake of coaching stock.

Of mixed delight was that at departure time, we had no locomotive.

On the bad side, this means the train will be late or cancelled, but on the positive side, this can mean the control are desperately looking for any loco they can get their hands on, which potentially means rare locos.  Sure enough, after ten minutes, a joint Austrian/Italian cargo loco rolled up.  Not the ancient 1044 I was hoping for, but still some ultra-rare passenger traction.

This dropped me back at Steinrach.  Of note is that the platform I have actually has a railway siding running through it.  This is because this Brenner pass line runs a lot of 'auto-vac' services, where cars or lorries are put on trains.  This line is used to load cars and lorries onto the trains.  Although Steinrach no longer has any scheduled car services, it is used for emergency loading if the line is blocked.

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