Colin Churcher 2020

Catch of the day. 100 year old SBB crocodile arriving in Olten with an excursion from Sissach Our original plan for today was to ride the steam train from Triangen to Sursee then travel to Olten to see the SBB Historic crocodile which was making two round trips between Olten and Sissach. However because of the dry weather conditions the steam train was canceled so we decided to go directly to Olten to see a bit more of the crocodile operation.  We travelled to Olten on an SOB Traverso. It did the job but was a little unpretentious.  On arriving at Olten it was evident by the few rail fans that were already clustered at the end of some platforms that there was going to be some interesting action. We saw the arrival of the empty train with the crocodile at the head end and watched it depart. 14305 was built in 1927   In the interim we went to Wangen bei Olten to see if we could find a Vectron Co-op locomotive, which we did. We came back to Hammer to look at another Co-op Ve...

Catch of the Day at Zurich Amstetten Our first task today was to take a train to Zurich Amstetten to see a special excursion train which was hauled by locomotive 11026 a Heritage unit from Olten built in 1927. It is an Ae 4/7. The excursion was running to Chur where there was a further trip on the Rhb. The train would be returning to Zurich and Olten this evening. We had good views of the heritage locomotive both running in and leaving.  From there we went by train to Dietikon and took the narrow gauge tram to Bremgarten where we enjoyed the Saturday market and the views over the river. Bremgarten market Local artwork Tram crossing the river Wooden figure looking at the river The local service is pretty good We walked around and then continued our journey to Wohlen where we had a long wait for a train to Brugg where we found lunch at the local Migros.  This afternoon we caught a post bus to Schinzmachdorf Baumschul where there is a very, very large garden centre. It is so larg...

y Paul and I thoroughly enjoyed our trip on Air France to Paris CDG The pork dinner was helped down by an excellent glass of Margaux Arriving just before 0600 we were quickly through entry requirements and were surprised at how well the new (to us) RATP ticket system worked. We had loaded our tickets on our phones and this allowed quick and easy access. Because we were so early we had a long wait for our TGV from the Gare de Lyon which took us right through to Zurich. The entrance stairway for Le Train Bleu is very impressive Our route from Basel to Zurich was an unusual one, We branched off before Liestal and went via Kaiseraugust (locomotive graveyard), Rheinfelden (brewery), Effungen, passed close to the Tree Forest Railway we shall be visiting tomorrow at Schinznachdorf, crossed over the main line at Brugg, then Mellingen and eventually joined the main line after the tunnel at Kilwangen. This was an extraordinary route, maybe to ease a problem on the main line. It covered some new ...

Today we left Yverdon-les-Bains and traveled back to Zurich in preparation for return to Canada tomorrow. In the morning we took an ICN through Neuchatel to Oensingen. We left four minutes late but with a tight throttle and the banking on these trains we left Neuchatel on time - it was an exciting ride. At Oensingen there was quite a lot to see. As well as the main line freight a single manned diesel switcher went across the main line a couple of times to pick up empty cars.  The two narrow gauge trams from Solothurn and Langenthal came in and reversed.  Main line freight The standard gauge line to Balstall was using an SBB train with TPN markings.  In addition there was a magpie poking around on the ground, and a couple of kites flying around.  We went on to Olten for lunch at the M igros restaurant.  After lunch we took a short trip to Daniken on the main line. Just after we got there we saw three freight trains with Re 420s on them and a further SBB Vectron o...