Colin Churcher 2020

A BAM train of older stock ready to depart Biere for Morges The Biere - Apples - Morges meter gauge railway runs between these three points with a branch from Apples to L'Isle.  There is a joint station with the SBB main line between Lausanne and Geneva at Morges. The BAM is unusual in that it makes more money on freight than passengers, Morges is a good standard gauge train watching location with frequent freight and passenger trains Work Equipment can come through at track speed And there is a steady diet of SBB passenger trains of all types. Even the BAM has one standard gauge main line locomotive, a Re 4/4 from SBB, which is used to move ballast on the SBB main line. But the real interset at Morges is the narrow gauge.  Here a new train (right) is on passenger duty while an older car has been relegated to freight duties At Morges everything can easily be seen from the safe passenger platform, as long as the passenger trains don't get in the way! This video shows how the ne...

A train at Tauffelen, the center of the system The meter gauge line between Biel, Tauffelen and Ins, close to Bern is run by the AARE Seeland mobil system which runs buses and a couple of narrow gauge railways in the area. At Biel/Bienne (the only bilingual Swiss city) the train starts from a platform underneath the main standard gauge platform. This is the track layout at Biel/Bienne. The narrow gauge sneaks out heading south Once in the daylight we get a quick glimpse of older equipment We soon pass through the city outskirts and the journey is then through very pleasant farmland. Paul and I chose to come this way one Sunday afternoon. We intended to go through to Ins and catch a local train back to Bern. The narrow gauge was on a half hourly service but only one an hour went right through to Ins. We decided to go as far as Tauffelen and wait for the next train through to Ins.  Tauffelen Tauffelen was shut up tight on Sunday afternoon as was the railway.  One of the five sta...

Today we finish the tours of the funiculars we have visited. The meter gauge funicular Locarno - Madonna del Sasso  links the center of Locarno with the pilgrimage sanctuary of Madonna del Sasso and the municipality of Orselina. There are three intermediate stations and at   At Orselina there is a connection with the cable car  to Cardada, which in turn connects with a chairlift  to the summit of Cimetta. At Orselina there are good views over Locarno and Lake Magiore The meter gauge Vevey - Mont Pelerin funicular runs through the vineyards and has two intermediate stations From the top there are good views over Vevey-Montreux and Lac Leman This video shows the switches with no moving parts as well as the winding mechanism The Glion funicular has good connections at the lower station with the trolley buses as well as the SBB local trains.  On the right is one of the original cars which has been preserved in place. The top station connects with the Rochers de...

Brienze is served by Zentralbahn narrow gauge trains running between Interlaken and Meiringen. These trains which dated from the 1940s have now been replaced by shiny new multiple units. The 800 mm gauge Brienze Rothorn Bahn is one of the few railways in Switzerland which is not electrified. There are some 14 steam locomotives running on the Abt rack system. The boilers are set at an angle so as to be level on the gradient   The motion ios complicated - the drive being on the rack pinions As we leave Brienze we see an early version of a green roof As we leave Brienx=ze there are good views of Lake Brienze Passing siding We make a meet And take water At busy times trains are run in several sections Views from the summit are wonderful There is time to examine the locomotive before returning to Brienze Steamer approaching the Brienze dock the transport coordination at Brienze is a microcosm of what is practiced all over the country.  the Zentralbahn trains meet here and are met b...