Virtual Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Funicular Railways (Part One) - In Search of Sherlock Holmes

There are over 50 funicular railways in Switzerland and they are spread all throughout the country.  They are fun to ride and can be a good way of getting around a city. We have seen too many to cover in one blog so we will spread them out through several.
The Reichenbach Falls are where Sherlock Holmes is reputed to have died,  The falls are close to Meiringen and accessible a short walk from the Innertkirchen railway.

The funicular leads up to a forested area which is good for hiking

The Reichenbach Falls
Bern
There is a funicular in Bern although it never seems to be working when we visit.  However, this older cabin is preserved in a park nearby.

The Bern Funicular
Neuchatel
There are three funiculars in the Neuchatel area.  The most frequently used starts at the SBB station and goes down to the lake level.  It is known as the Fun'ambule. This is entirely underground and is more like an elevator - no photos but have found this video.



The second Neuchatel funicular runs from the city center



The third funicular in Neuchatel, the Chaumont, is a little way out of town to the east, but easily accessible from the trackless electric buses.  It seems to have been a much grander affair in earlier days but has been reduced in recent times to a single cabin. It is run by one man and the line stops working when he takes his meal breaks so it is easy to become temporarily stranded at the summit.


The Chaumont funicular is an impressive ride from La Coudre (alt 517m) to Chaumont (alt. 1087m.), a total distance of 2102 meters and a rise in elevation of 570 meters.  This funicular was opened in 1910.

St. Gallen
The Muhleggbahn runs in the center of the city and has recently been renovated
The lower station is very ornate but the line  is mainly below the surface

Two videos of the Muhleggbahn

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Wednesday - Zurich Hauptbahnhof Part One

Image
Zurich Hauptbahnhof  Paul has prepared some extensive notes and photos of the Zurich Hauptbahnhof.  This will be in several parts.  The busiest station in Switzerland is Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich HB) which is used primarily by the SBB. It has 26 tracks serving almost 3000 trains daily and it is one of the busiest stations in the world. It was built in the 1870s and is a main shopping destination as well as a transport hub. There are three levels for platforms and the "Shopville" shopping plaza.  The river Sihl river passes right through the station with platforms passing above and below the river. This shows the general layout of the station with the surrounding tram tracks shown in purple Tracks 3 to 18 are terminal tracks located at ground level, served by two side platforms and seven island platforms. These are used by long-distance trains from throughout Switzerland, and by international trains. Tracks 21 and 22 are underground terminal tracks, served by a single island
Read more

Journey to Zurich Hauptbahnhof, Dolderbahn, Wiedikon and Wallace Fountain

Image
 Tuesday 23 August Paul and I travelled to Zurich on Air Canada via Toronto. The flight from Ottawa was over an hour late - luckily we planned for this with a three hour connection in Toronto. Toronto airport was disgusting. It was overcrowded and there was nowhere for people to stand while waiting to board their flights. Obviously the Toronto airport focusses on relieving passengers of their money. Once aboard the plane things went well. There was plenty of space for carry on and the flight was excellent. It seems that the problem with airline travel is the airports rather than the flights. Our flight landed four minutes ahead of schedule (Wednesday) which was 0800. By 0820 we had cleared passport control and by 0840 we had taken a connecting internal tram and found the tram to downtown. We could have taken the SBB trains but we were in no great hurry and we enjoyed the 35 minute tram ride to close to the hotel. At Gladbrugge we passed two SBB 6/6 locomotives on the main line close by
Read more

Sunday 3 September - Hochdorf Open Day and the Swiss Museum of Transport

Image
We had two objectives today :- Visit the open day at Hochdorf, on the Seethalbahn, which is now a country branch operated by the SBB.  From there we planned to go to Lucerne and visit the Transport Museum.  From Zurich we took a local train to Brugg where we changed to another local train to Lenzburg. The Seethalbahn starts from a platform across the road from the main station. Leaving Lenzburg one has the impression that this is just a local town run. But very quickly we leave the houses behind, the land turns green and a church on a green treed hill indicates the real nature of this branch line which is to serve the local farming communities. The small villages are built around a typical church with its clock and spire, and many of the larger backyards contain apple trees. Farming is mixed with some arable, particularly corn and sunflowers but also there are cattle and presumably pigs in the farms as well. The train service is quite good there being at least two an hour in each direc
Read more