Virtual Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Monday - Uetliberg Railway - Steepest Adhesion Railway in Europe
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The Uetliberg railway is a passenger line which runs from Zurich Hauptbahnhof to the summit of the Uetliberg. This is route S10 of the Zurich S-Bahn
The line was opened in 1875 and electrified in 1923. In 1990 it was extended to its current terminus at Zurich Hauptbahnhof. It is owned by the Sihltal Zurich Uetliberg Bahn, a company that also owns the Sihltal line.
The line has a maximum gradient of 7.9% and is the steepest standard adhesion gauge railway in Europe.
The Uetliberg trains have another unique feature. The pantographs for pick up of the 1200V DC system are off center. The reason for this is that there is common running with the Sihltal trains between Zurich Hauptbahnhof and Zurich Gieissehubel and the Sihltal line trains run on 15,000V AC. Two set of overhead power lines are maintained for the joint section.
A view of the off center pantograph
Another unusual feature are these steel ties
Zurich Geisshubel where the trains of both systems are maintained, Sihltal on left, Uetliberg on the right
Uetliberg trains don't stop at Geisshubel
The views on a good day are magnificent
Looking over Zurich
This is a cab ride of the line - starting in the tunnel section from the Hauptbahnhof
Interesting views of the trains as well as a meet
The Sihltal Railway. This line is route S-4 of the Zurich S-bahn and runs to Sihlbrugg on the south side of the Zurichsee.
This historic railcar is run occasionally on excursions. No 84 was built in 1924 and is kept at the Sihlwald preservation site
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
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
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
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