Virtual Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Sunday - Funiculars at Locarno, Vevey and Glion
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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 Naye mountain railway which we will visit later.
Glion is an interesting community in itself albeit built on the side of a mountain
However, the signature view is that over Lac Leman towards Villeneuve and the Chateau de Chillon.
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
Flytoget at Oslo Central I caught a Flytoget express train to Oslo airport. These run every ten minutes throughout the day. Every other one stops at Lillestrom which was convenient as Paul joined me there, (he was staying at a nearby Lillestrom hotel). This is a high speed train which runs from the airport to Oslo Central station in 20 minutes. The trains are frequently crowded. This is an excellent service. Compare this to the "service" OC Transpo will be providing to Ottawa airport. A diesel train a couple of stops to the Trillium line, change to another diesel train to Bayview, then change to the electric Confederation line to get downtown. Tourists are going to love this with their large cases. We took a KLM flight to Amsterdam where we changed to a KLM flight to Montreal and finally the KLM bus to Ottawa. We had anticipated some problems in Amsterdam with a relatively short transfer but everything worked out to the minute. The cabin crew on the flight from Oslo were g
The weather here is atrocious cool and wet with heavy rain at times. I bought a 24 hour local transport pass at the tourist office. This allows me to travel around for 24 hours. I first had a look at the Central Station. The older units make quite a bit of noise Some cars are for people who need to buy a ticket. I then started to ride a few trams. Routes 12 and 19 seemed the most promising. I started with the 19 route and rode it out to the end at Majorstuen and then back through town but the trams were not running beyond Oslo Hospital because of track work. I then decided to sample route 12 which I rode out to Majorstuen and then back all the way to Kjelsas. This is a delightful ride. It runs close to the water then along major parks as well as climbing quite high at Kjelsas which gives good views over the city. At Majorstuen route 12 trams become route 11 and vice versa. Route at at Central Station route 12 at Majorstuen Route 11 at Kjelsas My day went well although the weather was a
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