Virtual Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Friday - To Brunnen via Luzern


In our travels the Gotthard Pass is one of our favorite destinations, particularly the Classic route through Goschenen. It is possible to travel from Zurich via Arth-Goldau to Brunnen and on to Ersfeld but an attractive alternative is to take a train to Luzern and catch a boat to Brunnen.

The Luzern station is a stub arrangement with standard gauge lines on the left and narrow gauge lines on the right. The concourse is a couple of minutes walk from the ferry dock. All this is likely to change with a grand plan to tunnel under the lake and have through platforms under the existing.main station.

Looking st our recent pictures it is amazing how much has changed in the Luzern railway scene.
New electric switchers 

have replaced the older models
These narrow gauge Zentral line trains have been replaced by newer units

The Voralpen Express equipment has been replaced with modern stock.

The ferry takes us on  a very pleasant cruise.

There is a brief stop at Vitznau

Another alternative is to take the Riigi mountain railway from Vitznau across to Arth Goldau to get to Brunnen, but we decide to stay on the boat/
At Brunnen there is a pleasant walk though through the town to the station.

At first glance Brunnen does not appear very interesting. This is the main island platform with the main lines on either side. We are looking north here with the Gotthard tunnel behind us. What makes Brunnen interesting is the number of passenger and freight trains which have to be handled into and out of the Gotthard tunnel. The lines on the left are used to hold freight trains waiting a path into the tunnel.
An SBB Vectron passing through on its way to Italy

A DB class 185 held waiting clearance south

An SBB Re 6/6 running through. The main lines are bi-directional.

An SBB 610 Pendolino on its way to Milano.

SBB Cargo Re 6/6

An Italian 610 also heading for Milano

This double header is an Re 10/10
There is always something to see at Brunnen
Our onward train for the Gotthard is arriving as we watch a northbound freight depart.


 




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

Coming Home - Wrap Up - Sunday 15 Setember 2024

Image
This video, by Noel Wyler,  shows what we have just missed. Last Saturday (14 September) the Oensingen Balsthal  Railway organized an event to commemorate 60 years of the Re 4/4 locomotives. They brought together 24 of them and ran them as one train. Paul and I flew home on KLM from Schiphol Airport. We took a train from Den Haag directly to the airport. The trip back was marred by a couple with a young boy who was obviously teething. He cried almost continuously for the full six hours. I found I could tune him out when I dug deep into the KLM sound system and found a treasure trove of classical music. Bach violin concertos, Mozart piano concerto No. 23, Beethoven symphonies, Schuman etc. We survived the stupidities at the entrance of the Montreal airport and caught the KLM bus back to Ottawa where we arrived precisely on time. A good ending to a wonderful, tremendous, trip  
Read more