Virtual Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Friday - The Forchbahn
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Entrance to the Forchbahn Depot at Forch - where the trains are maintained The significance of the cow is not known
The Forchbahn is a narrow gauge passenger railway in Zurich. The first three kilometers are over the Zurich suburban network to Rehalp from where the line runs to Forch (workshops), Egg and Essinglen. The outer section is a combination of roadside running and private right of way with double and single track sections. We left the Zurich tram museum yesterday on a historic tram to Rehalp which is the end of the Zurich tram network. The Forchbahn trains have limited stops within Zurich and they do not stop at the Museum.
Rehalp with a train bound for Zurich. Although running as Zurich route S18, the trains have a distinctive livery
At Rehalp the Forchbahn trains run on to their own railway which is properly signaled.
The station at Forch has recently been rebuilt - the entrance to the workshop with the cow is on the right hand side
Forch
At Forch there is the start of a single track section
Running into Egg
Historic car No. 10 has been brought out on the occasion of the Egg Fair
Egg Fair - something Simon and Garfunkel should have sung about
Egg with a train for Zurich
A quick look at Essinglen reveals little of interest so we quickly return to Zurich.
At the Zurich terminus the trains turn on a loop, mixing it with the regular trams
Good video coverage of the trains
The Zurich Waitikon station is more akin to a regular railway
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 sing...
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
Today we left Yverdon-les-Bains and traveled back to Zurich in preparation for return to Canada tomorrow. In the morning we took an ICN through Neuchatel to Oensingen. We left four minutes late but with a tight throttle and the banking on these trains we left Neuchatel on time - it was an exciting ride. At Oensingen there was quite a lot to see. As well as the main line freight a single manned diesel switcher went across the main line a couple of times to pick up empty cars. The two narrow gauge trams from Solothurn and Langenthal came in and reversed. Main line freight The standard gauge line to Balstall was using an SBB train with TPN markings. In addition there was a magpie poking around on the ground, and a couple of kites flying around. We went on to Olten for lunch at the M igros restaurant. After lunch we took a short trip to Daniken on the main line. Just after we got there we saw three freight trains with Re 420s on them and a further SBB Vectron o...
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