Virtual Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Friday - Meiringen

Zentral Bahn loco hauled train. This is a Class 101 electric locomotive. These were very common in Meiringen until five years ago.

Meiringen is a small town in the central Swiss Alps, made famous by Conan Doyle as the site of Holmes and Moriarty fighting at Reichenbach falls. More recently, the town serves as a depot and a reversing point for the narrow gauge ZentralBahn railway (15.000V AC). Trains arrive from Interlaken along a relatively flat route following the shore of several lakes before entering the narrow Aare valley surrounded by very steep mountains and cliffs to reach Meiringen.

To go on to Luzern, trains must reverse out of the station along the valley and then pick up the rack to make a very steep climb out of the valley to head north to Luzern. The narrow gauge line continues east towards Innertkirchen under different voltage (1,200V DC) and ownership as part of the MIB railway.  

General track layout of Meiringen. To the left (west) the lines from Interlaken (lower) and Luzern (Upper) come in. The Line to Innertkirchen runs out to the south east (right). The bus station is just across the street from the railway station
 
Class 101 locos (built 1989-90) still in service in 2015. The steep vertical slopes of the southern Aare valley can be clearly seen in the distance.

ZentralBahn depot at Meiringen - note the double slip switch.

ZentralBahn loco hauled train departs. Locos and coaches are in storage at the depot

.Old and the new in 2012. Class 110 loco built 1941-2) with a ABeh 160 FINK EMU in the background.

ZB passenger equipment is now composed of Stadler FINK EMUs. These come in seven car (Class 150) and three car (Class 160) sets. These are rack equipped for the steep run to Luzern

ABeh 160 three car FINK at the ZB station

ABeh 150 seven car FINK at the ZB station

Zentral Bahn have broken up some of the FINK EMU combos. This sometimes yields odd combinations where a car intended to be in the middle of two driving cabs ends up on the end

Small diesel tractor of the ZentralBahn. This picture is at the point where the track runs to the MIB part of the station. The gauge is the same but the voltage overhead changes.

Bike lock up at the ZentralBahn station. A very common sight at any Swiss station

Town of Meiringen

Every Swiss town has a Migros grocery

Local restaurant

Postbus station with mountain and low cloud in the background

The Sherlock Holmes Museum.

Reichenbach Falls showing the main falls that inspired Conan Doyle

Smaller falls at the summit

Aare valley seen from the falls

Restaurant de Pont on the Aare. This is right next to the Aareschlucht West station on the MIB.
This is a good place to watch trains and planes
River Aare with the Restaurant du Pont in the background. If this were Canada it would be called Chalk River.

Restaurant du Pont at Aareschlucht West MIB. The waters of the Aare are discoloured from glacial runoff upstream.

MIB railcar arriving at Aareschlucht West MIB

Typical landscape around Meiringen. The narrow valley is quite flat and sparsely populated with a few small isolated cabins outside of the town.

Typical Swiss cottage

A contented Meiringen cow

Many tourists visit to follow the many hiking trails in the nearby hills and mountains

Peaks surrounding Meiringen

Air base in the side of a mountain
A narrow valley surrounded by steep mountain peaks is a odd place to built an air force base. Much of Meiringen air base, including hangars and all the equipment needed to service the aircraft, is built into the side of the cliff face. During weekdays it is common to the jets flying circuits learning how to take off and land in the steep mountain environment. While having a drink at Restaurant du Pont, Dad and I saw an old Hawker Hunter, privately owned, flying from Meiringen.
Swiss Air Force F-5 jets outside the Meiringen aircraft caverns

Interesting video showing the aircraft caverns of Meiringen air base, carved into the side of the mountain. Best viewed with the sound down or off.
We covered the Meiringen to Innertkirchen (MIB) line with the ride through the narrow Aare gorge on June 1
You can find it here:

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