Virtual Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Sunday - Rapperswil

 Want to buy a pair of shoes? Hang around the Rapperswil station to get some ideas. Voralpen Express class 456 locomotive

This is another Paul Churcher special

Rapperswil is a car-free medieval town 40km from Zurich at the southern end of Lac Zurich (Zürichsee). Railway traffic is mostly passenger trains since Rapperswil is the southern terminus for several Zurich S-Bahn routes (S7, S5, S15, S26). These busy routes start at Rapperswil and run along both sides of the lake before connecting to Zurich HB and then continue on to norternh towns like Schafthausen and Winterthur.

In addition to the SBB, the SOB (Südostbahn -Swiss South Eastern Railway) runs services through Rapperswil including Stadler FLIRT units as well as the Voralpen Express which is a tourist train connecting Luzern with St. Gallen. The Voralpen Express was loco hauled with Re 456 units but has now been reequipped with specially built Stadler FLIRTs.

Overcast day on the Rapperswil waterfront

There seems to be a foot fetish in Rapperswil

Sculpture outside a Rapperswil restaurant

SOB FlIRT train crossing Zürichsee between Rapperswil and Pfäffikon

In addition to taking a train across the lake, there is a footbridge over the Zürichsee. This goes through parks and bird sanctuaries

Class 511 approaching Rapperswill at the end of an S-Bahn service

Trackwork at Rapperswil

Class 511 S-Bahn leaving for Pfäffikon on the other side of the Zürichsee.

Many S-Bahn services are provided by Class 450 trains. These, built in the early 1990s, consist of a permanently coupled Re 450 locomotive, two coaches and a driving cab. The lessons from the Class 450s went into the development of the Re 460 locomotives and the Class 511 EMUs. Although they look strange, they provide a very comfortable ride
Engine shed at Rapperswil.

Tm 232 Diesel tractor

SOB Re 456 locomotive hauls a Voralpen Express through Rapperswil.

Many Re 456 have special liveries.

Video overlooking Rapperswil showing rail and ferry connections

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 sing...
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

Travel Basel to Den Haag - Wednesday 11 September

Image
  A Dutch speciality - pancake with cheese, mushrooms and bacon. This was the only picture I took today - after we had finally arrived at Den Haag. We went early to the station at Basel  to check on our train to Dusseldorf only to find out it had been cancelled. A visit to the SBB ticket office revealed that the train hadn't actually been cancelled but was starting today from Karlsruhe. They found a connecting train leaving a little earlier which we took. This became progressively later and later so that it arrived at Karlsruhe just as the connection was about to pull out. A frantic dash across the platform and we were able to claim our seats. The journey to Dusseldorf was peculiar, There were periods when the train went fast (up to almost 200 kmph) and other periods when it dawdled. It progressively lost time except that it arrived at its final destination, Dusseldorf, eleven minutes early. (An injudicious use of recovery time in the schedule?) Dusseldorf gave us an opportuni...
Read more