Colin Churcher 2020

The visibility at Arosa was a little limited. It looked as if we were going to be delayed getting away from Zurich this morning. Our train to Chur came in from Basel late. It was a German ICE train. However, a 3 minutes late departure was turned into an on-time arrival by the time we arrived at Chur. The ride was superb - through Sargans and Landquart - pleasant farming country by the lake with some industry as well. The narrow gauge trains to Arosa start from outside the main station where the city buses stand.  There was a large group waiting for our train and there was some interesting switching carried out by the Rhaetian Railway to add two coaches and a panorama open car to our train which was a three unit Allegra set already with three additional coaches. It was like switching in a parking lot. The cars to be added - needless to say the panorama car was not used Our train ready to leave Chur for Arosa The Landwies Viaduct is an impressive concrete structure We left on time an...

Greetings from Schaffhausen W e set out this morning from Zurich to take a local train to Bulach. Here there are several Re 6/6 locomotives stood ready for work, mainly calling ballast and aggregates from a local station. We took a look at the 6/6s and also made a reservations for the trip on Friday to Lugano and back to Olten. We tried to do this last night but the Zurich Reservations office was heavily overcrowded. At Bulach we just walked straight in and the two lads on the counter made the reservations in quick time. This one was built in 1975   From Bulach we took another local train to Huntwagen-Wil. This is where aggregates from two local companies are assembled into train loads and hauled away by the 6/6 locomotives. Unfortunately we passed one of these trains hauled by two Re 6/6s on the way here so we missed seeing this.   Here there is a very interesting single track viaduct over the river and we walked down to get some pictures of it.  While taking this p...

Our train, on the right, at Arth Goldau, ready to leave The train from Zurich was very full. It was one of the Gottardo trains in two sections, the rear one being detached at Arth Goldau. There were at least a hundred school children all with scooters going up and down the platform looking for their reservation. They all got off at Arth Goldau and luckily transferred to the train to Bellinzona.  We got out at Arth Goldau also and went to the Rigibahn station. This was the first rack railway and it is built to standard gauge, using the Riggenbach rack system. Again this two car train was full there being a school party of about twenty kids and there were also a large number of hikers some of whom detrained part way up the line. The ride up the Rigi is very pleasant passing farming areas pretty much all the way to the top but interspersed with dense forest. In all cases the hillside's are steep and many of the farms and other buildings are built into the mountain itself. There are se...