Day 7 Tuesday - Railways around Schaffhausen

Greetings from Schaffhausen

We 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 picture we were closely scrutinized by a very large long haired cat. We had disturbed it while it was sleeping.

From Huntwagen-Wil we went on to the Rhine Falls near Neuhausen and walked along by the falls across the river to the Schloss and back, and then walked along the river Rhine into Neuhausen. The Rhine is beautiful here, in the calmer parts there were swans, mallards and mergansers.

This is the railway bridge over the river to the Schloss

Sign post covered with directions to hikers etc.

View from the bridge

The bridge is single track

At Neuhausen we took a quick train to Schaffhausen. Where we admired the pedestrian area in the town centre very close to the station. There were many people walking around ands sitting in the numerous cafes. It was very quiet. Most of the buildings date back to the fifteenth century and have been well kept and restored. It was a pleasure to walk through this area. There was a Migros Restaurant which provided a very good Wiener Schnitzel.

From Schaffhausen we took a train to Winterthur where we changed for Weinfelden. Here we took another train over the single track to Bussnang. This was a request stop which one activates by pressing a button in the train when it is announced. The atlas shows a viaduct at Bussnang but it is nothing special. In fact Bussnang is nothing special as it only has a Selecta machine and no other shops etc.

Bussnang is a request stop.

We made a quick exit by stopping the next train and finished up in Wil.

Wil is at the end of a narrow gauge electric railway to Frauenfeld. It is now associated with the Appenzell group. The trains run every half an hour to Frauenfeld. It is essentially a tramway running alongside a road although there is some street running in Frauenfeld to get to the terminus outside the SBB station, along with all the local buses and the Post Buses.

Passengers waiting for a bus are allowed to wait in the bus. This is great in bad weather.

Wil

Frauenfeld

Running down the main street at Frauenfeld

Entering the station forecourt at Frauenfeld

We took the tramway back to Wil and caught a train straight back to Zurich Hauptbahnhof. This train was the latest we have been so far in the entire trip. It was about 50 seconds late.