Day 20 Monday - Two Interesting Branch Lines and a different way to get back to Yverdon les Bains.
We took a train from Yverdon les Bains to Chavornay to find that the switching that we used to see doesn't seem to happen there certainly early in the morning. There is a short branch line from here to Orbe which is electrified at 750 V DC, the only such standard gauge line in the country. There is quite a bit of industrial switching required and the plan is to convert the line to the standard Swiss system at 15,000V AC. However the passenger trains, essentially two single units, were becoming life expired and so two two tram trains have been acquired from Karlsruhe as they can operate on both systems. We waited to see the arrival of one of these trains from Orbe and were surprised to see that they are three unit trains. Quite a jump from the earlier equipment. These tram trains started operating here last month.
We went up to Orbe and noted that there were none of the older decrepit locomotives lying around in sidings we had seen on earlier visits. At Orbe we saw the second new passenger train and one of the earlier cars was still there as well as switcher number one which did not seem to be used.
A quick look in the town of Orbe was somewhat disappointing as it seems to be overrun with automobiles.
We took the train back to Chavornay and transferred to Lausanne where we caught a train to Nyon. The first order of business was the Migros Restaurant which was difficult to figure out and not very good.
The narrow gauge station at Nyon of the Nyon - St. Cerge Railway is two platforms underground. Not very pleasant. The trains are essentially two car trains mostly fairly new. We left Nyon and climbed up through vineyards and apple orchards to an area where there was cattle pasture and then into forests. The line has many request stops but not a great number of passengers except the commuters in the area of Nyon.
We reached the terminus at La Cure which is close to the French border. We were a minute or so late and that gave us no time to look around because the train came straight back. Approaching Nyon the views towards the mountains were extremely clear.
Getting back to Yverdon les Bains we decided a country bus ride would be fun. At Renens we took the standard gauge train through the Lausanne suburbs to the Lausanne Flon station. This line serves the whole area and makes frequent stops. The average time the doors were open at each stop was about 4 seconds and people were moving in and out quickly.
At Lausanne Flon we were surprised to find better signage and were able to quickly find the LEB narrow gauge line to Bercher. In the past we have found this confusing but it is now easy to use Flon station
Only every other train goes all the way through to Bercher, so we took the first train to Echallens and waited for the next train to get us to the end of the line. We had a short time to look around Echallens and we were surprised to find a field of sheep right in the middle of town.
The train to Bercher delivered us there on time and there was about 7 minutes to wait for the Post Bus to take us to Yverdon.
Our bus was due at 15 minutes past the hour. At 14 minutes past the hour - no bus. At fourteen and a half minutes past the hour the bus arrived and departed right on time. It is a pleasant ride back to Yverdon through small farming communities and we got back within about 25 minutes. The bus was not very full and most of the other passengers were regulars who knew the driver.
A Miscellany of Freight Trains Seen Today
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| An Re 4/4 on a Postal train at Yverdon |
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| The Re 4/4 is fitted with an automatic coupling |
The Re 6/6 cut off and move away
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