Thursday 24 August - Balsthal and Ste. Ursanne

When I made the booking here at Olten I asked if we could have rooms facing the railway. The manager agreed and this is the view from my room

The morning went according to plan:

0811 Olten (1B-D) S20 to Oensingen (4) 0828

0849 Oensingen (5) S22 to Balsthal (2) 0857

         Look at preserved equipment

0922 Balsthal, Bahnhof, Stop B B129 to Gänsbrunnen, Bahnhof 0958  Postbus

         Look at tunnel film train

1006 Gänsbrunnen (2) S21 to Solothurn West (1) 1022  Request Stop

         look at Solothurn    

         lunch Migros Restaurant Wengistrasse 13, 4500 Solothurn 

Before leaving Olten today we took a leisurely stroll along by the river with its views of the bridge by the old town.

There was a short stop at Oensingen to look at the local transport. The SBB local and main line services stop there. There were two Post buses outside the station. The Balsthal railway terminates in the station forecourt while the AAre Seeland narrow gauge trains stop a block away. The local city buses are also in attendance.
The Balsthal Railway is a private one running between Oensingen and Balsthal. The journey time is quite short but the train was pretty smooth for superannuated SBB one.
This is an old Re 4/4 being held at Balsthall

The Postbus from Balsthal to Gänsbrunnen waas driven by a pleasant young lady who seemed to know everybody in the small villages she drove through

This is known as the tunnel train which shows a movie to tourists while riding into the Gänsbrunnen tunnel
The Gänsbrunnen Tunnelmouth

We took a train into Solothurn West and walked through the old part of toen before having an early lunch at a Migros Restaurant


The intention this afternoon was to take a train out to Ste. Ursanne, the other side of Glovelier, in the Jura, to get a picture of a train running over the viaduct there. I caused a problem by getting into the wrong train at Solothurn which meant that we had to change our plans a little. The end result was that we made it to Ste. Ursanne and Paul got his picture. By this time it was extremely hot indeed and I decided to stay around the station and try to find a little shade.
My picture of a train on the Ste. Ursanne viaduct.

Here is Paul's excellent picture of the same train









 

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