Thursday 31 August - A Visit to A Stadler Factory

This morning, Paul and I took an early train from Zurich through St. Gallen to St. Margrethen on the border with Austria. Here we were met by Ms. Elena Steinmann, a delightful Assistant in the Company's Human Resources Department (Stadler Rheintal AG) who introduced us to Ian (or Johann) who spent the morning with us explaining how the company operated and who then took us through the various production operations carried out there. For obvious reasons photography was not allowed. However, the work carried out was explained in great detail.

This plant is one of many in the organization and it specializes in producing double decker trains, currently for SBB and then OBB. The aluminum shells are produced elsewhere and shipped here as are the trucks etc., here everything is painted, assembled, fitted out and tested. I was surprised to learn that each double decker car required about 160 kilometers of wire. The testing is thorough and rigorous.

At the end of a wonderful, informative and friendly visit (in English!) we were taken to the staff restaurant for an excellent light lunch.

A brand new train for Liverpool, ready to be shipped

A brand new train for Austria was being put into service, The above two pictures were taken from a public overbridge close to the station - away from the plant.

After lunch we went back to the station and took a train the short distance to Rheineck where we took the rack train up to Walzenhausen.

There are plans to convert this short line to automatic operation similar to autonomous vehicles. Stadler see this as a way of developing this technology for more general use some time in the future. At present the car, which runs on the unique 1,200 mm gauge, seems to be in need of replacement. Our ride up the line was interesting. There is a short level section which includes a road crossing which has heavy vehicular traffic. The car then enters the rack, followed by a tunnel after which there is a climb through heavily wooded countryside. then farmland, then there is another tunnel to the terminus. The whole ride takes about six minutes.

The village at the top is little more than a sleepy crossroad, and the sheep were very sleepy as well. It has wonderful views over to the lake.

Looking down from the top station we could seen the next train approaching

On the way down we could sit behind the driver who is here approaching the lower tunnel.

As could have been expected in Switzerland, there was a good connection between this car and a main line train so we had to delay getting Magnums until we arrived at St. Gallen.

At St. Gallen we visited an excellent model shop, Zubateck.

Our journey back to Zurich was not straight forward as Paul wanted to stop at Wil to photograph an Austrian diesel that was stabled there.

This is owned by Widmer Rail Services and was used in last year's sugar beet movement.

Having got to Wil, I mentioned that we could go back to Zurich by taking the narrow gauge tramway over to Frauenfeld and get a train back from there. 

This is always a pleasant ride through good country and running alongside a main highway. There was one piece of excitement when we were brought to a halt in one of the small villages. Someone or something had damaged the gates that were protecting the railway a road crossing. The train was able to pass through safely but all the street protection lights were flashing madly and all traffic was brought to a halt - we went on our merry way.

At Frauenfeld there was just time for me to photo this, childrens' car before our train arrived to return us to Zurich

Today's weed of the day was seen growing between two platforms at Wil. Love the flowers.