A typical Swiss church with a spire and clock - in Erstfeld
We had three objectives today: -
- to visit Erstfeld to watch the monthly exercising of the historic electric locomotives.
- to visit Goschenen and observes the additional traffic which is now traveling over the old Gotthard tunnel as a result of the accident in the new base tunnel.
-to go to Andermatt and come back to Zurich via the Grimsel pass.
We took a Giruno train from Zurich as far as Arth Goldau. It was a full train - in fact two trains coupled together - 22 cars. We changed to a local train getting us to Erstfeld just before the demonstrations should have begun only to find out that they had been cancelled and so we took an earlier train to Goschenen - this was a Gottardo multiple unit train that was pretty crowded.
Erstfeld - Giruno
Erstfeld
Saturday and Sunday are the days that many Swiss get out to hike in the countryside and most trains are crowded with people with backpacks. The ride up to Goschenen is always interesting. As the train climbs higher it twists and turns so that we actually pass the church at the village of Wassen three times. Goschenen was not particularly busy although there were a number of through passenger trains that would not normally have been on this route had it not been for the accident in the new base tunnel. (a class 610 in Italian livery and a Giruno.)
Paul took this shot of a freight train exiting the tunnel and beginning the descent. He said it was going the wrong way because the sun was not on the nose.
The narrow gauge rack line from Goschenen to Andermatt is always interesting. The rack is engaged just a little way up away from the station
From Goschenen we took the amazing, short, ride up to Andermatt. It is quite a spectacular journey even though it is very short as it quickly gives a bird's eye view of Goschenen.
At Andermatt there wasn't a great deal to observe so we decided to go on to Oberwald through the 14 kilometre tunnel. Apart from the steam locomotive running on the old route there was not a great deal of interest here so we went to the station buffet and drank beer until it was time for the bus to Meiringen.
Andermatt
Oberwald
Oberwald
The post bus ride from Oberwald to Meiringen through the Grimsel Pass was quite an experience. The bus was reasonably full when we started but we were slowed down significantly by an incredibly large number of cyclists going up the hill towards Gletsch. This delayed us significantly while all along the road people were joining the bus. In the end there were about twenty standing all the while we were going round hairpin bends rtc. The journey down the Grimsel pass was an amazing experience the roads were narrow and full of cyclists. There is a series of lakes together with dams which provide a great deal of interest.
Meiringen - this switcher looked new but is may just be well cared for
Ay Meiringen we contemplated a quick trip to Innertkirchen and back but there was some problem with a couple of bridges so we decided to catch the first train back to Luzern then Zurich.
The final part of the journey was from Meiringen back to Lucerne. This is always a delightful ride particularly at this time of day. The narrow gauge line uses rack in several places and our twelve car train took quite some time to engage and disengage the rack. But the views are stupendous and in many cases Paul thought they looked just like a model railway. There was a large flat green field, all the same shade of green which looked as if it had been done with static grass. There was a square cornfield in the middle and Paul said "it looks as if the hobby shop had run out of corn."
We passed several Lakes and this time of day people were sitting out maybe over barbecue just enjoying the evening. There were small villages each with a small church and a tall spire. At Lucerne we left the narrow gauge and caught the next train back to Zurich.
Comments
Post a Comment