Colin Churcher 2020

Our first objective today was to see the narrow gauge train between Le Locle and Les Brenets in the Jura. To get there we took a train to Biel/Bienne, another to La Chaux de Fonts and a further one to Le Locle. The line to Les Brenets on the border with France is very short and has a couple of tunnels. A recent proposal was to replace the ancient railcars with an electric bus which would also go into Les Brenets proper and give better service. However, some technical difficulties have been found and the line continues in use. Le Locle Les Brenets The artwork on the body sides is excellent. Because of the way the timetable works we could not spend very long at Les Brenets but made out was via Le Locle back to La Chaux de Fonds for lunch. The station is amazing in that it is served by SBB, BLS, TPN (Neuchatel) and SNCF on the standard gauge and the TPN and CJ (Jura) on the narrow gauge. Every hour, just before the hour trains come in from all over the place and leave again just after the...

The sun was good for the view across the river towards the covered bridge at Olten as Paul and I walked over to the SBB for a private appointment with a Senior Expert Railway Operations and Technology. This was the format of our meeting Welcome & Introduction Presentation about SBB & Operations Tour through the most modern Control Centre in Olten Optional Simulator working desk and demonstration of our Signalling & Traffic Management Layers Discussion & Questions The presentation was very good and our questions and comments were well answered. The contrast with Canada was quite interesting - for example there are some 1400 railway grade crossings on the SBB -  I had to contend with some 50,000!  Train control is divided into some four sections across the system, however, the systems used are all common and staff are trained so as to be familiar regardless of location. The traffic control centres are broken down into smaller sections which contain signallers as ...

I thought long and hard about an introductory picture for this day and finally decided upon this Guard Goat who kept a close eye on us while we were photographing industrial locomotives at Balsthal. Similar approach to the Guard Cat at Huntwangen Will a couple of days ago.  We met the Managing Director of the Oensingen Balstal railway (OeBB) at Balsthal and he took us for a very thorough visit. The OeBB is a short standard gauge line running off the SBB line at Oensingen. It is a very active railway - there is a strong passenger business with trains running to Oensingen every thirty minutes - there is a good freight operation, mainly from a paper mill with interchange at Oensingen. - the OeBB takes in locomotives from other railways and repairs them - the OeBB acts as a dealer in second hand locomotives - the OeBB has a strong heritage operation both with the locomotives and equipment is owns as well as other locomotives and equipment owned by others, including SBB Historique, whic...

The tram at Wohlen Today we moved from Zurich to Olten. The journey could have been very quick and straightforward but we chose an unusual route. We caught an early train from Zurich to Dietikon and transferred to the tram but this time we went on through Bremgarten to the end of the line at Wohlen. The tram we caught was a double set put on for the morning rush but I thought the second set would be taken out of service. We were in the back half. At Bremgarten we got out of the rear set and transferred to the front part of the train. Sure enough there was an announcement in German only and just the front part went forward. We sdecided to soend a little time at Wohlen on the off chance of catching a few freight trains This grafitti on a wagon is well done There is quite an intensive passenger service through here - about six trains an hour in each direction. This switcher was making moves around the station area. It is running here with nobody in the cab. Presumably the crew in the fron...