Murren - August 27 2024

A train approaching Murren station

Murren is a small village where cars are not allowed. It is served by a short narrow gauge railway which is unique in that it is not connected to the rest of the Swiss railway system. To get to Murren one must take the train to Lauterbrunnen and then a cable car to get to Grutschalp for the train to Winteregg and Murren. 

Unfortunately the area around Interlaken is overrun by tourists which makes moving around difficult and occasionally unpleasant. We were aware of this problem but decided to try and get to Murren anyway. The journey is even more odious at the moment because a heavy rainstorm a couple of weeks ago destroyed part of the track between Meiringen and Interlaken which means that everyone now has to travel via Bern to Interlaken as opposed the the more scenic route through Lucern.

Our train from Zurich to Bern was very very full. There were not many seats left in first class so I would think there was standing in economy. The journey of just under an hour to Bern was on time and there was a mad scramble for the train to Spiez. Again very few seats available in first class. At Spiez there was another scramble for the train to Interlaken Ost which was on time. Here we were lucky enough to find first class seats in the narrow gauge train to Lauterbrunnen where the cattle hurding began. Getting a large number of people into the cable car was quite a trick. We were told to take off our back packs to make more standing room. Then there was a final mad rush for seats for the short ride to Murren.

At Murren we were finally able to see the trains. Stadler are providing three new ones (shown above top) which will replace the three older trains (above below). It was quite a job delivering them which had to be done with heavy equipment over mountain tracks.

Murren is primarily a tourist place and there was not a great deal to hold us. We took a couple of pictures of trains and decided to cut our loss by going back to Spiez which always has something of interest.

The scenery was fantastic.

At Interlaken the crowds were very thick indeed. We caught a train to Spiez and found an interesting freight train.

Two electric locomotives, the lead being in Marklin advertising livery (model railway equipment), a big Re 620 providing the extra muscle

The blazon from the Re 620

A Re 420 came through light engine.

This 610 was on a working to Brig.

The prospect of a further two hours on a train to get back to Zurich was tempered when we found a train that was running direct from Spiez via Bern to Zurich. Things became better when it turned out to be an Re 460 with an IC2000 double decker set. We found good seats in the top deck and enjoyed a smooth, comfortable and quiet ride back to Zurich.