Our appointment at Erstfeld for the visit to the tunnel was not until 1330 so we had plenty of time to make our way there and saw many interesting things.
This is a Stadler Girouno train, built for the route to Milan. We took it as far as Arth Goldau. The ride out along the lake in the approach to Arth Goldau is always very pleasant and we watched a freight train on the line from Lucern on the other side of the lake as it too approached Arth Goldau.
That freight train we watched got in ahead of us but we saw this freight just getting ready to leave towards Lucern. This is the first time we have ever seen a freight train hauled by three Re 6/6. locomotives. This is the equivalent of about 33,000 horsepower. The driver achieved a rapid start.
Rigibahn in Migros vinyl
The Rigibahn was also moving a couple of trains around in the lower level yard.
Arth Goldau is always busy with freight trains to and from Italy via the Gotthard. here a BLS hauled train going south
From Arth Goldau we took a Gottardo train up the old route as far as Goschenen. We have travelled this route many times. It now sees very few freights and passenger traffic is much reduced with the opening of the new low level tunnel but the climb up is well worth the effort, particularly as we pass the church at Wassen three times.
At Goschenen the narrow gauge MGB was making trips twice an hour to Andermatt
We had a quick look around the village. The water in the river is obviously glacial.
We took a local train back down past the Wassen church to Erstfeld to take the tunnel experience. Paul and I were with six others and a guide. The tour was in German which neither Paul nor I speak, although people were very helpful. We were taken in a minivan to Amsteg where there is an access road to the Gotthard Tunnel. This was used in the construction and still has a use today.
After the gate into the mountainside the access road is almost two kilometers long.
This is where we were given a briefing about the construction of the tunnel.
This is a view of the tunnel itself. Unfortunately this is the tunnel that was affected by the accident and although it will shortly be brought back into regular use, no trains were passing while we were there.
We had to have our picture taken to record this visit. In the back is the shrine to St. Barbara, the protector of tunnellers.
A demonstration of the tunnel construction.
The visit was well worth the effort and gave us a better idea of the way construction was carried out. It was surprising to find out the amount of access roadway tunneling had to be done.
After the visit we found we had a rather long wait for a direct train back to Zurich. Instead we took a local train to Zug and changed to another local, S5. This took us on a route we have not travelled before via Zurich Altstetten. It was through pleasant country with some industry, small villages and much farming.
Another full and interesting day. Tomorrow we will be looking at viaducts.
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