Pratteln and Koblenz - Monday 2 September 2024

 

This is our last day in Olten and we decided to start by looking at Pratteln which provides some locomotives to the large yards there. We could have taken a stopping train direct but thought it would be better to take a fast train to Basel and used this stopper to Pratteln.
Thinking about the gorgeous vegetation growing by the tracks we saw at the garden centre yesterday I took a look at what SBB are doing. There are plenty of weeds along the right of way but none so good as those seen yesterday

At Pratteln we saw a succession of trains and light engine movements to the from the yard,
A BLS 465 class is well shown in the sun. These are similar to the SBB 460 locomotives

A Rhein Cargo freight

Widmer Rail Services on an oil train
Two SBB Re 620 locomotives running light.
Among the freights seen was a Hupac train headed up with an SBB Vectron. These carry trucks and trailers across the country with a special coach where the drivers can relax and get their rest. Neither of us got a good picture today but here is a picture Paul took at Liestal in 2016 of a BLS headed train. The coach for the truck drivers is next the locomotive giving a smooth ride. These trains run between Germany and Austria in the north and Italy in the south.

From Pratteln we decided to go to Brugg for lunch. This involved a stopping train to Frick and transfer to another train for Brugg. After the Migros Restaurant we took a train to Turgi with a quick connection to Koblenz.
Koblenz is on the Rhine River close to the border with Germany. On the way I saw a number of tank traps presumably left over from WW2. 
A heritage organization here has a number of interesting items, including a green Re 420 which was locked away. This car from the Martigny - Orsieres line has recently been moved here from Martigny.

The Aare river here is very wide. This is where it joins the Rhine.
From Koblenz we decided to return to Olten on the line to Bulach, More new trackage for us. We took a train from Koblenz, and with short connections at Bulach and Zurich HB were back in Olten in fine style. The line from Koblenz to Bulach passes through interesting countryside with many small villages. There is an aggregate operation which provides traffic for the Re 620 locomotives based at Bulach.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Wednesday - Zurich Hauptbahnhof Part One

Image
Zurich Hauptbahnhof  Paul has prepared some extensive notes and photos of the Zurich Hauptbahnhof.  This will be in several parts.  The busiest station in Switzerland is Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich HB) which is used primarily by the SBB. It has 26 tracks serving almost 3000 trains daily and it is one of the busiest stations in the world. It was built in the 1870s and is a main shopping destination as well as a transport hub. There are three levels for platforms and the "Shopville" shopping plaza.  The river Sihl river passes right through the station with platforms passing above and below the river. This shows the general layout of the station with the surrounding tram tracks shown in purple Tracks 3 to 18 are terminal tracks located at ground level, served by two side platforms and seven island platforms. These are used by long-distance trains from throughout Switzerland, and by international trains. Tracks 21 and 22 are underground terminal tracks, served by a sing...
Read more

Coming Home - Wrap Up - Sunday 15 Setember 2024

Image
This video, by Noel Wyler,  shows what we have just missed. Last Saturday (14 September) the Oensingen Balsthal  Railway organized an event to commemorate 60 years of the Re 4/4 locomotives. They brought together 24 of them and ran them as one train. Paul and I flew home on KLM from Schiphol Airport. We took a train from Den Haag directly to the airport. The trip back was marred by a couple with a young boy who was obviously teething. He cried almost continuously for the full six hours. I found I could tune him out when I dug deep into the KLM sound system and found a treasure trove of classical music. Bach violin concertos, Mozart piano concerto No. 23, Beethoven symphonies, Schuman etc. We survived the stupidities at the entrance of the Montreal airport and caught the KLM bus back to Ottawa where we arrived precisely on time. A good ending to a wonderful, tremendous, trip  
Read more

Travel Basel to Den Haag - Wednesday 11 September

Image
  A Dutch speciality - pancake with cheese, mushrooms and bacon. This was the only picture I took today - after we had finally arrived at Den Haag. We went early to the station at Basel  to check on our train to Dusseldorf only to find out it had been cancelled. A visit to the SBB ticket office revealed that the train hadn't actually been cancelled but was starting today from Karlsruhe. They found a connecting train leaving a little earlier which we took. This became progressively later and later so that it arrived at Karlsruhe just as the connection was about to pull out. A frantic dash across the platform and we were able to claim our seats. The journey to Dusseldorf was peculiar, There were periods when the train went fast (up to almost 200 kmph) and other periods when it dawdled. It progressively lost time except that it arrived at its final destination, Dusseldorf, eleven minutes early. (An injudicious use of recovery time in the schedule?) Dusseldorf gave us an opportuni...
Read more