Colin Churcher 2020

The weather was beautiful all day. The sky was blue and the few clouds were well above the mountain peaks. We had two objectives today. To ride the steam train between Triengen and Sursee and to meet up with our friend Ruth who volunteers on this railway. The second objective was to see the steam rack operation between Meiringen and Giswil. Getting to Triengen is not straight forward but a lot of fun. We took a main line train from Zurich HB to Aarau, then a local narrow gauge street tramway to Schoftland and a Post Bus to Triengen.  The whole is delightful farming country and each item of transport adhered to the timetable. Local tram at Schoftland The ubiquitous Selecta machine is now paired with Lavazza and a photo machine, We like to have time to see the rooks nesting around the local church We arrived in good time at Triengen where the ticket staff were expecting us and pointed to where Ruth was working at the small coffee/bar counter. We had so much to catch up on that I...

 We caught an early local train first thing from Zurich to Dieticon where we transferred to the narrow gauge local tramway which took us to Bremgarten. On Saturdays there is an interesting local market which we walked through, then along by the river to examine the old highway bridge and an early hydro plant.  It is amazing what you can see stuck to a wall Fish Bread Cheese An interesting spectator Back in town we caught the tram on to Wohlen. We were running a few minutes late and there was a manic scramble from our train down through the underpass and up to the platform to pick up the main line train to Lenzburg. The driver held his train for us and I think everybody made the connection.  Seetalbahn train at Lenzburg - it is across the road from the station At Lensburg we had another short connection to the SBB line to Lucerne known as the Seetalbahn. It was a relaxing enjoyable ride through pleasant farming country. Cattle (dairy and beef) sheep, goats as well as corn,...

  The car running into the lower station. The Dolderbahn Is a short rack railway climbing up into the hills above Zurich. We took the tram T3 To the lower terminal and rode the line to the upper terminal. There are just two vehicles, both built by Stadler and delivered in the last 18 months or so. In normal times only one car is in use and it just shuttles up and down. The views from the summit are excellent across the lake provided you can avoid the tree cover. The next car up was filled by forty or fifty school children with their teachers.  There were five kids crammed into the front seat so all could get a driver's eye view. Tram departing the upper terminal When two cars are in use they meet at this central loop. The rails and rack all move together. From here we took a tram back into town and stopped to see whether there was any action at Swiss Mill which receives large quantities of grain in rail hoppers which are switched into the mill over the local road network. Ther...

 Today is a travel day. We are taking the ICE train from Hamburg to Zurich. As usual DB seems to be able to lose time easily but they have a good system to tell travelers which connections they have missed and the time of the next one. Our train lost time continually and was eventually cancelled at Basel Bad. We were forced to take a local train to the SBB station in Basel and then a very crowded TGV to Zurich Larry asked a question about the taxi rank at the MW airport. It is a static display and there is no movement similar to that which can be found on the tarmac. A great number of brake lights have been installed and there is a feeling of hurry up. Patagonia I have shown a few pictures in an earlier blog but I should also mention a small operation at one end where there is a wye. This is used continually by a small train but one leg of the wye is obstructed by sheep grazing on the line. As the train approaches this section the sheep move out of the way. AS the train is ...

We spent the whole day in Miniatur Wunderland going over what we had seen yesterday in greater detail. Final Comments on the Airport  We spent  first hour watching the planes taking off and landing and looking at the airport services. There is an extremely large taxi rank. This is the real time arrivals and departures board The Water Feature The water is very clear and kept in good condition so that it is easy to see right to the bottom. There is a crab at one area which has pincers that are moving. We saw a sailing ship come and the vessels are still controlled manually. There is a banana train pulled by a Danish locomotive running backwards and forwards along the waterfront The reverse movement is protected by a penguin sitting on the buffer. Not a safe operation. Provence This is always worth watching to look at the small villages and settlements that are nestled in the cliffs. It is easy to find Provence from the field of lavendar on the hill A small settlement beside a fi...