August 29 - Travel in the Zurich Area

 

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. There was no action to be seen.
We then continued by tram and transferred at Alstetten to another tram on the Litalbahn line which runs all the way up to Kilwangen
Litalbahn tram at Alstetten

At Kilwangen we had hoped to see a number of freight trains leaving the yard. There were not very many but there were a large number of passenger trains, a few stopping but most running through at high speed.
We were happy to see this Re 620, a very powerful locomotive which is now rapidly being replaced by more modern power.

This train of heritage equipment caught us by surprise.

It then became evident that the Zurich area rail network was experiencing problems as a result of an accident with a pedestrian or passenger in the downtown core. This was affecting many local services. There were a few cancellations but we managed to get back into town but it was evident that our plans to travel to Rapperswil in the afternoon would have to be cancelled. Instead we took an airport bound tram to Glattbrugg (the tram network was not affected). There wasn't much happening there so we went on to Bulach to see if we could find some more Re 620s and we were very lucky indeed. A number are stood here to work gravel trains from Huntwangen Wil, usually along with some more modern locomotives. Today there was a line of six 620s, with a clear view and no railway equipment to get in the way.




Some still had their blazons but many have been removed by the railway or collectors

By this time we were both pretty tired and decided to call it a day. The next train from Bulach to Zurich was going to be very crowded so we decided to wait for the next one, a quite new Stadler double decker train - the type we saw being built at St. Margrethen a couple of years ago. It was a comfortable way to end our travels today.











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