Sunday 7 September 2025 - The 150 anniversary celebrations at Bauma

Today we went to Bauma to participate in the celebration of the 150 anniversary of the connection of their local line to the Swiss Railway Network. It was also a village celebration too so there were very large crowds. 

We left Zurich HB and took a local train to Ruti where we changed for Bauma. Bauma is the center of a large steam based heritage operation which normally operates over an SBB freight line to Hinwil. Today there were three operations taking place at the same time. 

A red arrow car, coming from Bauma initially, ran over the SBB passenger network between Hinwil and Winterthur.

Between Bauma and Hinwil trains were run with two steam locomotives and an electric shunter. This section is the normal heritage operation,

The third operation was over the SBB line between Bauma and Winterthur using two heritage electric units. It should be noted that the normal SBB train service between Winterthur, Bauma and Ruti was operating - two trains an hour in each direction.

The overall heritage train service varied but was hourly for much of the day

I set out next pictures of the various trains

This is a red arrow car built in the 1930s and now based at Balsthal. This ran a service between Winterthur and Hinwil over the SBB passenger network.

This electric shunter ran a couple of trips between Bauma and Hinwil. It had a number of exotic freight cars and a passenger car on the end.




This large 2-6-2 tank ran trips between Bauma and Hinwil
 
This 0-6-0 tank also ran between Bauma and Hinwil

This heritage electric train ran between Bauma and Winterthur.

This was the second electric heritage train operating between Bauma and Winterthur.

We arrived early at Bauma to see the preparations that were being made in the old train shed.

There was an overflow crowd at lunch time.

At Hinwil the local supermarket Migrolino, which uses the former station building, has a display of local railway items including the interlocking system which controlled the signals and switches.

Bauma was celebrating.


There was a band in one of the beer halls

In the locomotive maintenance area we found some interesting items.

This Re 4/4 has just been repainted at Koblenz into Swiss Express colours

This LocPool switcher has been completely rebuilt to run on electricity, diesel and battery. We were given a good tour by the driver and his girlfriend, both of whom now sport Canada pins.

Paul and I took the steam train from Bauma to Hinwil and return. The weather was sunny and hot and the scenery was terrific, particularly the few glimpses we had of the mountains. People were friendly and out to have an interesting and a good time

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