Tuesday 2 September - Train watching south of Basel

0830 Train Zurich to Olten (?)  

We are in an ICN train very comfortable with a body tilting mechanism. We pass some allotments where people can rent some land on which to grow vegetables and flowers. A paint company building with a rainbow of colors through the window blinds, the river Aare runs alongside the railway around Dietikon. Things seemed to be going well until we came to a stop at Magenwil. We were told that there was a problem with the overhead line that provides 15,000 volts to the train. Not sure how long it will take to fix. About 30 minutes later there was still no idea of the length of the delay.. We decided to get off the ICN and cross to another platform to get a local train to Aarau. As we were waiting for the local train of course the ICN moved away. At Aarau we changed to another local train for Olten and a final train from there to Pratteln where we arrived an hour later than planned.

This is the end of the yard where the BLS stands its locomotives ready for the next trip. There were several standing in the siding and there was a continual movement in and out. 

BLS locomotives waiting assignment to a train

There were frequent freight trains on the main line both in and out of the yard hauled by a variety of locomotive types as well as companies the main ones were BLS and SBB but a number of German locomotives were also seen. We were fortunate to come across several Re 6/6 locomotives still hauling main line freight. I quickly lost count of the freight train movements - likely about one every five minutes - and this along with a frequent service of various passenger trains.

A Re 620 on a freight

We walked into the town to find out that the hobby shop is only the open for a very short period of time each week. However we found a bakery and one of the servers spoke fluent French so we were able to order coffee and lunch which was extremely good although somewhat filling. 

  
 

Afterwards we went back onto the platform and saw an SBB diesel track evaluation car. 

SBB diesel track evaluation car

We then took a local train to Liestal to see the vast improvements that have been made by the railway in putting in a fourtg main track and platform improvements. It's been very well done. There was a school train in a siding and a number of visits were being made. 

A school party visits the school train

From Liestal we went on to Cissach to see the trains running around the attractive curve. Many freight trains and many passenger trains including German, French and Italian were seen. From Cissach we took a local train to Olten where we caught an ICN train right back to Zurich - this time without any delay..