Thursday 3 September 2026 - East West main line

This morning we decided to go to the Solothurn area to see what we could see on the East West Main line. We took a train direct from Zurich to Solothurn then changed for Bettlach . There was a useful road overpass but it would have been a long walk in the hot sun to get to it. We walked a little way but in fact there was very little freight traffic on the line, although we did see a freight hauled by a 420. 

A 620 runs light through Bettlach

Bettlach

We took a train back to Solothurn West and walked to the to the central train station through the Old Town which was quite impressive. 

Solothurn

The Aar Sealand tram starts in the middle of the street in front of the Solothurn station

After a quick snack we took the street tramway to Oensingen where the shoe advert locomotive was switching a siding  and a 420 was waiting to take out a freight to wards Olten. 

We took a short trip to Balsthal to see what was stored there and then back to Oensingen.

A 620 stored at Balsthall

An oil train running through Oensingen

Our return train to Zurich HB was shown as running five minutes late. It did pick up four of those minutes by the time we arrived.

We were back in Zurich because the Churchill Car was serving as a pop up restaurant in the main station and we had a reservation, It was built in 1939 and was used by Winston Churchill on his numerous visits to Switzerland after he was defeated in the post war election. We had a good three course meal and enjoyed ourselves tremendously.












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