Colin Churcher 2020

Avian train cleaning crew.  Sparrow cleaning off squashed bugs from a Re 460 while on a short station stop at Lausanne trainshed. These notes and pictures prepared by Paul Churcher Lausanne is a major city in French Switzerland on the shores of Lac Leman. Trains from Geneva pass through on their way to Brig. Lausanne is also the destination for cross country trains originating in Basel (ICNs running via Delemont) and St Gallen's (IC2000s running via Zurich, Bern, and Fribourg as well as ICNs runnig via Yverdon Les Bains). International trains are well represented with TGVs running in from Paris. Lausanne is a stop for Pendolino services linking Geneva with Milan. SBB Lausanne is one of four control centres that coordinate rail traffic in Switzerland. The other centres are at Olten, Zurich, and Pollegio. Lausanne trainshed Station approaches from the west Trackwork requires maintenance. There always seem to be large numbers of SBB workers in high visibility vests inspecting track at...

A train to Les Pleiades in the platform at Vevey. To the left is No. 73 a historic car built in 1970 The Chemins de fee Electriques Veveysans is a metre gauge line worked on 850V DC.  It is in two parts. The section from Vevey to Blonay is an adhesion line with local  and commuter traffic.  The section from Blonay to Les Pleiades is worked on the Strub rack with a maximum gradient of 20%. Blonay is the junction point for the historic trains to the Blonay-Chamby Museum. You never know what you will find lurking in the sidings at Vevey. No. 82 is a locomotive built in 1938 Across from the narrow gauge platform is the SBB main line. Here a Re 6/6 hurries a westbound freight towards Lausanne At Blonay even the adhesion section can be pretty steep Some of the trains are decorated A meet at Blonay. The line is part of the MOB system and some of the cars have the Golden Pass livery Blonay looking towards Les Pleiades. This is an operating day at the museum and there are historic...

A BLS train headed by a heritage electric 206, built in 1939, at Interlaken. Interlaken is the junction point between the standard gauge line from Bern and Spiez (with SBB, BLS and DB ICE trains) and two metre gauge lines.  The Zentralbahn runs to Meiringen and on the rack to Luzern while the Berner Oberland Bahn (BOB) runs to Grindelwald for the Jungfrau. The Line to Meiringen is used by the Golden Pass trains taking tourists from Luzern to Montreux with connecting trains at Interlaken and Zweisimmen. There are two stations in Interlaken, Ouest and Ost, the second being a busy and frequently frantic interchange point with many tourists complete with luggage. There is a canal between Lakes Thun and Brienz between the two stations and the railway follows this. In 2010 the BLS local trains were hauled by brown Re4/4s, now replaced by multiple units A walk around the interchange between the gauges is interesting. In 2010 an SBB locomotive in the green livery is switching. It has a dia...

Watching trains at Lausanne can be fun. The grime on the front catches many small insects and during the short station stop armies of sparrows converge on the locomotive to pick up grimy snacks. In western Switzerland we usually stay at Yverdon-les-Bains.  There is a direct train from Lausanne but we have found another interesting way by taking the narrow gauge LEB line to Bercher from where there is a Post Bus which runs through lovely countryside to Yverdon.  This metre gauge line runs on 1500 V DC. Finding the LEB in Lausanne can be a bit of a challenge and the short metro trip to Lausanne Flon is the easiest way The LEB has a number of older units, this is No. 27 built in 1966 and named Etagnieres complete with blazon. At present there is a frequent service to Echallens which houses the workshops. Travellers to Bercher may have to change trains here. The run from Echallens to Bercher is very much a roadside tramway through rolling farming country. Bercher has just one plat...