Colin Churcher 2020

We decided to change the schedule today to go to the Jura and hope that the weather is better in the Morges area tomorrow.  We wanted to see a number of narrow gauge lines: - Le Locle to Les Brenets, operated by some old railcars and threatened with replacement by electric buses - La Chaux de Fonds to Les Ponts de Martel - Jura railway from La Chaux de Fonds to Glovelier - Aare Seeland from Biel to Ins We were leaving a fun place (Yverdon) and visiting the slug capital Comedy from the Yverdon Post  We first found a freight train in Yverdon headed by a 4/4. These are likely to become quite rare in the future.   We took a train to Neuchatel. From there we took a BLS to Le Locle. The train reverses at Chambrelien and this was speeded up by having a driver in the cab at each end. There was a little time at Le Locle there to see that's the sidings for the heritage group have now been practically completely cleared. We saw slugs.  We saw several on the footpath Train ...

More whimsey on an SBB Twindex Today we traveled from Zurich to Yverdon-les-Bains. Our first stop was Spiez, we went with a change at Olten. These trains were nowhere near as crowded as the direct trains via Bern. At Spiez we spent some time watching the trains, particularly freight trains. One train was hauled by a Euro 9000, there were two headed by SBB Vectrons, both double-headed, as well as a BLS train of empty tank cars. On top of that, one of the few remaining green SBB 4/4s came through and we also spotted the brown BLS 4/4 that we saw last Friday.  It was noticeable that whenever a freight train came to a stand in the platform to change drivers the exiting driver would clean the handrails with a piece of paper or cloth for the new driver Date nails are used frequently in wooden ties We had an early lunch at the Migros restaurant just outside the station and then caught a BLS train to Zweisimmen.  The view over lake Thun from our table We have noticed a large number of...

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 ov...

W e went to Zurich main station to travel to Erstfeld. However,efore we left there were two interesting items.  An overnight  locomotive hauled train arrived, and a Re 4/4 was put on the back to pull the empty carriages. It had a diamond stack.    As we were about to search for our train a red arrow came in, it was the Balsthal car ready to make its journey to Bauma for the weekend celebrations.  We took an ICN down to Arth Goldau and changed to a local train for Erstfeld. We arrived just as the show was beginning.  SBB historic group here exercises some of the historic locomotives every first Saturday of the month. Today there was an Ae6/6, an Ae 8/14 and a krocodile. There was quite a gathering and the locomotives were run up and down in a couple of sidings so that everybody had a good view.  Ae 6/6 The Krocodile It was difficult to photograph the Ae 8/14 because it has so many wheels The Ae 8/14 is a massive machine However there was a problem in th...