European Railroad Discussion > Need help identifying this train?

A friend of mine was visiting Zurich last week and sent me a picture of this unique looking train

Can anyone tell me what it is and anything about it?

Thanks Bill

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Yes. It's fugly. LOL!

Brian Ehni

the "Churchill Arrow" and it's certainly not ugly!

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SBB_RAe_4/8_1021

Preserved by the SBB (Swiss Federal Railways), it's a one off built in 1939, the other Red Arrow railcars were single unit double enders.

https://www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/groups/events-mobilitaetsloesungen/carriages-trains/carriages-trains-sbb/roter-doppelpfeil-churchill.html

There was an article in Today's Railways - Europe recently about them. Pride of the Swiss railways in their time.

The Swiss railway stations abound with a modern standard clock. It is almost an icon for the Swiss. The clock shown is much older, this is likely a museum. Jeff

Jeff Wrote:
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> The Swiss railway stations abound with a modern
> standard clock. It is almost an icon for the
> Swiss. The clock shown is much older, this is
> likely a museum. Jeff

No, that is Zürich Hauptbahnhof.

It's Mater's grandfather! (Mater is the cab car on the newer Talgo trains running in the Northwestern US)

Jeff Wrote:
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> The Swiss railway stations abound with a modern
> standard clock. It is almost an icon for the
> Swiss. The clock shown is much older, this is
> likely a museum.

The clock in your photo is the standard SBB design by Hans Hilfiker.

Ray

Ray_Murphy Wrote:
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> Jeff Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The Swiss railway stations abound with a modern
> > standard clock. It is almost an icon for the
> > Swiss. The clock shown is much older, this is
> > likely a museum.
>
> The clock in your photo is the standard SBB design
> by Hans Hilfiker.
>
> Ray

This is quite correct, it is a universal fixture of all Swiss stations, so much so that Mondaine make some consumer versions both as wristwatches (of which I have had one for the last 10 years), but also domestic wall clocks et cetera. The only difference between my watch and "the real thing" is that the second hand does not make the marvellous pause just before the minute, which is such a feature of Swiss station clocks universally.

PS this design dates from 1941, a wonderful example of timeless qualities.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/18 15:07 by spflow.

PHall Wrote:
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> It's Mater's grandfather! (Mater is the cab car
> on the newer Talgo trains running in the
> Northwestern US)

Looks a hell of a lot better than Mater.

Here's a photo of it on a charter at Kemptthal, near Zurich, 7-17-2010

Gordon

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