European Railroad Discussion > Switzerland, Part 1, Luzern 1991

Continuing from the stay in Milan, we headed north to Luzern. Spent two nights there and then moved on to Zurich.  Did a short out and back trip to Zurich on the train and despite the history of Swiss trains always being on time, both were 10-20 minutes late.  One other thing I remember about Luzern was a night at a club somewhere in town. The cigarette smoke was so thick you could not see the far end of the room from the door.  My girlfriend/wife loved it (a heavy smoker at the time), I was worried if had enough life insurance.
On to the trains.  Luzern was interesting, as you can see in the photos, in that the contrast between the buildings surrounding the station and the SBB equipment was amazing. With the huge modern glass and steel buildings looming over what almost seemed like toy trains. I was lovin' it. The side-rodded switcher/shunter in the third image was the best.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/19 09:13 by thebluecomet.

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A few more from Luzern, a bit more modern things.
Next stop, Zurich.
 

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Nice photos. My only train travel in Switzerland was in 1987: Frankurt/Main to Basel to Rome, so I must have seen some of the same equipment. It's interesting that some of the equipment in the photos uses all three official abbreviations (SBB, CFF, FFS) or sometimes just two. Is that still the case today, some 30 years on?

IIRC, the CFF initials appear on one side of locomotives, FFS appears on the opposite side, and SBB appears on both sides.

Trains in photos 1,2 and 5 are metre-gauge.

colehour Wrote:
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> interesting that some of the equipment in the
> photos uses all three official abbreviations (SBB,
> CFF, FFS) or sometimes just two. Is that still the
> case today, some 30 years on?

The instances where there are only two abbreviations on one side are those where raised metal lettering is used. If it's a decal or painted lettering, all three are used.

railsmith Wrote:
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> colehour Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > interesting that some of the equipment in the
> > photos uses all three official abbreviations
> (SBB,
> > CFF, FFS) or sometimes just two. Is that still
> the
> > case today, some 30 years on?
>
> The instances where there are only two
> abbreviations on one side are those where raised
> metal lettering is used. If it's a decal or
> painted lettering, all three are used.

Thanks for the information.