European Railroad Discussion > Trams on Tuesday Two: Neuchátel

Neuchátel, like most Swiss towns, once had an urban tram system, plus one interurban line.  The urban lines were gradually changed over to trolleybus operation, so that only the interurban one remains, and it is very much now a light rail, private ROW line, though when I first visited in 1973, some vestige of the urban operations remained.

1)  The remaining line comes into town along the lake shore.  It would be difficult to imagine a more scenic setting for a carbarn, in the middle of the photograph jutting into the lake, than this one -- but I'm welcome to view other candidates !

2)  A look in the carbarn showed some of the older pre-war -- or in some cases pre-wars -- equipment that wasn't in service during my brief visit;  I was not there at a peak time.

3)  Their newest cars were three of the postwar Swiss Standard trams, 81-83, built in 1947;  they were the only double-ended ones built.

4)  Four articulated trams, built in 1942 by Breda, were purchased in 1967 from Genoa just before that system closed;  these were single ended, and retained their Genoa numbers, 1101-1104, until both they and the 81-83 were renumbered into the 500 series.

5)  Ten light rail cars, six motors [ 501-506 ] and four control trailers [ 551-114 ] were built in 1981-88;  with their advent the remaining older stock was retired, and the turning loops eliminated.  This photo is from 1988;  all others are from 1973.

In 2019 the system purchased some ten year old three-unit light rail vehicles from the Appenzeller Bahn to complete their current roster.

Best, SZ

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Illustrations 4 and 5:

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A very nice set. An interesting operation in an area not often seen in online postings. Thanks for sharing them with us.

MC



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/22 20:29 by ironmtn.