European Railroad Discussion > Some Swiss Trains

Before we got to Milan, we spent a few days in Zurich, Switzerland.  I had not been there since 1980, so things had changed a little!   I made day trips to Luzern and Bern, and we also rode the Rhatische Bahn's Bernina Express from Chur to Tirano, Italy.  And thanks to 86235's earlier location scouting, I made it to a choice photo vantage point on the Zentralbahn.  A sample of what I saw (trams will be in a later post):

1)  The Zentralbahn is a meter-gauge system that runs out of Luzern, and some of the trains are still loco-hauled.  Here's one with a Class 101 loco on the front, in a spectacular location halfway between Horw and Hergiswil, with what I believe is a train for Interlaken.   86235 found this location a few months before I got there, so I had to check it out! 
2)  Another ZB train - this time a set of Class 161 EMUs. 
3)  And here's a ZB set of Class 130 EMUs pulling NB into Hergiswil station. 
 

---

---

---

4)  Double-deck push-pull set pulling into Stadelhofen station, which is just outside the center and is a busy transfer point between trams and trains.  The station was redesigned by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava in 1990, and has some very spectacular arched platform canopies and elevated walkways, and a spectacular subterranean concourse.  Stadelhofen used to be a sleepy station on a single track line, but construction of the multi-track S-Bahn under Zurich Hauptbahnhof connected up a bunch of lines and now this station has three tracks, is very busy, and they are planning to add a 4th track. 
5)  Couple trains meeting at Stadelhofen in the rain.
6)  Subterranean concourse at Stadelhofen designed by Calatrava. 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/24 21:07 by dwatry.

---

---

---

7)  Class 450 on an S7 train to Rapperswil at Zurich Oerlikon. 
8)  A set of Class 511 double-deck EMUs at Oerlikon. 
9)  Class 460 loco hauling double deck stock at Oerlikon. 
 

---

---

---

10)  Rhatische Bahn train at Chur departing for the Arosa branch.   The Arosa Branch starts with street-running in Chur.  See 86235's post of 5/12/24 for excellent full coverage of the meter gauge lines in this area. 
11)  The RhB's Bernina Express during a brief stopover at the summit of the Alps at Bernina Diavolezza.  As you can see, the weather changed drastically since we left Chur.  Temperature dropped about 40 degrees!

 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/24 12:07 by dwatry.

---

---

Great set of photos.  Forty years ago I saw, from the train, a rail museum in Luzern on our way to the Gotthard Pass.  
Do you know if still there?
jb



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/24 22:05 by boejoe.

boejoe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great set of photos.  Forty years ago I saw, from
> the train, a rail museum in Luzern on our way to
> the Gotthard Pass.  
> Do you know if still there?

That's the Swiss Transport Museum. Not just trains, but a wide collection that includes numerous airplanes and cable/gondola cars.

Here's a few from a visit in 2019. The second image is a cutting head from a tunnel boring machine used in work to build the 35-mile Gotthard Base Tunnel. For scale, note the van at left.

And a link to the museum's website: https://www.verkehrshaus.ch/en/home.html
 

---

---

dwatry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 4)  Double-deck push-pull set pulling into
> Stadelhofen station, which is just outside the
> center and is a busy transfer point between trams
> and trains.  The station was redesigned by the
> Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava in 1990, and
> has some very spectacular arched platform canopies
> and elevated walkways, and a spectacular
> subterranean concourse.  Stadelhofen used to be a
> sleepy station on a single track line, but
> construction of the multi-track S-Bahn under
> Zurich Hauptbahnhof connected up a bunch of lines
> and now this station has three tracks, is very
> busy, and they are planning to add a 4th track. 

According to the 2014 statistics at Wikipedia, Stadelhofen is the eighth busiest station in Switzerland, and Oerlikon (seen in photos 7,8,9) is seventh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_railway_stations_in_Switzerland

 

You had better weather around Luzern than I did!

It's a transportation museum and still there - great!

Great set of photos. A lot's changed since my last visit. Chris uk.