European Railroad Discussion > Pleased to meet you -- in Switzerland UPDATED

A highlight of my vacation in Switzerland last September-October was an afternoon photo session on September 19 at a busy location on the east-west mainline from Zurich to Olten and points beyond, with the traffic volume amplified by an overhead crossing of a line on a north-south alignment, which hosts freight traffic routed via the Gotthard Pass line into Italy, as well as Swiss local and intercity passenger trains.

The site is about 30 km west of Zurich HB on the east-west line, between the stations at Othmarsingen and Lenzburg, and just north of Hendschiken station on the north-south line, which runs from Basel to Rotkreuz, where it connects with the Gotthard route. I got there by taking a train to Hendschiken and then walking about 10 minutes north from the station.

In two and a quarter hours, I photographed 75 trains, and there were at least 10 that I missed while shifting to new photo spots just a minute away from what I've shown here. With that frequency, I wasn't surprised to get a few with two trains in the frame, like these examples.

(1)  Two SBB Cargo trains meet on the bridge on the east-west line, the one on the left heading eastbound on the farthest track from me (Swiss trains generally run on the left track in double-track territory). It is quite likely heading for the large Limmattal marshalling yard near Killwangen-Spreitenbach, about 15 km west of Zurich.

(2)  The tail-end of a Deutsche Bahn Class 412 ICE train is seen heading toward Zurich Hauptbahnhof on the east-west line, while a northbound car carrier train passes beneath on the line from Rotkreuz. Some of the cars are Alfa Romeos and this train likely originated in Italy and took the Gotthard route to reach here, and is probably on the way to Basel, and perhaps will continue into Germany.

(3)  No meet in this one, but just for context, here's a view looking south from my general location, with a triple-headed BLS freight train headed south on the line to Rotkreuz. In a few moments it will pass through Hendschiken station in the background.  The field I am in sits within a wye, with the track visible at right leading to Lenzburg on the line from Zurich.

I highly recommend this site to railfans visiting Switzerland, even if just for a short time. And if anyone can tell me the official railway identification for this location, perhaps the exact mileage of the bridge, that would be much appreciated.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/26 02:17 by railsmith.

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That meet shot is fantastic! Thank you for the location information, I will keep this in mind when work takes me back to Zurich, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Mike Derrick

Posted from Android

Good to these photos. A real good location. I've just returned from a Swiss holiday, but concentrated to the west. Chris uk.

Since the E-W line is generally referred to in English as the Heitersberg Cutoff, a little online digging in the German equivalent says that the bridge is the Erlismoosbrücke, while the triangular junctions are grouped as Verzweigungsbauwerke Gexi.  I could only extrapolate the 'milepost' as 29.0, but perhaps something better might be visible in your photos if stenciled on one of the catenary poles or other structures. 

Perhaps you could post more photos !  What types of traffic did you see on the West to South connection ?

With best regards, SZ
 

Steinzeit2 Wrote:
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> Since the E-W line is generally referred to in
> English as the Heitersberg Cutoff, a little online
> digging in the German equivalent says that the
> bridge is the Erlismoosbrücke, while the
> triangular junctions are grouped as
> Verzweigungsbauwerke Gexi.  I could only
> extrapolate the 'milepost' as 29.0, but perhaps
> something better might be visible in your photos
> if stenciled on one of the catenary poles or other
> structures. 
>
> Perhaps you could post more photos !  What types
> of traffic did you see on the West to South
> connection ?

Thanks very much for that. I'll add the bridge and line names to the metadata. 

I think your extrapolation is very close. My Schweers + Wall atlas shows Gexi as exactly 30.0 and it's at the west end of the triangle. Measuring with Google Earth puts the bridge at almost exactly 29 km.

I didn't get any closer to the West to South connection than what you see in my third photo, so I only observed trains on that stretch from a distance, and no photos because of the strong backlighting. I can only recall passenger trains on the S26 Olten-Rotkreuz services. If there were any freights I simply don't remember.

I'll post a few more photos after I've processed the whole session. For now I'll simply say that a wide array of passenger equipment passed during my time there -- loco-hauled SBB single-level and bilevel coaches with Re 460s for power (some top and tailed), SBB intercity multiple-unit types (Classes 500, 501, 503), SBB bilevel multiple units (Classes 502, 511, 512, 514), SBB FLIRT and 560 single-level multiple units, Sudostbahn FLIRT 526.1/2 types in copper livery, Deutsche Bahn ICEs,and a TGV Lyria. On top of that, SBB, BLS, DB and leased freight locomotives. A veritable feast!
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/26 08:37 by railsmith.

As suggested by Steinzeit2, I'm adding more photos from my session at this interesting and very busy location.

(4)  SBB Cargo Re 420 240 leads a westbound postal train.

(5) Sister Re 420 254 heads westbound with “Hbbillns” sliding-wall covered wagons. This locomotive had passed eastbound  80 minutes earlier with a similar consist, so presumably had set out its train at Limmattal marshalling yard less than 20 km east of here and is now returning with this westbound train.

(6) SBB Cargo 193 464, a Siemens Vectron, had passed westbound two hours earlierwith an intermodal train and is now returning eastward light engine.

 

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(7-9) Just one minute’s walk to the west allows the photographer to get very close to the passing trains. In this sequence SBB RABDe 500 012 leads an intercity train westward, with sister 500 019 coupled behind to form a 14-car train.  Despite its speed,  the train’s length train enables the photographer to swivel and compose a departing image.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/26 02:14 by railsmith.

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(10) Seen from the same point as in photos 7-9, the copper livery of Sudostbahn “Traverso”  RABe 526 102/202 glistens in the mid-afternoon sun, as it passes eastbound on  IR35 train 2373 (13:38 Bern-Chur via Zürich).

(11) Back at the Erlismoosbrücke, a westbound SBB Stadler FLIRT running as S23 8456 (15:04 Baden-Langenthal) passes above a northbound intermodal train on the Brugg-Rotkreuz line below.

(12) SBB Cargo Re 620 047 and an RE 420 lead a westbound intermodal across the bridge, having missed an over/under shot by seconds.  Just below the span, on the left-hand track,  the buffers of the last car in the automobile train in the first photo of this posting can be glimpsed just before disappearing from view.


 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/26 04:52 by railsmith.

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