4. Waiter, there's a train in my soup
Entry posted by eastwestdivide
1,124 views
As you might have guessed, my next target was the RhB. This entry covers the Italian side of the border in Tirano, over a couple of days. One was slightly cloudy, the other somewhat better.
There's a fair bit of timber traffic on the RhB, with some of the wagons seen here in the station yard, and in the background, a green-grey Trenord train in the next-door station:
Goods shunting is handled by one of these nifty orange things:
The line out of Tirano famously runs through the street and across a roundabout in the square in front of the Basilica di Madonna, as here, with a St Moritz-Tirano train. Like many Bernina line services, it's carrying tail traffic, this time some more logs:
Since most of the services are formed of either the new Allegra EMUs or the older EMU cars with coaches or wagons trailing, Tirano station also has an electric shunter to detach the trailing vehicles:
There's a useful hillside path opposite the Basilica, the start of a long-distance path, the Via Albula Bernina. It zigzags through terraced growing areas to Santa Perpetua, and although it was a bit dull that day, it gives a panoramic view of the town and its stations, RhB to the left of the Trenord one...
...and a nice view of departures, here one of the Bernina Express trains:
It also offers a "double-take" opportunity:
And when you've had enough climbing, there are plenty of pavement cafes, benches and other vantage points just to watch the trains go by. So that's what I did:
Being Italy, the cars just follow the train through without waiting for the flashing red lights and bells to stop.
More RhB eccentricities to follow... arrivederci.
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