Swiss Holidays

[Satan's Goldfish]

As the good Mrs SG has booked us another trip to Switzerland next year, i figured it was about time i caught up with my 'promise' and posted relevant rail related photos and videos from our trip back in June.

 

We hit 2 areas in June, with 4 nights at Engelberg spending time around the Luzern area, then 4 nights in Filisur taking in the Albula and Bernina lines. We traveled via the Gotthard and Andermatt to get between the 2 to enjoy the scenery around the Oberalp Pass.

 

 

 

13/06/16

 

Our Hotel Usefully overlooked the throat of Engelberg station, these pictures are all from while we were out having a wander around though (looking for some traditional Swiss food for dinner and ending up in an Indian restaurant....true story!) It looked like Engelberg station has had a recent re-modelling as it is now simply 3 platforms, Google Earth is still (as of yesterday) showing it's previous layout with goods and stock sheds. As mentioned on another thread, trains were the hourly HGe 4/4 with 4 older coaches and a 3 car articulated section with driving cab at the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

15/06/16

 

Went up a mountain on the 14th, nothing train related there (lots of cable cars and ski lifts instead), so made up for it on the 15th with the Pilatus Cog Railway. Which was cloudy when we got to the top. This line has been photo'd and video'd to death by others, and this 1 picture pretty much sums up the day:

 

 

(The scenery was good when out of the clouds)

 

 

 

16/06/16

 

Shopping in Luzern for her, a plod around the station for me!

 

Catenary masts do a good job of ruining pictures, the first 2 are supposed to be of a freight departing. We just missed a standard gauge diesel on the duel gauge stretch of ZB to the Jura Cement yard in the morning too

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do like Luzern Station (Bridges and Tunnels at all the line exits, good model inspiration ) and i'm quite glad Mrs SG has booked our next holiday there.

 

Finally, i managed to get a 'nice' video from the hotel balcony of a ZB service departing from Engelberg:

 

Edited September 13, 2016 by Satan's Goldfish

[eastwestdivide]

...

Finally, i managed to get a 'nice' video from the hotel balcony of a ZB service departing from Engelberg:

...

 

Being Switzerland, I bet the horse-drawn carriages were a timetabled connection out of the train service!

Edited September 11, 2016 by eastwestdivide

[Horsetan]

Being Switzerland, I bet the horse-drawn carriages were a timetabled connection out of the train service!

...and they all arrive and depart on time.

 

There is quite a good model railway shop in Luzern, near the Kapellbrucke if my memory is correct.

[The Stationmaster]

...and they all arrive and depart on time.

 

There is quite a good model railway shop in Luzern, near the Kapellbrucke if my memory is correct.

 

Regrettably Swiss railway punctuality is not always all that it's painted to be by those who might not have experienced it.

 

The model railway shop was there the last time I was in Luzern but that a long time back - expensive but not a patch on the pricey one in Interlaken.

[Horsetan]

Regrettably Swiss railway punctuality is not always all that it's painted to be by those who might not have experienced it.

A friend of mine who lives and works in Zürich said he was surprised when the driver of his train apologised for arriving 30 seconds late. That's 30 seconds, not 30 minutes or, in Southern's case, sometimes not at all....

Edited September 11, 2016 by Horsetan

[eastwestdivide]

Regrettably Swiss railway punctuality is not always all that it's painted to be by those who might not have experienced it.

 

...

 

On the other hand, they are quite good at maintaining connections where the late running is in the order of 5-10 mins.

 

And back to the horses, I once saw the (exorbitantly-priced) coach-and-five trip over the Gotthard pass in Andermatt, closely followed by a man in a van with a shovel, who stopped to clean up the "spent fuel". 

 

Sorry for the diversion SG, time for more photos?

[The Stationmaster]

A friend of mine who lives and works in Zürich said he was surprised when the driver of his train apologised for arriving 30 seconds late. That's 30 seconds, not 30 minutes or, in Southern's case, sometimes not at all....

 

Which is a lot more than they did the day I was on a  train which was handed over to DB 16 minutes late (and I had a 10 minute connection in Frankfurt - fortunately DB were on good form and actually made up time instead of losing even more).

[PaulRhB]

Great to see the pics

 

For the secret of the Swiss timetable just look at the dwell times

[Horsetan]

....For the secret of the Swiss timetable just look at the dwell times

 

Back in 2006, I remember spending a morning watching the arrivals and departures board in Zurich Hbf and, without exception, every train - and there were a lot of them - appeared to come in, or leave, on time. As others have said, they don't always get it right but, on that morning, SBB, SZU and the rest got all their ducks in a row. 

 

The British timetable probably wouldn't have any dwell time on commuter routes because of the obsession with packing in as many trains as possible.

[Satan's Goldfish]

I can confirm the model shop is still there in Luzern, very good it is too!

 

I did notice that most services well roughly on time, the place that discrepancies were easiest to spot was at Filisur, however the Davos train would always be the first to arrive and the last to leave, the Albula services would normally be stopped in the station at the same time (when on time), but if the service from Chur was running late then they'd pass on the double track stretch before the Landwasser tunnel.

 

More pics and videos shortly, just got back from a weekend at Centre Parcs to find a fish tank disaster to sort out first.

[chrisf]

Great to see the pics

 

For the secret of the Swiss timetable just look at the dwell times

 

Indeed.  They make attainable connections which would scare the sh-you-know-what out of anyone attempting them in this country.

 

For what it's worth, my experience of over 10 years travelling in Switzerland at Christmas and New Year has left me mightily impressed with the standard of punctuality that SBB and BLS attain.  Rarely does a booked connection not 'make' and you get useful things like buses waiting at the railway station.  Each and every person involved in transport planning in the UK should be made to study the Swiss network, bring back the many lessons to be learned and APPLY them!

 

Chris 

[Horsetan]

I can confirm the model shop is still there in Luzern, very good it is too!...

 

Did you buy anything? I thought about it, but felt the prices were a bit beyond me, as were the ones at the model shop in Rapperswil. A couple of days later I went to Interlaken, and walked into a model shop (see Stationmaster's post above) that made both the Luzern and Rapperswil ones look cheap...

 

....Each and every person involved in transport planning in the UK should be made to study the Swiss network, bring back the many lessons to be learned and APPLY them!

 

I think that's never going to happen because we don't have the same service-minded mentality that the Swiss have. A chain is only as good as its weakest link, and some of our links are very weak indeed.

Edited September 12, 2016 by Horsetan

[PaulRhB]

The British timetable probably wouldn't have any dwell time on commuter routes because of the obsession with packing in as many trains as possible.

Funnily enough they rewrote the West of England timetable about ten years ago to increase dwell times at Yeovil and Salisbury, it meant we halved the time to recover the service after failures. Unfortunately the extended dwells were eroded, particularly at Yeovil, and now extra services have further reduced the free lines so even the single dynamic loop has little effect. The RhB has addressed this by adding longer dynamic loops at several stations, Filisur as you mentioned and Preda and made sure the timetable has them passing in the station not at the end of the loop!

 

The issue with cramming the lines full and the 24hr railway idea comes from the execs dropped in to sort out the railway industry. It's becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the railway as there are few gaps, overnight the 'white period' without trains is only a few hours and we have so few diversionary routes that major engineering elsewhere can put trains on the line in those hours making routine maintenance difficult.

The roads can have contraflows set up and just tell you to leave earlier the railways can only do the same by revising the timetable at a substantial cost due to the way the system on cancellations works.

The media need to look deeper and see that we run a very good railway if you look at what options we have. It's not without its faults but the majority of them are due to forcing too much too fast or cuts.

Edited September 12, 2016 by PaulRhB

[Satan's Goldfish]

Yes I bought an LSE Bemo coach at Luzern..... got 2 now. Mrs SG is unknowingly quite happy that he didn't have an of the LSE baggage railcars left.

[Satan's Goldfish]

17/06/16

 

Engelberg to Filisur was spread over 6 trains via Andermatt so we could see some scenery. Took a good 6-7 hours but was worth it. First leg was obviously Engelberg to Luzern, so no fresh pictures there apart from the fact i noticed the ZB route map for the first time which was a bit messy to look at!

 

Following that was a 'big train' from Luzern to Goschenen up the Gotthard North Ramp. Definately a route i want to do again and pay more attention to! Our train was loco hauled stock with extras added before we left to bring it up to 10 coaches which the RE 4/4ii handled with ease. We swapped onto the MGB for train 3 at Goschenen where i managed a quick snap of the old tunnel entrance.

 

It was a quick 10 minutes up to Andermatt, A Glacier Express portion was there when we arrived but we had a half hour wait for our service over to Disentis. I was quite pleased to see a Tm 2/2 diesel there and in use which my first LGB purchase 20 years ago is based on (FO rather than MGB though). And got a Video of the Brig - Goschenen service and the train from Disentis arriving at the same time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving on, passed a HGe 4/4 on the way down to Disentis reminiscent of the ZB ones we'd just left behind. Quick change at Disentis, i was hoping for a Ge 4/4ii and carriages but instead got an Allegra and carriages which i was quietly disappointed at, all the service we passed going the opposite had a proper engine! the final change on to train 6 was at Richenau Tamins (I've probably slaughted some spelling there) which was coaching stock behind a GE 4/4iii Good selection of passing services there as we waited for our train, which was the first one we've been on that was busy, and Switzerland had just won a game of football and some drunk people were on the way home....... which surprisingly was not as bad as it sounds. They sang traditional Swiss songs, i tune, and got a round of applause from everyone else in the carriage.

 

Arrived at Filisur that evening and checked into Hotel Grischuna at the end of the platform. The balcony outside our room had the webcam fitted to so i went out there with a video camera too....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bearing in mind i'd printed the train times out about 4 months before we travelled, everything was on time where and when it was supposed to be, every platform on my print out was correct apart from a slight change to platform 2 from platform 1 for our departure from Andermatt. I just wish i didn't have 2 big rucksacks to carry for the whole trip (I did the gentlemanly thing and let Mrs SG carry the light hand luggage).

[Satan's Goldfish]

18/06/16

 

Filisur to St Moritz..... and back again via the Museum at Bergun. It really is easy to lose your bearings on the Albula spirals, we went over them 3 times each way in total before we left back for the airport and i never did properly learn which hole in the mountain the train was going to appear from next. St Moritz station was in bits and being worked on as one of the many upgrades happening on the RhB, from what i could see only 3 platforms of the eventually 7 were able to be used when we visited which made movements at the site very cramped. Same with the Albula tunnel where i spied a couple of times the last 2 remaining Ge 4/4i locomotives on works trains, didn't manage to photo them until our last day though.

 

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Albula Railway museum at Bergun. I won't post pictures from inside here, i'll just encourage you to go and visit it yourself very much worth the trip. Much to Mrs SG's annoyance our visit turned out to be a mistake (which will be revealed on the 19/06/16 entry)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The old power and signalling panels were still in place in Filisur Station which was nice to see among the other 'period' features (like the 'train in section bells which were a useful warning from the hotel as to when trains were due, but not so good when you accidentally sit underneath them for a drink without realising...), the station is still staffed and doubles up as cafe too, run by some very nice and friendly local women

 

 

[Horsetan]

I do like the GE 4/4 iiis.

[Satan's Goldfish]

I do like the GE 4/4 iiis.

Got 2 under the bed did also see them occasionally on the Davos line with just 3 coaches instead of the usual Allegra, i bet that was impressive acceleration! Ended up quite taken with the Ge 6/6iis following this holiday though, shame nobody's currently making them in my RhB scale of choice. (If I were to start again from scratch I'd actually go Bernina Bahn, but there's 2 more days holiday before we get there!)

[Horsetan]

Got 2 under the bed ....

Two in the loft.

[Horsetan]

Only 2? Amateurs!

 

There used to be 20. I think you bought one or two....

[Horsetan]

Not the Ge 4/4"'. Some FO HGe 4/4' and HGe 4/4" did find their way to my boxes though (and maybe an SBB loco too, can't remember) Ah yes, the time where money was plentiful. Alas, fully past tense now

Oh dear, does that mean you'll be selling them?

[PaulRhB]

Got 2 under the bed did also see them occasionally on the Davos line with just 3 coaches instead of the usual Allegra, i bet that was impressive acceleration! Ended up quite taken with the Ge 6/6iis following this holiday though, shame nobody's currently making them in my RhB scale of choice. (If I were to start again from scratch I'd actually go Bernina Bahn, but there's 2 more days holiday before we get there!)

If you mean G then I'd avoid the Kiss ones as they have a nasty case of mazak rot which is driving people nuts on the Grischun forum. The paint falls off then the chassis falls apart!

[Satan's Goldfish]

Cheers for the heads up on that one Paul, I've been keeping an eye out (and enough space on the emergency credit card) for one for a while now, think i'll stop worrying about that!

[caradoc]

Indeed.  They make attainable connections which would scare the sh-you-know-what out of anyone attempting them in this country.

 

For what it's worth, my experience of over 10 years travelling in Switzerland at Christmas and New Year has left me mightily impressed with the standard of punctuality that SBB and BLS attain.  Rarely does a booked connection not 'make' and you get useful things like buses waiting at the railway station.  Each and every person involved in transport planning in the UK should be made to study the Swiss network, bring back the many lessons to be learned and APPLY them!

 

Chris 

 

I agree that on the whole the Swiss railways are well planned and managed, but they are by no means as perfect, or as far ahead of our own railways, as some think; For example, SBB had very serious train collisions in July 2013 and again in February 2015. Perhaps Swiss railway managers should study British methods of ensuring rail safety ?