After passing through four countries in one day yesterday, it's the same number again today. Friedrichshafen to Lindau in a 2-car DB diesel unit. A few things of interest there, including the 'Alex' private operator of Lindau-Munich trains using newer locos and older refurbished compartment coaches, in a natty turquoisey-blue colour:
the Zurich-Munich train which comes in via Austria using a Swiss electric, and leaves (Lindau is a terminus) behind two German diesels:
and a half-tim
So it's farewell to Italy, on a bright sunny morning, and all aboard the northbound train, this time not an Allegra, but two of the older units pulling three coaches, with the nice deep opening windows. It seemed like I spent more time on my feet than sitting:
Some more street running, attracting stares from the roadside:
to Le Prese, skirting the edge of Lake Poschiavo
Still more street running, where you look out of the back of the train to find you're being tailed by some ca
Within easy reach of Tirano, up the Val Poschiavo valley, is Brusio, just over the border in Switzerland, so that was my other target, walking across the invisible border on the Via Albula Bernina path from my base in Tirano.
I was quite taken by the idea of "mortal fulguration" from touching the overhead wires:
A little way up the valley lies Campocologno, a crossing point on the single line, here with two St Moritz/TIrano trains each consisting of Allegra EMUs towing additional coach
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 st
Up early for breakfast at Hornberg station and on the 0731 double decker (upstairs of course). Very twisty and heavily-engineered section of line towards the summit at Triberg, rest of the line less so. Changed at Singen from this:
to this (on the right, a 2-car diesel):
for the hop across the border to Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Here, a quick change to a loco-hauled IR (InterRegio) train to Zurich, with comfy SBB coaches, possibly my most luxurious border crossing of the week, unless you
A nice day for a walk, so I picked up the Panoramaweg (no translation needed) around Hornberg, a town chosen for (1) being in the Black Forest, (2) having a station and (3) having a viaduct.
After briefly unzipping the lower legs of my convertible walking trousers, the sun decided to come and go for the rest of the day, but still, there were some good views to be had.
Looking across to the castle, we have the typical regular services of an electric with 3-4 double-deck coaches working push-
Well it's that time of the year again, and this year sees a train journey into Europe, using a 5-days-in-10 InterRail pass, crossing a lot of borders on slow trains and on foot, and including a walk from east to west through an entire country.
Every journey has to start somewhere, and mine started at Rotherham, where this hove into view:
before I took a Northern pacer to Doncaster, East Coast to Peterborough, and Anglia through to Harwich for a meal in Harwich town, before boarding the ov
