Grüezi wohl mitanand.

A day of two halves today. Early rain put me off a possible walk up from the Italian side of the Gotthard pass, but the rain left off by about 10, so it's on with the rucksack and away up the side valley from Göschenen. After rain is apparently a good time to see the local salamanders, just sitting on the path, not bothered about running away:

Then through some woods, out into alpine meadows and ever upwards (patience, there's some transport interest coming later):

At one point a herd of goats, which had ignored me as I walked past them, started to follow, all in single file, and at a respectful distance, along the path up the face of the hydro-electric scheme dam at Göscheneralpsee (1792m, 5879ft):

Evidently Swiss goats are better behaved than Lake District sheep, as they didn't follow me to the top, or pester me for my lunch at this pleasant spot. The horizontal line is the maximum water level, above which the rocks are more weathered or covered with vegetation. It was probably at its lowest level then in late spring/early summer, as all the available water for filling it is frozen through the winter, and it's only the melt that begins to fill it. The nearby Sustenpass had only just opened after the winter snows that week I was there in early June.

It's a dead-end valley, with very little habitation, but every two hours, there's a post bus from Göschenen station. In case you don't know, Swiss post buses have a distinctive three-tone horn, the C sharp, E and A of the title, which I'm told no other vehicles are allowed to use. Five Francs or so to the driver, literally just as the rain started, and we're off on a superb ride. If the driver of the coach in the Italian Job had been a Swiss post bus driver, they wouldn't have had a cliffhanger ending:

So much for the buses, now back to the trains. A gentle amble down from Göschenen station along part of the walking trail towards Wassen, but only as far as the first avalanche shelter. A fair variety of freights, including many with the Re6/6 + 4/4 combination, also the Flash Fire loco mentioned in yesterday's part 5.

Gotthard stopping train, showing the panorama car, also the older coaches at the front (furthest from the camera) for reserved groups:

Typical freight formation:

ICN, showing the tilt in action:

Three shots of the same freight, double-headed and banked. How many horsepower? Wikipedia gives 10,700 for the 6/6 and 6,300 for each of the 4/4s, so that's 23,300 hp for the train. It's about the same gradient as the Lickey Incline, 1 in 37 or 2.7%, and for a much greater distance:

Flash Fire - this page tells me it's named after a famous diamond, and is hired by Railpool to RailCare, an affiliate of the Swiss Coop.

Milan train passing a Kabelbude, or "cable booth" as the info board translated it - a secure, weatherproof junction box for signalling cables:

Yet more containers, Re6/6 leading this time:

The only tricky thing about photographing there is the steep valley sides causing shadows and strong contrast with the high ground in sun. You can't really complain about steep valley sides in the mountains though - it would be like saying the sea's too wet for swimming.

Only one full day left - where has the week gone?