Interlaken and Wengen

[David Bell]

Very much of interest. Cracking pictures

Cheers

David

[David Bell]

I think we have the superstock one on our wall at home!

[DGO]

I guess we should also point out that the Eiger building has changed a bit since then as well LOL

 

[DGO]

As an aside I notice that the Schinegge Platte Bahn also has its upper stations in the same style (and general Plan)  as the Wengeneralp, Alpiglen and former Wengen Stations, 

 

Breitlauenen station hafway up the Schinegge Platte Bahn 

 

 

 

Schynige Platte Bahnhoff

 

 

Wengeneralp

 

 

Alpiglen

 

 

 

Now if you were to look at Kleine Scheidegg you might initially think it has nothing in common, however if you look at the ticket office end i.e the actual station bit, you will notice that the upper floor has windows that don't match the floor below it and that the whole station bit is only tacked onto the rest of the building with neither walls nor roof matching. I suspect that the restaurant and Dormitory Accomodation was added after the rail line and that at some point it was decided to give the station an extra floor with a pitched roof, to help it cope with the more exposed location, I would not be surprised to find that the builders were designed and built in maybe interlaken or somewhere equally nearby and then turned into a kit of parts loaded on a couple of train wagons and put up just like a kit 

 

If anyone wants a small Diorama then any of these would be suitable, but the Schinegge Platte top station would probably make a really nice shelf layout set as it is on a narrow excavated plateau with steeply rising ground behind, dropping sharply at the front and with the single line coming in through a cutting on the left, lots of Scratch Building required but you could have both steam and electric locos in any period from just prior to WW1 to present day 

 

[DGO]

Whilst on the subject of weird technical things about the WAB I came across a technical drawing that puts the height of the WAB catenary at 5M I believe this is slightly lower than many other catenaries, but the JB is just 3828mm from top of rail to wire when on the flat courtesty of a set of drawings from Stadtler who produced the most recent trains, of course the JB also uses twin wires so it's doubly special

 

[DGO]

Sometimes I'm far too clever for my own good, I mentioned above that I thought the Kleine Scheidegg station was built to the same pattern as the others, lo and behold I discovered a picture that shows that I was probably right,  Now I might be wrong here but it looks to me like originally a second of these buildings was place next to the first just slightly higher. This I believe was what they called the resoration hall built to improve the catering facilities in 1895, it may always have had a slightly higher ground floor, you will note there is no sign of the Jungfraubahn, since that was started in 1896 we can probaly date the picture to 1895 or 1896 :-)

 

Now I'm not sure if that second building was then added to - extensively, or if they moved it across the tracks to form the core of the building opposite, alternatively it's possible that the building opposite might just be the original Wengen Station, certainly the Grindelwald end of the Kleine Scheidegg restaurant has a masonry construction of a similar style to the ground floor of the Wengen station which would suggest it being built at a similar time, the new Wengen Station was opened in 1908 and I can find references to building work at Kleine Scheidegg in 1919 and 1921 - By the way up until 1948 Kleine Scheidegg had a small turntable as seen in the picture on the left, but in the first of the new BCFhe 4/4 arrived in 1947 (No.101) which was too long for the turntable and so the reversing Y was built into the mountainside. most of those 1947 trains lasted until 2015 

 

One final note on these buildings, it is possible that there may have been another at Grindelwald Grund, however the station was moved in 1900 and the original station building destroyed in 1938 for a new carpark, Brandegg station was not constructed until 1904 so got a different style building and Salzegg was not there until 1957, I am not sure on the Wengen side why Allmend an Banwald only got huts (possibly because there were no buildings/hotels at either location) but I believe Wasserstation was litterally only there to take on water for the steam trains, Banwald used to be the start of the winter sledge run but this was later extended to Wengeneralp and in 2002 with the addition of a footbridge to the rail line at the former Wasserstation the sledge route changed again, this was done so people skiing the Lauberhorn race track, would not have to worry about avoiding sledges which used to cross the piste right above the drop off to the Wasserstation Bridge 

 

Hope someone finds that little bit of history/speculation interesting - David

[DGO]

On 15/05/2022 at 15:07, David Bell said:

I think we have the superstock one on our wall at home!

David, perhaps with your higher quality image you can tell me, is there some carving above the frame of the first floor central window ? in one picture I have seen it looks as if there might be, but it could just as easily be an effect of sunlight and shadow as I cannot see any evidence in other pictures, including the one I have that shows the clock house with the clock yet to be installed

[railway gun]

 

[railway gun]

 

[railway gun]

 

[railway gun]

 

[railway gun]

 

[railway gun]

 

[railway gun]

 

[DGO]

2 hours ago, railway gun said:

 

Now that is uncommon, don't think I have ever seen 31 in on platform 1 at Wengen before looks like it bought something up on the flatbed maybe 

Sklp 851 or just possibly 852 If this was taken on the first of July I might suspect it was involved in the delivery of the Wengen Pump Track  

Edited July 8, 2022 by DGO

[railway gun]

mid June

[railway gun]

my models next the real thing.

[railway gun]

[railway gun]

 

[railway gun]

 

[railway gun]

 

[railway gun]

 

[MrTea]

Hello David and all,

 

I found this image of the WAB taken in 1983 from a collection of my Dad's slides. Thought you might like to see it: 

 

 

I remember bits and bobs about the trip, there were quite a lot of railways involved including the LSE and the BRB (which I absolutely loved!).

[David Bell]

31 minutes ago, MrTea said:

Hello David and all,

 

I found this image of the WAB taken in 1983 from a collection of my Dad's slides. Thought you might like to see it: 

 

 

I remember bits and bobs about the trip, there were quite a lot of railways involved including the LSE and the BRB (which I absolutely loved!).

Lovely photo Mr Tea, thanks for posting,

Cheers

David

[DGO]

6 hours ago, MrTea said:

Hello David and all,

 

I found this image of the WAB taken in 1983 from a collection of my Dad's slides. Thought you might like to see it: 

 

 

I remember bits and bobs about the trip, there were quite a lot of railways involved including the LSE and the BRB (which I absolutely loved!).

Great picture, train on the bridge across the Schwarz Lutschine (sp?) just outside of Grund Station, I think it is coming down as it looks like the light over the cab is on