swiss rail facebook group

This site needs new members! Let's all work together to make it one of the best facebook sites dedicated to railways.

mystery narrow gauge track

I've been watching this webcam whilst the MOB one has been down. It follows a lorry's journey round Switzerland, and often has railway shots.

This is a puzzle - a length of metre(?) gauge track on an industrial estate. It's probably near Bern. Any ideas?

Bex Villars Bretaye

(All pics copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - RAIL THING SUISSE - BEX-VILLARS-BRETAYE

The Bex-Villars-Bretaye line links Bex on the SBB main line to the ski resort of Villars with an extension up to the Col du Bretaye. It has some very nice street running in Bex (pics 1 and 3), a mountain street/roadside section from Gryon to Villars, and a real mountain section from Villars to Bretaye. Until quite recently there were genuine tram operations on both the Bex-Bevieux section and Gryon to Villars, supplementing the (frequent) trains.

Winter conditions can be quite testing (pic 4), we saw over a metre of fresh snow on this day, with no delays to trains!

Seetalbahn

(All Mosen, copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing 13.5.1987)

FACEBOOK - RAIL THING SCHWEIZ - SEETALBAHN

One of my favourite lines in Switzerland is the Seetalbahn which runs from Luzern to Emmenbrucke. Roadside almost throughout, back in the 80s there was an excellent variety of traffic over the line. It's quite something to see the big Swiss standard gauge locos running alongside the road. It's standard gauge and operated by the SBB. It is of course still running today with superb purpose built new rolling stock, which featured on a recent Swiss commemorative stamp. Many more photos to follow!

Montbovon

MOB at Montbovon, 8.6.1987


Street running in Montbovon - on the connecting GFM line from Fribourg. 8.6.1987


The MOB webcam is superb. Every day you can travel up and down the line from Montreux to Zweisimmen via a webcam mounted in the front window of one of the trains. The MOB has always been forward-thinking and this innovation should attarct even more passnegers to its already busy trains.

Aigle-Leysin

Aigle-Leysin train in Aigle. 1988.

The Aigle-Leysin line is a busy route connecting the SBB main line to the ski resort of Leysin, in Vaud. Trains have a familiar livery to British visitors - GWR chocolate and cream!

The first mile or so runs along streets in Aigle (paralleling the ASD but a block or so north) then reverses at Aigle-Depot where it immediately uses rack and pinion. The line is then through vineyards, then through forests before emerging in Leysin, where there are four stations! There is a double track section around Leysin-Feydey, the main Leysin station. There has been talk for years of extending the line to the ski area at Berneuse but nothing's happened yet.

I spent a whole season in Leysin in 1987/88 and we all used the Cog, as it was called locally. It also had an English employee, one of the only ones on the Swiss railway network.

Chur-Arosa

Another shot of the Chur-Arosa Bahn in Chur, with street running.

BLM - RIP

BLM - this time starting at Murren. Another Youtube offering, starting at Murren station high in the Bernese Alps.

BLM

Bergbahn Lauterbrunnen-Murren. Part one of a youtube video showing the top tramway section from Grutscalp to Murren.

Basel trams in the snow

Basel Trams in the snow. Now try it looking through the front of the tram! Basel again, winter 2007.

Basel trams

Take a trip on a Basel tram during the first snowfall of the 2007 winter! More existentialist adventure for armchair travellers!

Matterhorn-Gotthard Bahn

Matterhorn-Gotthard Bahn. A professional quality video of this line featuring the Glacier Express. German text and dialogue.

Furka Dampfbahn. A first for this site - Swiss steam! This is a good quality video of a train on this line, part of the former route of the Furka-Oberalp railway which was closed when the Basistunnel was opened.

A different view of Swiss railways

Impressionistic vid with music! Something a bit different - impressionistic shots of various Swiss trains accompanied by chilled-out music. OK, it sounds like my mum doing the ironing and absentmindedly humming - I'm more of a Mumm-Ra and CSS fan, and prefer the light railways - but this is a nice intro to Swiss railways generally and is quite polished for a Youtube offering.

Street running

Street Running. This is a short video of a Rhatische Bahn train to Arosa on its street running section through Chur along the Plassur Quai.

I first visited this section back in the 1970s and will post photos at a later date! Trains in summer now include open carriages which must be quite an experience.

Street running in Chur

Youtube video of the Chur-Arosa Bahn in Chur.

Trolleybuses

Something a bit different - another youtube offering this time featuring Swiss trolleybuses in the snow!

Video experiment

Warning - this site is about to come alive now I've moved everything up to my new place in Bristol. This is a bit of an experiment, putting youtube vids on the site. This is a trip from Interlaken to Murren, including views of the funicular replaced in 2006 due to problems from global warming.

Aigle-Sepey-Diablerets

This is the Aigle-Sepey-Diablerets line in Aigle, shortly after leaving Aigle SBB station. This is a 1982 view, the line now generally uses far more modern units! The lines uses street running for about the first kilometre, running parallel and slightly south of the Leysin line, before passing the castle on the outskirts of Aigle. it then uses a meandering route to gain height without using rack (the only one of the TPC lines that are adhesion only) before running along the side of a valley. It crosses this valley just before Le Sepey on a high rail/road bridge, then runs on rural roadside track to Le Sepey station where the train reverses for the run to Diablerets. There is all year round skiing on the glacier above Diablerets. The line is metre-gauge.