 |
| A newly rebuilt 460 in Zurich |
Today we took a train from Zurich to Aarau to ride two narrow gauge railways. These metre gauge lines are now under the one company AAR Bus + Bahn. The trains are quiet and pleasant and run every 15 minutes through pleasant countryside. There is much roadside running and the lines are well used.
 |
| Aarau |
 |
| Double slip switch at Schoptland |
We went first to Menziken then returned to Aarau to go to Schoptland. The trains now run through with a short pause at Aarau. The corn harvest is now in full swing although the sugar beet has not yet been lifted. Several cats were patrolling in their fields.
 |
| Lavazza has joined Selecta |
From Aarau we went to Liestal which is just south of Basel. We took a more unusual route via Olten then on a regional line to Sissach which SBB is trying to close.
We first rode the Waldenburgerbahn a 750cm line which will be regauged to one metre and rebuilt in the next few years so as to become an adjunct of the Basel tramway system. We stopped for lunch at Oberdorf then continued on to Waldenburg and back to Liestal.
 |
| Oberdorf |
 |
| Waldenburg |
The purpose of going to Liestal was to observe the parade of trains to and from Basel as well as to the yard. We weren't disappointed. I lost count of the trains but there were about 24 trains an hour, six freight, ten stopping passengers and about eight non-stop passenger. The mix was amazing. The passenger trains, both multiple unit and locomotive hauled, with both French and German high speed trains passing. The freights were mainly hauled by SBB 4/4s, 6/6s and 10/10s but there were also BLS Traxxs, Widner Rail Services 4/4s and right at the end we saw a pair of SBB Vectrons.
 |
| A pair of BLS Traxx |
 |
| The old reliable SBB 4/4 |
 |
| An SBB Cargo 10/10 combination. |
 |
| Two 4/4s on passenger one with a diamond pantograph |
 |
| Widner Rail Services |
 |
| TGV Lyria heading for Paris |
 |
| SBB Cargo 6/6 |
 |
| A German ICE heading for Frankfurt |
 |
| Two SBB Cargo Vectrons |
When we decided to return to Zurich we found there would be a wait of about 45 minutes so we decided to go to Olten and catch a train there. We had to run to catch a double decker train at Olten and it wasn't until we arrived in Zurich that we realized we had ridden in one of the new Bombardier Twindexx trains which we have been looking for since arriving in Zurich.
A very satisfying day.
 |
| The new Twindexx we rode in from Olten to Zurich |
No comments:
Post a Comment