Where Worlds Collide

Switzerland 2006

I realised it's been a month since I went to Switzerland, and I've never posted any of the photos I took on the trip

Here's the very first one I took on the trip, at the station buffet in Kandersteg. I can't imagine anywhere quite like this in Britain. What railway station has a beer garden with a view of a very busy main line surrounded by magnificent scenery?

Just one without any trains in it. This is in the mountains above Kandersteg at the top of the Sunnbuel cable car. If you think the scene is somewhere in the Misty Mountains of Middle Earth, remember that Tolkein used to go on hiking holidays in this part of the world. Did JRRT once stand here?

Back to trains again, this is the famous Baltschieder viaduct, on the south ramp of the Lötchberg main line. The train is the Brig to Goppenstein local, hauled by one of the twelve ex-SBB Re4/4 sold to the BLS. While many of them now wear BLS new silver and green colours, this one's still in the old SBB dark green.

On the north ramp this time, here's one of the hourly Basel-Brig expresses, taken from the footpath that parallels the railway.

Kettles and Castles

After travelling to North Wales to see Mostly Autumn on the Friday, I decided to make a weekend of it. Not that I didn't head out of Rhyl on the first train out of town on Saturday morning...

I travelled west to Caernarfon, capital of Gwynedd, starting point of the 60cm gauge Welsh Highland Railway. The original WHR ran from Dinas Junction, a few miles south of Caernarfon, through twenty miles of spectacular mountain scenery to Porthmadoc. The northern section dated from 1875, but the extension to Porthmadoc wasn't completed until 1923, by which time it couldn't really compete with buses for local traffic. The entire system closed in 1937, too early to benefit from the postwar tourist boom.

The new WHR begins in Caernarfon itself, and runs on the trackbed of a former standard gauge line to Dinas Junction, before running on the original WHR formation.

The engine is by far the largest narrow gauge locomotive running in Britain. It's an ex-South African 2-6-2 + 2-6-2 Beyer-Garratt, built, I think, in Manchester. It's more than double the size of the sole surviving locomotive from the original WHR.

The current terminus is Rhyd Ddu, about half-way to Porthmadoc, and half a mile short of the summit of the original line. The remaining section through Beddgelert to Porthmadoc is still under construction, and is due to open in 2009. When complete it will be the longest narrow-gauge line in Britain by a long way.

Long before the coming of the WHR, Caernarfon has been famous for it's magnificent castle. There are several well-preserved castles in north Wales, but Caernarfon is not only the most impressive, but the most complete. While it was build by Edward I to oppress the conquered Welsh, I notice it's now flying the Welsh national flag, not the British one.

I'm not sure what to make of this building. It's the offices of Gwynedd Council, the unitary authority for the top left-hand corner of Wales. The design is so cod-medieval it looks like something out of a Katherine Kurtz novel.

Trains of Ticino

After too long a delay, I've put some more pictures from last summer on my Fotopic Site, of SBB and FS motive power in Lugano and Chiasso, in the Italian-speaking south of Switzerland.

Lugano is the lakeside resort where I stayed from the first few days; it's a remarkably compact and very modellogenic station, on a very busy line.

Chiasso, a few miles further south, is the frontier station with the Italian network where all trains must change locomotives due to the different electrification systems of the two countries; Swiss 15kv AC locomotives give way to Italian 3kv DC ones.

Tellenburg

Tellenburg castle, a mile south of Frutigen in Switzerland, is a superb place to watch trains when the weather is good. It affords a splendid view of the kander viaduct on the north ramp of the Lötchberg line, with a steady procession of passenger and freight trains grinding up and down the 3% grade. For most of the afternoon, the sun is right behind your shoulder, making the light perfect for photos of the viaduct. It's ideal if you're an N gauge modeller, because the trains appear to be N gauge sized from this vantage point as they head up and down the valley.

As you should be able to seem from the pictures, there are actually two viaducts. The elegant masonry structure in front dates from the original construction of the line in the early years of the 20th century. The uglier concrete bridge behind dates from the late 1970s when the route was widened to double track in order to handle the ever increasing volumes of traffic. The line is now very busy indeed, with a train every 10-15 minutes at busy times.

One of the hourly "Pendelzug" trains from Brig, propelled by an SBB Re460 locomotive. This is the only train I saw with the entire formation in the new black and white livery. From the most recent timetable change, SBB have taken over all passenger workings on the line from BLS, and BLS blue and cream trains are a thing of the past on the Lötchberg proper.

Despite losing the passenger traffic, BLS continue to operate plenty of freight. Here, a pair of their "Browns", the BLS's distinctive Re4/4s head a northbound "Hangartner" Intermodal.

The Reggio to Limburg clay empties headed by a pair of DBAG class 185s. These locomotives have four pantographs to enable them to work under both German and Swiss electrification.

An SBB Re10/10 combo (one Re4/4 and one Re6/6) head a southbound wagonload freight made up mostly of steel wagons.

One new type of train in 2005 is the international workings to Italy operated by Cisalpino, with coaches in a striking blue and silver livery. This six coach train appears to need the power two SBB Re4/4s

BLS's Re485s are much in evidence in the attractive lime green and silver colour scheme. Here a pair of them slog up the grade with a southbound wagonload freight, made up mostly of timber wagons.

The "Rolling Road" trains are a great success, carrying lorries (and their drivers) across the Alps, keeping their vehicles off Swiss roads. It's headed by the odd-looking combination of an Re465 and a "Brown", which was the power on all rolling road trains I saw that day.

Larger versions of these pictures can be found on my fotopic site

Gotthard Spirals

This sequence of pictures shows the effort the 19th century engineers had to go through to run a railways through the barrier of the Alps. It on the south ramp of the Gotthard line, between Giornico and Lavorgo, where the very busy double track line loops round in two complete spirals to gain height.

I took all three pictures from the same viewpoint, on the main road near the post bus stop.

A northbound intermodal approaches on the lowest level. The presence of three locomotives, two Re6/6s and a smaller Re4/4, is unusual; I would assume the train is booked for an Re10/10 (one Re6/6 and one Re4/4), and the second Re6/6 is a balancing working to save a light engine path.

A few minutes later, the same train appears at the middle level having passed through the Travi spiral tunnel.

Finally the train appears at the top level having passed through the Pianotondo spiral tunnel. The southbound passenger train on the middle level rather took me by surprise!

Anglia Land

In the week after Easter I spent a few days wandering around the railways of East Anglia, operated by the new One franchise.

Anglia is one of the first new style franchises; it includes the London-Norwich Inter-City line, the intensive commuter services at the London end, and rural branches radiating out of Norwich. A microcosm of the railways of Britain as a whole.

One Anglia is very much in a state of transition when it comes to rolling stock, much of which still wears the liveries to the two previous franchises, Great Eastern and Anglia. Most significantly for rail fans, ex-Virgin Trains class 90 locomotives and Mk3 coaches displaced by Virgin's plastic Pendolinos replace the veteran class 86 locomotives and Mk2 coaches inherited from the previous franchisee.

The 86s were supposed to gone at the end of last year, but this was the sight that greeted me on arrival at London's Liverpool Street station.

It appears that the class 90s availability is not what it should be, and at least two of the 40 year old 86s are still in traffic. Most of the old Mk2 coaches are still running as well; I only saw two Mk3 sets in traffic. I can only assume that Virgin had run them into the ground, and they need some attention before One Anglia can put them into service.

The main line also sees a large volume of freight, mostly container traffic through the port of Felixtowe, operated by Freightliner, the second largest post-privatisation freight operator. Their operational hub is Ipswich, where they lined up three of their ever-growing fleet of General Motors class 66 diesels for this photo.

North Norfolk is a world away from the bustle of the London commuter lines. The Sheringham branch is one of the more interesting DMU-worked branch lines; there's still some freight as far as North Walsham, and after reversal at Cromer, trains use the last short surviving part of the former Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway to reach the present terminus at Sheringham. The train is operated by One Anglia, but wears the predominantly green livery of Central Trains, another recent rolling stock swap, which has seen the former 150s transferred to Central Train's Birmingham commuter operations in exchange for 156s.

There are a lot more photos on my Fotopic Gallery.

Twilight of the 87s

Today I spent a few hours at Stafford photographing the last runs north of Birmingham of the class 87s. On Monday the new timetable begins, and the shiny new Pendolino tilting trains take over all West Coast Main Line services apart from a handful of Euston-Birmingham shuttles, which will be progressively Pendolinofied in the coming months.

The passing of the 87s doesn't seem to attracted the same attention from enthusiasts as the end of the Cross Country 47s two years ago; I saw just one other photographer at Stafford. Perhaps it was the dull weather, not conducive for good photography. Or perhaps the electric 87s aren't considered as charismatic as the Sulzer-powered diesels.

Introduced in 1974 with the electrification of the northern section of the WCML, these 5000hp locomotives have been the backbone of the route for thirty years. They, and the Mk3 coaches (the best coaches British Rail ever built) now face an uncertain future. Judging by the longevity of other stock they probably have another ten years useful life left in them, if any operator can find a use. I believe DRS are going to take on at least some 87s, for use both on freight working, and the night sleepers on behalf of First Scotland. My guess is that Freightliner may end up taking some 87s to replace their own fleet of 86s, which are ten years older. As for the excellent Mk3 coaches, that's a topic of intense debate in both industry and enthusiast circles. We shall have to see.

Train Photos!

I've been uploading a few of the train photos I took on my west of England trip to my Fotopic.Net gallery. So far there are assorted EWS and Freightliner 66s at Lostwithiel, and a few shots from Cockwood Harbour. More to come!

York Railfest

An enjoyable day yesterday at the York Railfest, a special extravaganza running all week at the National Railway Museum in York. The museum itself was open as normal, but in the yard outside were gathered a large number of visiting exhibits, both preserved steam and diesel locomotives from many other museums, and some examples of modern rolling stock from serveral train operating companies. Many of the locomotives were in steam.

Although the star of the show was supposed to be the venerable No 4472 "Flying Scotsman", in the prime position stood a representative from a later generation of East Coast racehorses, Deltic "Alycidon". It's worth remembering that these locomotives have now been preserved for as long as they were in traffic.

Representing modern motive power were this pair of EWS General Motors products. In the background is one of Richard Branson's horrid Pendolinos.

All aboard the Hogwarts Express! Ex GWR "Olton Hall" painted maroon to star in the Harry Potter film. When she first received this livery, the purists went apoplectic.

One of the oldest visitors, Ffestiniog railways 2' gauge "Prince" dating from 1863, which gave visitors rides up and down a short section of track, coupled to a pair of vintage coaches. I wonder how much of the original locomotive is left after 141 years and at least four major rebuilds.

Squirrel!

One of the first pictures I took with my new digital camera, at my parent's place in Slough.

My dad hates this creature. Those nuts are there for birds, not mammals, he insists.