Swiss Kettle!

Specially for Michael, a shot of the Blonay-Chamby steam railway in Switzerland, taken last summer. The train stopped just before the bridge, and they let those of us with cameras disembark, troop along the narrow walkway, and photograph the train slowly puffing across the viaduct. The Health and Safety Commision would have kittens if any British preserved line attempted something like that!

The metre-gauge Blonay-Chamby line runs for about three miles in the hills above Lake Geneva, with connections at both ends to other metre-gauge lines. The line closed and was taken over by preservationists in the 1960s, and they retained the overhead electrification, which is still live, as they also run a lot of preserved electric railcars.

The loco is an ex Furka Oberalp rack-and-adhesion 2-6-0T, although there are no rack sections on this line.