The recent gap in blog entries marked a ten-day break in Switzerland, journeying through the central Alpine region with Great Railway Journeys, a tour company specialising in train travel.  We were based in Meiringen, in the Bernese Oberland to the south of Luzern and east of Interlaken – both well-known tourist centres and, in winter, popular ski destinations.

After travelling overland by train from Durham (via East Coast, Eurostar, German Railways (DB) and then Swiss Railways) we arrived in the lovely little town of Meiringen – famous for being the location of the Reichenbach Falls – immortalised by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle as the scene of the final struggle between Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty.  In recent times the area has become quite well-known through the visit by Michael Portillo in his series following the Bradshaw railway guides of the Victorian and Edwardian period.

Below: Whilst steam travel did not form a core part of the trip, I was delighted to hear a whistle one evening, scurrying from the hotel to the adjacent station to find 0-6-0RT (Rack-Tank) No.1067, a locomotive built for this, the Brunig line, and which is a regular performer on excursions from Interlaken.  The line is celebrating its 125th anniversary, and as well as some brand new electric trains on the metre gauge line, a number of special trips had been arranged and each station was equipped with stylish posters noting historical locations on the74km line.

Below: 1067 is equipped with both conventional adhesion running gear as well as a supplementary rack engine – seen here with the additional cylinders and driving wheel in the centre.  These drive a cog between the driving wheels and enables the locomotive to climb gradients as steep as 1:9.  The central section of the Brunig line was equipped for rack operation, and the electric locomotives and multiple units still utilise this for both ascending and descending the rack sections of the route.

Below: A train from Luzern has arrived on the left and the rack fitted locomotive at its head has uncoupled. A 1942 built electric is backing on to take the train on to Interlaken, on the non-rack equipped route alongside Lake Brienz.  The smoke from 1067 seems somewhat incongruous in the otherwise pristine Swiss landscape!

Below: 1067 makes a rapid departure, having arrived from Interlaken, turned on the turntable at Meiringen and it is now heading for the rack route to Giswil.

Below: One of the stylish posters to be found at most stations on the 74km route between Interlaken and Luzern.

Below: A very hot day at Kandersteg, largely a sight-seeing and walking day.  The station is interesting though as it has a plinthed narrow gauge locomotive on display on the platform.

Below: The locomotive is a German Jung, presumably used on local quarrying or contract work.  It is currently receiving cosmetic restoration work.

Below: Can you spot the mistake?!

Below: The Brienz – Rothorn – Bahn is one of the best known of the mountain railways, still being steam operated and using the Abt rack system over its 7.6km length.  Like most Swiss rack locomotives, the motive power originates with SLM in Wintherthur, with the three examples we saw in steam being built-in the 1990s and oil fired. They are incredibly clean, near silent when static and feature immersion heaters in the boiler to warm them through at night.

Below: A trip on Lake Thun produced a nice surprise – a real paddle steamer and still steam powered to boot! The DS Lotschberg has been equipped with oil fired boilers but otherwise retains its original horizontal twin-cylinder engine, driven by the engineer via the telegraph and hearing tubes.  It is quite something to watch, especially when manoeuvering.

 Below: This is Wengernalbahn, a 19km mountain railway climbing two sides of a mountain to a peak at Kleine Scheidegg.  A turning loop is located here, to enable rack trains to maintain the motive power at the down-hill end, though in practice most trains terminate and return to either Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald where they meet two branches of the Bernese Oberland Bahn, which links them to Interlaken, again on metre gauge.  Needless to say the scenery is stunning, and we rode up from Lauterbrunnen in order to change for the Jungfrau Bahn and Kleine Scheidegg.

Below: The Jungfrau Bahn runs for over 9km from Kleine Scheidegg, largely in tunnel through the famous Eiger peak – gaining almost 2000 metres in height and giving the traveller the dizzying view of glaciers and snow banks from the top (literally dizzying – at that altitude the air is much thinner).  Here is one of the stops to take the views through large glass windows and acclimatise en route up to the summit of the line at 3454m.

Below: After returning to Kleine Scheidegg, we rode the other limb of the Wengernalbahn to Grindelwald, where the main depot and workshops are located, seen here with electric railcars and trailers in attendance. The open wagons are propelled ahead of the railcars and carry the skis during the busy winter season.

Below: The Swiss Transport Museum is located in Luzern and is, in short, excellent.  Here is a standard gauge ‘Crocodile’.

Below: 1063 is of the same design as 1067 seen earlier, though has been sectioned for display – this is quite innovative and a routine is operated showing it running in both adhesion and rack configurations.

Below: The interior of one of the early electric locomotives – I really like the tool stowage!

Below: There are also a number of trams from various Swiss systems on display both inside the building and outside in the central courtyard.

Below: This is fascinating – inside the road vehicle hall is this stacking system, on which vehicles are mounted on pallets and brought down for display by the robot stacker truck.  Each is rotated in turn, as seen by the Model T shown further down.  They are displayed in an active presentation with film and lights to suit, before being returned to their shelf.  Really quite impressive!

Below: This is the vehicle hall – rather cleverly clad in road signs!

Below: A sectioned lake paddle steamer shows what was hidden from view on the DS Lotschberg seen earlier. The engine is rotated at the touch of a button.

Below: There is also an extensive aircraft hall and display – by this point we were flagging!

Below:This is Wilderswil, just outside Interlaken, the bottom terminus of the Schynige Platte Bahn, a 7km rack line that still utilises its original 0-4-0 electric locomotives to propel two coaches up the 1:4 gradient.

Below: The line still employs one steam loco, SLM built No.5 – initially retained for to propel engineering trains (used to remove the overhead wire in the winter) but now used on certain dates to provide a steam heritage service up the mountain.

Below: I was lucky enough to be offered a footplate ride – so here is the interior of one of the locos, built-in 1912, revealing just how basic the technology that still works so well is!  Uphill it is worked flat-out, downhill the motors act as brakes, the regeneration of electricity being fed back into the overhead via the pantograph.

Below: The view at the top – very typical of what can be expected in this area!

Below: A parting view of the Brunig line, now operated by Die Zentralbahn, as one fo the powerful 1980s built rack/adhesion locomotives sweeps into Meiringen from Luzern.  It will uncouple and one of the 1942 built electric locomotives will attach itself to the rear for the trip to Interlaken. A modern electric multiple unit stands to the right.  While we were there, a number of brand new rack-fitted units were placed into service so perhaps the locomotive haulage and shunt releases will not last for much longer.

So completed a superb holiday (and one which did involve more than just railways!).  Switzerland, its pristine railway system and Great Railway Journeys tours of the country are highly recommended!