Narrow Gauge News 1/1996 (January)

BC - Historic Railway Blonay-Chamby

The BC has reconstructed an old 2-axle open summer coach from the former Ferrovia Lugano-Cadro-Dino LCD. This coach, C 21 "Giardiniera", was built in 1911 and was one of the most famous wagons of the FLP. The reconstruction lasted for 2 years and has been finished in summer ´95.
The next project is renewing the old bagagge railcar Fe 4/4 151 from Geneva. It shall be back on rails again in 1997.

FLP - Ferrovia Lugano - Ponte Tresa

The old FLP railcar ABe 4/4 3 (built 1912) can now be found at the RhB Bellinzona-Mesocco line. It shall be used for tourist trips in summer 1996 on the rest line Cama-Castione. The railcar is owned by the Associazione Amici della Ferrovia Mesolcinese (AAFM).

FO - Furka-Oberalp-Railway

In second half of October the Oberalp line was renewd between the 3rd trun round tunnel and Nätschen station. For this operation the line was closed for some days totally. The new tracks are mounted on Y- sleepers.

LSE - Lucerne-Stans-Engelberg Railway

At October 10th a long shuttle train crashed into a bufferstop in Lucerne main station. Three persons were hurt. Nobody knows why the bufferstop had not absorbed the kinetic energy of the crash

MIB - Meiringen-Innertkirchen Railway

The MIB will get a new four-achsle railcar in winter 95/96. This will replace one or both of the old Bem 4/4 (formely used as tramway cars at the OEG Mannheim, Germany)

MOB - Montreux-Oberland Bernois Railway

Since summer there twelve different Panoramic Express trains:

4 CRYSTAL-PANORAMIC-Expreß Only first class, with reservation
2GOLDEN-PANORAMIC-Expreß First and second class, with reservation
2 PANORAMIC-Expreß First and second class, with reservation
4 REGIONAL-PANORAMIC-Expreß First and second class, without reservation

Additionaly the Golden-Panoramic-Expreß à la carte can be hired in the afternoon. The train can be reserved directly at the MOB.

The steering coaches "Grand Vue" have got an new outfit and new technical equipment. They are now compatible to the coaches of SBB Brünig/LSE/BOB and are prepared for automatic coupling.

The cooperation between MOB and Chemins de fer eléctriques Veveysans (Vevey - Blonay - Les Pleiades) CEV has been extended. Now two MOB railcars (Be 4/4 1002 and 1004) do their duties at CEV, whereas CEV Te 81 is used at the MOB. Vehicle maintaining is now done at the MOB workshop in Cherneux.

RhB - Rhetian Railway - Bernina line

At the end of August a steam train reached first time in history the Ospizio Bernina. The train was pulled by the very first steam loco of the RhB, G 3/4 1, which was built in 1889. It was brought to the line secretly with help of two old Bernina railcars.

RhB - Rhetian Railway - Chur-Arosa line

For video recordings a trains with Bernina ABe 4/4 32 (1908) was seen on the ChA line. The railcar drove up to Arosa with second class coach B 2245 (formerly ChA). On way back to Chur the train pulled an additional freight waggon Gb. In the 1940ies the railcar got a special switch so that it can be used both on the Bernina and on the Chur-Arosa line.

RhB - Rhetian Railway - Main Network

The RhB had decided to remove one pantograph from the historic "Crocodile" locos Ge 6/6 I after an accident of an engineer. There are still four locos "alive" (411, 412, 414, 415) which were built in 1929. The locos now look very mutilated ...

For the "Eidgenössischen Schwingfest&qout; (a traditional meeting) on August 19th/20th, the second track of the line between Chur and Felsberg was closed for RhB trains. The closed track was used by SBB trains (standard gauge, 3 rail/track) to reach a temporary station near Felsberg.

The "Steam Summer" of the RhB was very successfull. The highlight was a train pulled by all three steam locos G 3/4 1 (1889), G 4/5 107 and 108 (both 1906) on August 27th. It runs from Chur to Disentis and back again.

Because of the success of the steam trips the RhB is planning new trips for next year. In winter they want the make some tours with the famous rotary steam snowplug X rot d 9213. We wish a lot fun for that events ...

For the above mentioned video recordings some freight trains between Samedan and Scuol were pulled by historic locos Ge 2/4 222 (1913) and Ge 6/6 I (1929). Funny: In reality this composition couldn´t be seen at this line ...

SBB - Brünig Railway

Like the FO, the Brünig line was closed between November 2nd and December 15th for maintaining. The normal passenger traffic was done by bus. In this time the old rack rails were exchanged, also the overhead wire was renewed.
For the service trains the SBB has rent BOB HGm 2/2 31.

Sources: Eisenbahn-Magazin (Germany), Schweizer Eisenbahn-Revue (Switzerland)

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