3rd January 2015 - Many happy returnsSaturday 3rd January 2015 Having sampled the tram last night, we glanced at the departure board on the way past Schiffbaustraße halt and saw that a tram was due in one minute so we hopped on that rather than continue to Hardbrücke station for an S Bahn which was quite likely to be a unit. We were heading to the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn again with the intention of hunting down some more of their locos for haulage though things would be rather hit and miss without any official diagrams. 11199 was on the 8:07 IC to Chur, exactly the same loco as two days previously, so we took the ICN to Arth-Goldau instead and changed on to an IR for Göschenen where a further change of trains saw us taking the steeply graded 3 3/4km long line to the ski resort of Andermatt, a major centre for the MGB. As we arrived at Andermatt, the first loco we saw was former Furka Oberalp HGe4/4ii no. 102 on a train to Disentis. This would have to be done as, if things followed the same pattern as two days ago, it would work the Glacier Express next which would put it out of reach for the rest of the day; we are not desperate enough to stump up for the compulsory reservation fee for this when the loco can be had on an ordinary train! Just to complicate things, Deh4/4ii 95 arrived from Visp before we left but that would have to wait though we did guess that it would probably appear later if we had worked things out correctly. 95 at Andermatt3rd January 2015. Deh4/4ii no. 95 "Andermatt" arrives at it's "home town" on train 518 the 8:08 from Visp. On the way to Disentis/Mustér we passed Deh4/4ii 91 on the Andermatt “Sportzug”, which was a change from New Years Day, then HGe4/4ii 103 at Oberalppass - another “winner” to look out for later. Even though it was a Saturday, there were a lot less people sliding around on various devices than New Years Day; perhaps they had been put off by the dreary and foggy weather further north though it was actually a lot better up in the mountains. Deh4/4 22 was passed on the autozug at Sedrun, which is exactly where we had hoped it would be and Deh4/4 24 was still on the Dieni “Sportzug” which meant that Deh4/4 23 was the loco to replace no. 102 for the journey back to Andermatt, just as we had hoped. The RhB connection to Chur was most unusually worked by Ge4/4iii no. 649 so a quick photo was grabbed before we celebrated our success in working out the loco “diagrams” with a cup of tea and some superb home-made orange quark cake in the cosy restaurant / café on the platform. 649 at Disentis/Mustér3rd January 2015. RE1245 11:44 Disentis/Mustér to Scuol-Tarasp. En-route to Tschamut-Selva behind Deh4/4 23, we passed HGe4/4 105, our last former Furka Oberalp loco of this type if 103 performed as expected. A few people encumbered with skis boarded here which gave us enough time to grab a photo of no. 23 in the weak sunshine that made a brief appearance then it was down to the other end of the station to get a shot of the Zermatt-bound Glacier Express. For some reason this non-stop train was not directed onto the furthest track, meaning that is passed between the Disentis train and its passengers, a couple of them looked a bit concerned but we had no doubts that it would obediently wait whilst the GEX departed. 102 at Tschamut-Selva3rd January 2015. On GEX 9:02 St. Moritz to Zermatt, the only Glacier Express in this direction at this time of year. There were well over two hours to kill until no. 105 would perform so we considered going for a walk or heading off somewhere to take some photos but, as it had started to rain by now, we opted for a further trip to Tschamut-Selva and back. Shortly after leaving Disentis our decision was justified when the rain increased in intensity but it had eased off by the time we got off the train which was running about 10 minutes late by now. This meant that the train in the opposite direction was also 10 late but that wasn’t a problem to us, the only issue being that the coach we were in was rather cold – it had been perfectly OK when we were on this set earlier. No. 105 was waiting at Disentis with it’s pantograph raised and dropped onto the train as we nipped across to the kiosk to get a warm drink, before relocating into a warmer part of the train for the journey to Andermatt behind our 4th new loco of the day. Passing through some more rain which turned to light snow on the summit at Oberalppass we turned our attentions to Deh4/4ii 95 and worked out that, assuming we had followed it’s projected workings correctly, then it would be on the connecting train back to Göschenen. It was indeed, making a vey nice “cherry” on our MGB “cake” which even the re-appearance of the rain and a class 460 on the IR train back to Zürich couldn’t spoil. 95 at Göschenen3rd January 2015. After working train 654 17:28 from Andermatt. It was still raining and comparatively mild with the snow almost completely melted when we reached Zürich so we took the tram back to the hotel to lessen the amount of walking in the inclement weather, bringing an end to a most satisfying day - probably the last time that we will score so many new locos during a day in Switzerland.
Keywords:
Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn,
Switzerland
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