5th January 2015 - Steaming through Luzern and BernMonday 5th January 2015 Back to work this morning for most “normals” after the Christmas break but not for us as we still had another eight days “on the bash” to look forward to. There was a full peak hour service on the S Bahn so we decided to go via Hardbrücke this morning in the hope of getting a class 450 or two but had no luck, hardly surprising as we were now down to less than a quarter of this 115-strong class. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day weather-wise as we boarded an IR to service to Olten en route to the first of the four special steam-hauled tours arranged by the Railway Touring Company but we dived out of the Heitersberg tunnel straight into some quite thick fog. Fortunately, the sun had re-appeared by the time we reached Langenthal where we noted that the metre gauge ASm still appeared to carry freight traffic in the form of standard gauge wagons on transporter wagons and they had taken delivery of a second hand EMU from the Frauenfeld – Wil line; it’s distinctive red and white livery giving away it’s origins. About 30 minutes before departure time, the special train appeared from the Huttwil direction comprising of former Lagenthal Huttwil Bahn 2-6-0T no. 11 and two green coaches owned by the Historische Eisenbahn Emmental. It went straight into the short platform next to the station building and promptly ran round just as the only interesting thing we had seen in the hour since our arrival, a diesel “tractor” on a short freight working, shot past on the far side of the station. Whilst we were sorting out some older pictures shortly before after this trip we discovered that we had previously seen no. 11 in the BLS shed at Spiez in September 2007 along with another loco owned by Dampfbahn Bern (DBB).
It was a pleasant journey along the secondary line to Huttwil where the loco took water and the passengers could take photos and look at the “goodies” in the society’s shed. Although there was some building work taking place at the station, our train had stopped clear of this and was perfectly positioned in the sun for photos. VHE and DBB, who were jointly operating today’s train, had put together a nice little presentation sheet for everyone listing the times, line details and history and a stock list for both organisations which was a great help in ticking off what was in the shed.
A further stop was taken at Menzau where our train was booked to cross an EMU and take on more water but nothing happened as the EMU arrived and departed, there being no sign of any water supply anywhere near where the loco was standing. A short while later some shouts went up about “standing clear” and a class 923 electro diesel loco appeared round the corner on a short train of tank wagons, a most welcome bonus after missing the freight working at Langenthal earlier.
Once this had arrived, the special set back to the level crossing so the loco could take water from a hydrant and the Eem 923 proceeded to drop off it’s train and collect two more tank wagons and propel them to the terminal that we had passed a short distance before the station. To keep up with all the point changing required, the station red-cap was whizzing up and down his domain on a fold-up scooter to save his feet! Our trip with the VHE ended at Wolhusen where we would connect with the DBB train but there was one slight problem in that the station only had three platforms, all of which were in use during our time there so a little bit of lateral thinking had to be done. It was all very simple really; our train went into a non-platform loop, the DBB train and loco was already run round and in position and simply backed onto the first train, coupled up, and everybody walked through the corridor connection into the second train. Although this meant that we couldn’t get out to take pictures this wasn’t really an issue as there were two stops en route to Bern and it was now time for lunch which was a tasty selection of meat and cheese platters with bread. The loco provided by DBB was 5810, a smart-looking 2-6-2T, together with two former BLS railway coaches – the same ones that we had on the trip last year though it was a bit warmer inside this time. By the time we reached the water stop and Entlebuch, the buffet had been largely demolished and most people we keen to get out to stretch their legs and take some photos. 5810 was unfortunately running bunker first but it had to be taken off the train to access the hydrant at the other end of the station so it was possible to get a photo of the more interesting end even though the sun was not at the best angle.
One of the hourly Luzern to Bern RE trains passed as whilst water was being taken then 5810 shunted over the points, ready to go back onto the front of it’s train and waited whilst the level crossing was activated. At this point a lorry from one of the businisses behind where we were standing drew up at the other side of the crossing, paused then decided that he could get across the line before the barriers came down - he might have made it as well except the vehicle had a trailer and the furthest barrier neatly bisected lorry and trailer resulting in the sound of shattering plastic. The traincrew had witnessed all this, along with most of the passengers who were outside taking photos, so the loco crew carefully took the loco over the crossing and re-attached it to the train whilst the on-train staff dealt with the incident; at least they didn't have far to go to lodge a complaint with the driver's employers. There was an advert on the rear of the trailer which asked "Job gesucht" (looking for a job?), although the driver had been rather stupid we did hope that his misdemeanour would not lead to that. The BLS conductor on our train picked up the broken barrier once the lorry had been removed and placed it across the road, saying that the road would now remain closed until somebody had attended to repair the damage, although it was a minor road it was to be hoped that this would not take too long.
After all this excitement our train was only a couple of minutes late leaving and that was down to the RE train in the opposite directing being a few minutes down though it wasn't too long before we were looped again at the closed station of Wiggen. There was quite a nice view of the overall scene by walking up the road a short distance but even though it was still only 2pm the sun had already dipped behind the mountains and the railway was in shadow.
Though 5810 was quite speedy by Swiss standards (75kph, approximately 46 1/2 mph); there were more stops for our train to be passed or overtaken by other services on this busy secondary line but there was not enough time for the passengers to get out, or we were not in a platform until Konolfingen where there was 15 minutes to whizz round to the other platform for a photo. The sun was just right but it was a shame that the loco was running bunker first.
The last leg of the journey to Bern only had a couple of brief stops and there was a chance to get a photo / video of the train heading into the carriage sidings to run round. It was due back out at 16:52 but we didn't want to hang around for 40-odd minutes, especially as Bern is not the best station for photos being mostly submerged in a concrete box. A quick look round the trains on offer found BLS 465.005 on an RE to Luzern and classmate 465.009 on an RE to Neuchatel but though tempted by the latter as it was a freight sector one, we chose the former as we had only previously ridden behind it a very short distance. On our way to Luzern we noticed that the broken level crossing barrier at Entlebuch had been fully repaired by 17:30 and there was no sign of any technicians so all done and dusted within four hours, not bad going. A quick change of trains at Luzern saw us arriving in Zürich just before 7pm and a bonus class 450 was scooped in after a quick meal before we headed off back to Hardbrücke and our hotel.
Keywords:
Railway Touring Company,
Switzerland
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