Being abundantly bored because of the quarantine, I take the opportunity to write a report about a summer vacation in Switzerland made more than thirty years ago, in 1987 when there were many older items in regular duty on the helvetic rails, with the hope that you can enjoy a little amusement in these difficult times.
As I cannot scan my negative films I put along the story various links to other images so you can have an idea about what I saw.
And now take a beer or a whisky on the rocks, seat in your armchair and read.
Switzerland was an expensive place for Italian people, especially low level workers, so some friends were used to go on holiday there as campers (and the first times used a Canadian tent handmade by one of them with transparent cellophane
) and that summer were joined by other characters of doubtful morality like me 
. That morning, at the meeting point at the beginning of the motorway from Milan to the border, we were seven fools distributed on three cars charged as circus caravans 
.
As vacations are also useful to discover new places, instead of the direct route we took the Gotthard motorway until Airolo; from there the Bedretto valley and arrived at the nearly 2500 m. asl of the Nufenen pass that we never crossed before being a route of pretty local interest.
Down by the other side, we came to Ulrichen, on the Furka-Oberalp (FO), and followed on to Grengiols to make some shots at the viaduct of the same name.
https://www.bahnbilder.de/bilder/mgb-fo ... -50555.jpg
Finally arrived in Brig, we go wild between stations
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/imag ... vYmAeuWZbj
and depots
http://www.eingestellte-bahnen.ch/media ... ffffe6.jpg
(it was incredible the haste of the shunting movements, notably on the narrow gauge tracks, and without paranoias about safety) and then we looked for a camping and set up the tents.
The next day we began to work hard: moved to Visp, we took a look at the depot-workshop of the Brig-Visp-Zermatt (BVZ) railroad where the steam loco HG 2/3 7 was waiting for the next special service (and me, idiot, parked in a long staying area and had to waste five Swiss francs to open the automatic barrier
) and then followed the line until Tasch, limit for non-electric vehicles, taking a big lot of magnificent images also to the numerous freight trains hauled by the famous "BVZ crocodiles"
https://igschieneschweiz.startbilder.de ... ge-44.html
that supplied the ecological town of Zermatt.
Really every three steps there was a new shooting point and walking along the entire line should be well worth.
Note that the most important train, the world famous Glacier Express, was not hauled by a loco but by one of the articulated EMU ABDeh 8/8
https://igschieneschweiz.startbilder.de ... hn-im.html
that so offered seats to the people that embarked in Brig.
At Tasch we left cars and, after buying a very expensive ticket (but later we didn't regret a cent) hop on one of the very frequent shuttles to Zermatt and then took the train to the Gornergrat.
The Gornergratbahn (GGB) is a meter gauge cog (Abt system) railway wired at 750 v 50 Hz three phase that in a little more than 9 km climbs from the 1600 m asl of Zermatt to the the 3090 m of the upper station. To be frank, trains were ugly and spartan, little more than a tram, but line and landscape were really marvellous, in my opinion far better than the Jungfrau railway that runs mainly in tunnel. More, the driving cab of the GGB railcars occupy only an half of the front ends so we could enjoy the travel as good rail-diseased with an eye to line and the other to the work of the driver.
In that time there were only three types of railcars: the single ones Bhe 2/4
https://www.mediastorehouse.com/p/251/g ... 4.jpg.webp
the double ones Bhe 4/8
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/imag ... U&usqp=CAU
and, just put on duty, two complexes of railcar and driving trailer
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/imag ... U&usqp=CAU
whose motors can be used to push other vehicles instead of the very old small locos that we saw in the depot (and indeed we passed one of them with a ballast wagon at a crossing point).
Arrived at the top, with the magnificent scenery of the Matterhorn and the other peaks, we began to take photos and admire the landscape from the various belvedere but, after a little, I encountered myself surrounded by unknown people. Where were my crazy friends? After having turned around half an hour between station, hotel and viewing points I decided to return down to Zermatt and looked for them at the two stations (I knew my chickens...
) but, not finding them, returned to Tasch with the idea of waiting at the cars.
Arriving in the parking, I saw the six stupids quietly eating canned food so expressed, with a very polished language worthy of a poet, my modest opinion about them and the passed, present and future generations.
What happened? One of them felt bad on the top so they decided to go down but in the excitement they realised only half way that I was not with them. Ehhh, how the friends considered me....
But all what ends well is good so the only negative thing was that I don't photographied the ABDeh 6/6 used on the shuttles (and I never succeeded in shooting them, damn....
)
Anyway, we took other good images at the BVZ trains during the return journey, then a little of shopping for the dinner and back to the Brig camping.
And here happened a little funny episode: the twist-off cap is a bottle cap very similar to the crown one but that can be screwed and never has been used in Italy where is unknown. During the shopping I bought a six-pack of beer bottles and, dining with all friends around the table, opened one.
Immediately the thinnest between us, that don't knew the twist-off caps, popped his eyes like Marty Feldman and exclaimed "Wow, who are you? The incredible Hulk?"
Big general laugh and then go sleep.
(it will continue
)
Ciao
As I cannot scan my negative films I put along the story various links to other images so you can have an idea about what I saw.
And now take a beer or a whisky on the rocks, seat in your armchair and read.
Switzerland was an expensive place for Italian people, especially low level workers, so some friends were used to go on holiday there as campers (and the first times used a Canadian tent handmade by one of them with transparent cellophane
) and that summer were joined by other characters of doubtful morality like me 
. That morning, at the meeting point at the beginning of the motorway from Milan to the border, we were seven fools distributed on three cars charged as circus caravans 
. As vacations are also useful to discover new places, instead of the direct route we took the Gotthard motorway until Airolo; from there the Bedretto valley and arrived at the nearly 2500 m. asl of the Nufenen pass that we never crossed before being a route of pretty local interest.
Down by the other side, we came to Ulrichen, on the Furka-Oberalp (FO), and followed on to Grengiols to make some shots at the viaduct of the same name.
https://www.bahnbilder.de/bilder/mgb-fo ... -50555.jpg
Finally arrived in Brig, we go wild between stations
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/imag ... vYmAeuWZbj
and depots
http://www.eingestellte-bahnen.ch/media ... ffffe6.jpg
(it was incredible the haste of the shunting movements, notably on the narrow gauge tracks, and without paranoias about safety) and then we looked for a camping and set up the tents.
The next day we began to work hard: moved to Visp, we took a look at the depot-workshop of the Brig-Visp-Zermatt (BVZ) railroad where the steam loco HG 2/3 7 was waiting for the next special service (and me, idiot, parked in a long staying area and had to waste five Swiss francs to open the automatic barrier
) and then followed the line until Tasch, limit for non-electric vehicles, taking a big lot of magnificent images also to the numerous freight trains hauled by the famous "BVZ crocodiles" https://igschieneschweiz.startbilder.de ... ge-44.html
that supplied the ecological town of Zermatt.
Really every three steps there was a new shooting point and walking along the entire line should be well worth.
Note that the most important train, the world famous Glacier Express, was not hauled by a loco but by one of the articulated EMU ABDeh 8/8
https://igschieneschweiz.startbilder.de ... hn-im.html
that so offered seats to the people that embarked in Brig.
At Tasch we left cars and, after buying a very expensive ticket (but later we didn't regret a cent) hop on one of the very frequent shuttles to Zermatt and then took the train to the Gornergrat.
The Gornergratbahn (GGB) is a meter gauge cog (Abt system) railway wired at 750 v 50 Hz three phase that in a little more than 9 km climbs from the 1600 m asl of Zermatt to the the 3090 m of the upper station. To be frank, trains were ugly and spartan, little more than a tram, but line and landscape were really marvellous, in my opinion far better than the Jungfrau railway that runs mainly in tunnel. More, the driving cab of the GGB railcars occupy only an half of the front ends so we could enjoy the travel as good rail-diseased with an eye to line and the other to the work of the driver.
In that time there were only three types of railcars: the single ones Bhe 2/4
https://www.mediastorehouse.com/p/251/g ... 4.jpg.webp
the double ones Bhe 4/8
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/imag ... U&usqp=CAU
and, just put on duty, two complexes of railcar and driving trailer
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/imag ... U&usqp=CAU
whose motors can be used to push other vehicles instead of the very old small locos that we saw in the depot (and indeed we passed one of them with a ballast wagon at a crossing point).
Arrived at the top, with the magnificent scenery of the Matterhorn and the other peaks, we began to take photos and admire the landscape from the various belvedere but, after a little, I encountered myself surrounded by unknown people. Where were my crazy friends? After having turned around half an hour between station, hotel and viewing points I decided to return down to Zermatt and looked for them at the two stations (I knew my chickens...
) but, not finding them, returned to Tasch with the idea of waiting at the cars. Arriving in the parking, I saw the six stupids quietly eating canned food so expressed, with a very polished language worthy of a poet, my modest opinion about them and the passed, present and future generations.
What happened? One of them felt bad on the top so they decided to go down but in the excitement they realised only half way that I was not with them. Ehhh, how the friends considered me....
But all what ends well is good so the only negative thing was that I don't photographied the ABDeh 6/6 used on the shuttles (and I never succeeded in shooting them, damn....
)Anyway, we took other good images at the BVZ trains during the return journey, then a little of shopping for the dinner and back to the Brig camping.
And here happened a little funny episode: the twist-off cap is a bottle cap very similar to the crown one but that can be screwed and never has been used in Italy where is unknown. During the shopping I bought a six-pack of beer bottles and, dining with all friends around the table, opened one.
Immediately the thinnest between us, that don't knew the twist-off caps, popped his eyes like Marty Feldman and exclaimed "Wow, who are you? The incredible Hulk?"
Big general laugh and then go sleep.
(it will continue
) Ciao
Alcohol is an enemy. Man that escapes from the enemy is a coward!
. For many years it has been used by the infrastructure maintenance team based there.
) and displaced ourselves to Martigny, from whose station branch out the Martigny-Orsieres (MO), a standard gauge single phase railroad that connects the two resorts of Orsieres and Le Chable
. Now there are direct trains but at the time of our visit the connections were made by a trailer passing from the Swiss train to the French one
.
and much, much fun
) we moved to Montreux, city that, only walking through, showed luxury and wealth
but I'm sadistic 
and soon I will serve you another chapter. 
.
