Switzerland

Welcome to the Swiss section of the FUNET Railway pictures archive

This part of the archive is now manually maintained by Ilkka Siissalo, ilkka.siissalo(at-sign)iki.fi


Rhätische Bahn express trains near and at Landquart

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 Switzerland is one of the world´s leading train countries: a mountainous small piece of land, where building a train line up the mountain side seems like the most stupid thing to do. Yet, in addition to the state railroad company SBB, there are over 30 private railway companies. The Swiss make use of all thinkable and unthinkable gauge widths, electricity systems, control systems, ticketing systems etc. The majority of the trains run on the "wrong side" compared to road traffic (Left handed traffic due to the old British influence; some of the country´s oldest rail companies used to be owned by London businessmen in the mid 1800s !) - it´s all extremely complicated, extremely odd and extremely fascinating for the occasional train enthusiast visitor.

And the Swiss do use their trains - maybe more than anybody else. No matter the outrageous train ticket prices, among the locals it´s still commonday practise even now in the beginning of the 2000s to take the train for any trip longer than 100 km - something which rarely happens anywhere else in the western world.


Left: The 'TransOrmoran', a historic train of the ASD in Aigle
Right: The famous Swiss "Crocodile", SBB´s Ce 6/8 II series no. 14270 from 1920 as a memorial by Erstfeld, at the Gotthard Pass
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A note from the editor
Sorry for not updating these pages more often - there are still more than 400 pictures waiting for being published, but preparing the texts takes some time.
Please contribute with texts and pictures whenever you can.
You can also reach the maintainer via snail mail at:
Mr. Ilkka Siissalo
Nurmilinnuntie 4 B 6
FIN-02620 Espoo, Finland

Ilkka is also a member of the pics-adm@ftp.funet.fi.
Last updated 16.4.03