Switzerland August 2014

This is an extract from a multi-country report to read the full report use the following link:

Multi Trip Switzerland – Slovenia – Croatia – Hungary – Germany August 2014

This trip was a week specifically to do Slovenia & Hungary:

Having been bowled for doing Slovenia earlier in the year when the storms hit and damaged the wires, which resulted in the Citadella not running, the opportunity to go arose and with even more on offer than usual it would have been rude not to take it while it was there. A nice move fell into place, which involved overnights into Slovenia from Germnay, after flying into Switzerland, and out of Slovenia to Hungary, and from there to Berlin where I flew home from. With all the strange things happening in Hungary over the summer timetable it seemed like a safe bet to do something different and there was still plenty on offer and having kept an eye on things leading up to the trip I was even changing my plans/hotels only a few days before heading out.

Flights

Booked through British Airways

BA8763 0700 LondonCity – Zurich £78.69

BA0985 1710 Berlin Tegel – Heathrow £43.69

Train Tickets

Booked through EU Rail

5 in 10 Day Global Inter Rail – £234

3 Day Slovenia One Country Inter Rail – £68

Reservations booked thorough Deutsche Bahn UK

EN499 2340 Munich HB – Ljubljana – €33 for a single bed in a two berth sleeper

IC1604 2128 Pivka – Zalaegerszeg – €30 for a single bed in a two berth sleeper

EN476 2005 Budapest Keleti – Berlin HB – €39 for a single bed in a two berth cabin

Tuesday 12^th August 2014 (Playing the Voralpen Roulette)

Having been at work all week an 0420 alarm call on my first day off in 8 was just what I needed! It would have actually been a blessing if it had gone off at that time and woke me; unfortunately I was already awake, as is always the case when you’re off on your travels somewhere.

I’d stayed at Aidy’s in Ladywell overnight and found myself wondering around the suburbs of Lewisham at 0445 on this chilly Tuesday morning; it being the first time I’d actually done the walk on my own so I left plenty of time to spare and ended up with 30 minutes at Lewisham shack before the first Docklands departed at 0519.

Getting from Lewisham to City Airport on the DLR isn’t that straightforward and with two changes en-route everything went smoothly; which resulted in me being at security within City Airport by 0600. Other than me stupidly trying to get on the 0700 plane to Dublin instead of my booked 0700 plane to Zurich everything was as simple as it could be at the airport. It wasn’t until my British Airways boarding card was scanned at the Jet Airways counter that I had any clue that I’d been at the wrong gate; I’d just seen Gate 1 against the 0700 time and assumed. Thankfully someone was awake at the airport!

The plane was full and we departed a little late off the stand but as it was only estimated to take 1h10m to get to Zurich it wasn’t much of an issue; and we landed bang on 0930, our booked arrival time. Food en-route was a full English breakfast, which I found a little strange as my girlfriend had flew London City to Zurich with BA a couple of weeks previous and only got a poxy bag of crisps for the whole journey. Still, I wasn’t complaining.

When the pilot announced we’d be landing at the satellite terminal I feared the worst but it was a satellite terminal where planes could dock; although we did have to open the door, once off the air-bridge, ourselves to actually get airside. Having landed at 0930 I was making the decision to flag the 0952 from ZurichAirport to St Gallen just 22 minutes later. Had I actually don the train my day would have got off to a flying start; despite the dud Re460 I’d have had to St Gallen. As it was I’d decided that the most efficient way of playing the Voralpen Roulette was to head to Pfaffikon and view and chew there. The Voralpen Express trains cross at Rapperswil anyway so within an hour you’ve spotted four of the five sets out that day and you’d have to be pretty unlucky for the 5^th set to be the one that was sporting the hired in SBB Cargo Re4/4 that day. I was willing to play the game, only as I’d expected 11317 to have been swapped by this point as it had been out for well over a month. Last time I’d played the game at Luzern I lost well and truly!

I’d decided I’d do the 1006 Zurich Flughafen – Ziegelbrucke to Pfaffikon regardless of traction but thankfully it turned out to be a single Re450, 450005, and a dud one at that. Having got a few supplies from the Migros upstairs at the airport I spent the journey, on a very empty Re450, working out what I could do with all the trains I would view if the Re4/4 entered into the arena. I still wanted to do Pfaffikon – St Gallen with Re4/4 and time was running out.

Upon arrival at Pfaffikon the screens on the statin told me that the 1105 to Luzern was EMU and the 1054 to St Galen was loco-hauled so when 456095/092 rolled in with VAE2419 0940 Luzern – St Gallen I did them forward to Rapperswil, expecting the dead to not mater; and it didn’t. EMU’s 081/084 were just preparing to depart as we arrived, which gave me an hour to kill before viewing the next two sets.

I later figured out that doing ned leaps out of Pfaffikon towards Zurich would have been the move, with two out and backs being on offer in between the Voralpen Express trains. What I ended up doing was 450006 to the first shack out of Rapperswil on the Affoltern am Albis road, Jona. Thankfully I wasn’t on a tight plus as it took me a few minutes to negotiate the Krypton Factor that was getting to the other side of the station; the underpass being closed for renovation and it turned out that there was a footbridge further up the station. Unfortunately the move back was a 514 EMU, which I had to do through to Pfaffikon. Had I actually done what I’d planned I’d have had 3 EMU’s as a fill-in between Rapperswil & Pfaffikon!

When 450005 rolled in at Pfaffikon, heading to Zurich on the 1138 departure, I then realised that moves on these trains would have been the better fill-in’s and even though I’d had 450005 to Pfaffikon the fill-in to Richterswil produced a winner on the way back so all was good.

Unfortunately on the even hours at Pfaffikon the xx:05 Voralpen Express departures to Luzern use the same platform, platform 2, as the xx:54 departure before it to St Gallen so the screens didn’t gen me on what both trains were at the same time. I had to wait for 456093/094 to depart with VAE2421 1040 Luzern – St Gallen before the screen confirmed that the 1205 to Luzern was loco-hauled. And at least it wasn’t a unit as I’d half made my mind up, as I wouldn’t be able to get St Gallen in now without wasting the day on it whatever happened, to do it back to Arth Goldau anyway for IR2272 1047 Locarno – Zurich into Zurich, which is booked Re4/4.

While minding my own business at the end of platform 2 I wasn’t immediately aware I the Re4/4 coming round the corner heading VAE2416 1105 St Gallen – Luzern, with what looked to be 446015 on the rear. The moment of truth, was it or wasn’t it 11317. With no postings in over a week to confirm I was half expecting it to be 11317 and was very pleased when the numbers came into view on 11166 indeed.

By Arth Goldau I’d managed to figure out how to remove the bottom part of my combats, which detached with zips, as it was getting warm outside. 11145 turned up, after 11166/446015 had departed for Luzern, vice Re460 on IR2271 1209 Zurich – Locarno. As I didn’t need it I stuck to my original plan and waited for the booked Re4/4 to arrive on IR2272 and abused the free WiFi at Arth Goldau while I waited; posting the good news that 11166 was out in the process.

Re4/4 11154 left Arth Goldau on time with IR2272 and before I’d even had chance to get to the back of the train at Zurich upon arrival, to confirm what my eyes think they saw as we were coming in, Re4/4 11129 was already dropping onto the train; which sorted my next move out, 11129 back to Zug!

We were a couple of minutes late by Zug and 460035 was just departing with the dead back to Zurich so I managed a fill-in on single Re450’s out to Steinhausen Rigiblic on the Zug – Uster circuit. Unfortunately pioneer Re450, 450000, which brought me back in wasn’t new and neither was 460007 which whisked me back to Zurich on IR2348 1435 Luzern – Zurich; to get me back in the game for the afternoon rush-hour.

Having scanned the stop-blocks at Zurich HB when I got back, all I found were dud Re460’s so downstairs for some view and chew it was; this also got off to a slow start as well and I found myself waiting around a bit for things to get going; even having the pleasure of watching 450000 arriving Hardbrucke while returning from Zug with the 1508 Zug – Uster.

I was very pleased to find the line of Re4/4’s near Hardbrucke to have completely different locos in it to those I’d seen a few weeks previous. I’d been wondering if some had been stored and left to rot, especially as the lines had included at least 4 that I needed, but thankfully I’d been wrong.

While viewing “sensible” trains down below Zurich HB I spotted Lion Re420’s 420227/230 on a set between Zurich HB LL & Hardbrucke, both with pantographs down and it actually looked like ‘227 wasn’t attached to the set. 420213/1216 did 19163 1600 Hardbrucke – Schaffhausen but as they were both dud they gave way to more abuse of the Re450’s that were knocking about. This abuse broke briefly to allow me to trot off to the new platform 31 and view Re3535 1642 Zurich HB – Luzern, which was 11155/11191 T&T, this led me back to viewing “sensible” trains on the LL platforms and as the first if the two I was set to view produced a winner I can only confirm that the 1704 Stadelhofen – Baden was again T&T Re420’s. I’d seen the turn with Lion 420’s a few weeks earlier so it must be an addition to the diagrams? 420222 working 19167 1700 Hardbrucke – Schaffhausen, T&T with 420224, can be thanked for me not collecting the numbers of the pair on the Baden train.

Rushing about downstairs came to an abrupt end when I found 11150/11218 at the head of IR3831 1733 Zurich – St Gallen; the latter being a new one. I was glad of the rest o St Gallen and this had been the 5^th time I’d done the train and every time I’d needed one of the pair; never both though!

With 30 minutes to kill at St Gallen I abused the free Starbucks WiFi before bording EC197 1816 Zurich – Munich, which I was doing to its destination for my overnight to Ljubljana that night. I’d already booked my flights to Zurich and had plans to do EN415 direct from Zurich to Ljubljana before I realised that by doing EN499 from Munich I’d have a lot better day as it arrived earlier; that was before I found it was being dragged in Austria and would be late at Ljubljana, and of course after I’d booked it!

SBB Cargo 421379 did the honours on EC197, no bonus non-sectored one for me this time. I was straight into the restaurant car, which only had about a dozen folk in it, and spent Euro 16.20 on a cracking bowl of pasta, accompanied with plenty of fresh bread, and an Erdinger beer. It was a very nice way to spend the evening after a decent day on the bash. I was actually glad of the decent food for a change too, and at a reasonable price I thought.

Unfortunately the only snag we had was at St Margarethen where we had to wait for 421392 heading a late EC192 southbound off the single lines north of us. I was only on a plus 55 for my overnight but we were only delayed by about 15 minutes and by the time 218423/426 sped away from Lindau we were only 10 late; the sunset over the sea at Lindau being absolutely cracking as we departed.

By Kempten we were only 3 late and waiting time at Buchloe; the 218’s doing a good job of pulling back some time. The on time arrival into Munich was just as hire loco 182526 was about to depart with a slightly late running CNL418 2241 Munich – Amsterdam. Unfortunately the train is right away Augsburg so there was nothing I could do about it. Gen had recently come out about the 182’s being used to work Emmerich – Amsterdam, internally in Holland; maybe this one had slipped the net due to unavailability of a DB101?

The station area at Munich HB was very busy for a midweek night, most people around were wearing Bayern Munich colours so I assumed there’d been a football match on and as a result of the station having a raft of hungry football fans everywhere had been decimated food wise; with very little being left at the food stalls that were still open. Thankfully my meal on the train had negated the need to eat at Munich.

The stock for my overnight, EN499 2340 Munich – Zagreb, was dragged in by 101032 about 30 minutes before departure. The train runs combined with EN463 Munich – Budapest to Salzburg with the Zagreb portion being at the front and at the very front right behind the engine is a portion for Rijeka (Croatia) which is shunted onto MV481 at Ljubljana; this I hadn’t realised until I’d already made my sleeper reservation to Ljubljana. Something else that had come to light after I’d made my booking was the fact that EN499 would be dragged from Klagenfurt in Austria to Jesenice in Slovenia making it approx. 40 minutes behind its booked time.

As my original plan was a plus 15 onto RG1605 0340 Maribor – Koper at Ljubljana, which was clearly not going to make due to the drag factor, I attempted to get a berth in the Rijeka portion of the train to avoid having to move at Ljubljana. Initially I was told there weren’t any available and when I was sat in my booked 2 berth sleeper cabin in the Zagreb portion the sleeper attendant from the Rijeka portion came to find me and showed me to a two berth sleeper in his portion of the train, where he gave me an upper berth. I ended up sharing with a rather large old guy who had rafts of luggage, his large case taking up most of the floor space and his other ended up going on the middle berth so I went right upstairs to the berth in the rafters; which didn’t seem a bad thing judging by the size of the guy I was sharing with and I went to bed, earplugs in, fearing the worst and expecting some heavy snoring!

The Moves

Gen for Tuesday 12^th August 2014

(Other than in the moves above)

SOB (Voralpen Express)

11166/446015 VAE2416 1105 St Gallen – Luzern

456095/092 VAE2419 0940 Luzern – St Gallen

EMU’s 081/084 VAE 2414 1005 St Gallen – Luzern, VAE2425 1240 Luzern – St Gallen

456093/094 VAE2421 1040 Luzern – St Galen

456091/096 VAE2423 1140 Luzern – St Gallen

SBB

11145 IR2271 1209 Zurich HB – Locarno (Vice Re460)

11155/11191 IR3535 1642 Zurich HB – Luzern

420203/216 19163 1600 Hardbrucke – Schaffhausen

420xxx/xxx 19066 1704 Stadelhofen – Baden

421392 EC192 1633 Munich HB – Zurich HB (from Lindau)

DB

182526 CNL418 2241 Munich HB – Amsterdam

The Photos