Switzerland
2
Welcome to another cab ride, this time travelling over one of the 2 standard gauge alpine railway crossings in Switzerland, namely the Lötschberg. For those who aren't familiar with Swiss geography, the north is generally hilly with flat parts here and there, whereas the south lies in the middle of the alps, which span from Austria to the east right across to France in the southwest. The first alpine crossing was achieved through the Gotthardbahn in 1882, which runs from central Switzerland to the southern most tip in Ticino. In 1906, the BLS (Bern - Lötschberg - Simplon) was founded, who pioneered the alpine crossing over the Lötschberg pass, where we will be travelling today. In 2007, a base tunnel was opened, avoiding the steep ramps of the mountain pass and cutting time off the overall journey, however only one third is double tracked, reducing its capacity.
This has led to most northbound freight trains taking the mountain route, while southbound trains tend to be routed through the tunnel, hence most cab ride videos on youtube showing the mountain route being northbound. We start our trip in Basel (1:45), where most freight on the north - south axis enters Switzerland (other points include Singen, St Margarethen, Buchs and very rarely Konstanz). From Olten (22:30), we take the new route to Rothrist, followed by the old route to Ostermundigen (1:14:00). From there we head to Frutigen (1:53:30), where the base tunnel starts, and take the mountain route to Brig. Note that Goppenstein is the highest railway station on the Swiss main network.
Most of the line between Frutigen and Brig features 27‰ gradients, with speeds limited to 75km/h due to the curves. With heavier trains like ours, the electric regenerative brakes are not sufficient to keep the train from accelerating on the downward slopes (they may be sufficient, however electric braking is regulated in order to keep buffer pressure at safe levels and avoid a derailment). Train drivers therefore need to use the train brakes, reducing the speed for long enough so that the air brakes have at least 60 seconds to recover and reload. Some of you may be wondering why the train keeps changing tracks on the Lötschberg Pass. We are travelling with a train that is taller than the typcial Swiss structure gauge. Trains like this are referred to as SIM trains (Simplon Intermodal). The Lötschberg pass was adjusted to accommodate these, however, as you could imagine, it involved a lot of work (enlarging tunnels, relocating infrastructure) so not all parts of the pass were adjusted. This is why SIM trains change tracks, to avoid sections of track without enough clearance. Train drivers are informed of these sections with signs and purple signals, which indicate halt for SIM trains. SIM trains also have to be registered on the cab radio during entry, in our case on the viaduct in Frutigen. I will be working on the light flaring at tunnel ends, hopefully a set EV value should suffice.
I also want to apologise for the glare around Thun and Spiez. It was just the time of day mixed with the condition of the windshield. I hope to get a better capture of this stretch sometime in the future - although it won't be easy getting weather like this again! I hope you enjoyed the video. All videos on this channel may not be redistributed, sold, copied or used otherwise without my written permission. If anybody is interested in having any video in higher quality (higher bitrate), they are available for purchase at a price of $5 per hour (rounded down to half hour intervals). In purchasing a video, you will be supporting my work (many hours of editing and research) and help me continue to produce high quality videos in the future. Alternatively, we could work out a monthly or yearly rate, whereby I will send you my videos, so you can watch them ad free and at higher quality than they are available on youtube.
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