Switzerland - railway services, facilities, improvements and incidents (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From Yahoo! News:

Swiss authorities are investigating the crash of a train locomotive into a string of passenger rail cars during a maneuvering operation that injured 27 people, though none seriously.

Police and medical teams were rushed to the scene of the accident in the central town of Andermatt involving the locomotive and five cars with about 100 passengers on board.

Regional train operator Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn said the train's locomotive was supposed to move from the back of the train to the front on a parallel track, but instead crashed into the back of the train.

Spokesman Jan Baerwalde of train service operator Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn said authorities were investigating the cause of the crash.

The Uri regional police department said none of the injuries were life-threatening.

[RailCornwall]

This Autumn the Rhaetian Railway in Switzerland are to attempt to run a world record 1.9km long passenger service on it's network.

A 'rehearsal' was held earlier this month

https://www.suedostschweiz.ch/rhb-rekord?utm_campaign=so-auto&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social_page

Use Google Translate.

[RailCornwall]

Completed today

https://twitter.com/FlywheelMedia1/status/1586338247785205760

[broadgage]

Very impressive. Reported as 25 EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) each of 4 cars, coupled together. Bit surprised that the OHLE could supply enough current for that lot, especially when considering that significant gradients were involved.

[grahame]

Very impressive. Reported as 25 EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) each of 4 cars, coupled together. Bit surprised that the OHLE could supply enough current for that lot, especially when considering that significant gradients were involved.

Indeed -  though reading suggests that the regenerative braking system software was modified to avoid too much power being put back into the system on downhill sections!

[Red Squirrel]

Presumably there must have been times when some of the train was going uphill while other parts were going downhill… does that mean some units were consuming power while others were regenerating?

[RailCornwall]

BlickTV were the 'official' broadcaster of the event, their recorded livestream is currently online, Commentary in Schweizerdeutsch and Rumantsch

here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjvz52iJafA

The line is predominately slightly 'uphill' (the direction of the attempt) but is conventional traction, there are no rack sections. From viewing the video I'd estimate only eight or nine of the units were pantograph up so the remainder were being pulled. The attempt couldn't have been in a more scenic area which has several overlapping twists and turns.

[stuving]

Several reports I've seen say this was a downhill run, working within an agreed limit of power sent to the  power grid. I saw part of a presentation by one of the railway's managers in which he was making a big thing of how many homes it was powering - odd, since this was only done for the RhB's benefit. An example from trains.com

The record-breaking, 100-car train was 1,910 meters (2,089 yards). It left Preda at 2:20 p.m. and shortly after 3:30 pm. crossed the Landwasser Viaduct. The 15.6 mile (24.93 kilometer) journey from Preda to Alvaneu, was downhill starting over a mile above sea level (Preda is at 1,788 meters, or 5,866 feet) and descending nearly half a mile to 1,000 meters, or 3,281 feet. During the descent, the train — which weighed 3,300 tons (or 2,900 metric tons) — was using electrical regenerative braking and generated 4000 kilowatt-hours of power. It travelled mostly at around 20 mph.

[infoman]

11 february 2023,showing how two different gauges are used without passengers having to alight/change coaches

[Surrey 455]

From Euronews

Solar panels are being rolled out “like carpet” on railway tracks in Switzerland.

Swiss start-up Sun-Ways is installing panels near Buttes train station in the west of the country in May, pending sign-off from the Federal Office of Transport.

As the climate crisis demands that we speed up Europe’s energy transition, developers have been seeing new potential in unusual surfaces.

Roadsides, reservoirs and farms are all finding space for solar systems. And Germany’s Deutsche Bahn is also experimenting with adding solar cells to railway sleepers.

Continues....

[Electric train]

From Euronews

Solar panels are being rolled out “like carpet” on railway tracks in Switzerland.

Swiss start-up Sun-Ways is installing panels near Buttes train station in the west of the country in May, pending sign-off from the Federal Office of Transport.

As the climate crisis demands that we speed up Europe’s energy transition, developers have been seeing new potential in unusual surfaces.

Roadsides, reservoirs and farms are all finding space for solar systems. And Germany’s Deutsche Bahn is also experimenting with adding solar cells to railway sleepers.

Continues....

I doubt Track Maintainenance Engineers will be overly keen on the idea, would make tamping the track a pain

[broadgage]

I am in general in favour of renewable energy, including solar.
Installation between the rails seem a very odd choice, impedes track maintenance, and liable to shading by vegetation, snow or dead leaves.
I would have thought that roofs of station buildings might be a better choice.

[stuving]

I doubt Track Maintainenance Engineers will be overly keen on the idea, would make tamping the track a pain

There's a video here about it, which says these are "removable solar panels". So the same special train that rolls them out and clips them in place can also roll them up again to allow maintenance work.

Maybe in Switzerland the obvious corollary, that it's also easy for them to be stolen, is not sen as an issue!

[infoman]

Jungefrau,BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) 24 hours news item on monday 20 march 2023,about the lack of snow on the mountains.

[stuving]

Maybe we should not complain too much about a bit of rain and even flooding. From euronews:

Several people injured as two Swiss trains derail during storm
By Euronews  with AP  •  Updated: 31/03/2023 - 22:27

A train derailed in the Swiss town of Büren zum Hof, 20 kilometres north of Bern, 31 March, 2023.

Two regional trains in Switzerland derailed in separate incidents, injuring more than a dozen people Friday after a storm brought high winds and strong rains to the small Alpine nation, police said.

The incidents occurred at Lüscherz and Büren zum Hof, near the western city of Bern, police said.

In Büren zum Hof, a police spokeswoman said that 12 people — 9 adults and 3 children — were injured. Of those, one person's injuries were severe.

Television footage of the incident showed train carriages lying on their sides and the driver's cab embedded in a metal pole.

Police also said several people were injured in the derailment at Lüscherz, but further information about the number of the injured and the severity of their condition was not immediately available.

The transit agencies responsible for the trains, Aare Seeland Mobil and Regional Transit Bern-Solothurn, also confirmed the derailments on their respective websites. They noted that the affected rail routes were closed in response.

Judging by the video in that report, the train did indeed get rolled over onto its side by the wind! Maybe having trains of restricted height has its advantages.