CERA's Second Friday Zoom Program For February: Switzerland by Rail 2023

CERA Zoom Program for February

Switzerland by Rail 2023

Presented by Harvey Laner

Friday, February 9, 2023 at 7 p.m. CST.

In September of 2023, Harvey Laner joined the Special Interest Tours “Majestic Switzerland by Rail 2023” tour through Europe’s railroad wonderland.

Beginning in Zurich, with 15 tram routes and about 258 trams, the program views tram operations in the city center. Then a trip to Esslingen on the Forchbahn, a 1200-volt DC interurban line whose equipment converts for operation on the city’s 600-volt DC tram system to reach the Forchbahn’s central Zurich terminal.

The tour travels Swiss Federal Railway’s Intercity and Regional trains, which is extensively covered including the famous route over Gottard Pass. Rhaetian Railway, Switzerland’s largest private railroad provides a thrilling ride on the Bernina Express over the highest railroad crossing of the Alps at an elevation of 7,392 ft above sea level. It’s a meter gauge adhesion line with grades up to seven percent. The Furka Mountain railroad, a remarkable preservation success provides the experience of steam powered rack and pinion railroading on the restored original line over Furka Pass. The program includes other cog railroads like Gornergrat to the Matterhorn, the 800 mm gauge Rochers-De-Naye line high above French Switzerland’s Montreux and Lake Geneva, and the Jungfraubahn, a ride to the “Top of Europe” railway station at 11,332 feet elevation. Also included is a ride on the Pilatus Railroad that took the tour group from the upper terminal at 6801 feet elevation descending to the base terminal at an elevation of 1522 feet in only 2.86 miles. This mountain railway is the steepest rack railway in the world, with an average gradient of 35 percent with some locations on the line as steep as 48 percent.

The program includes a ride on one of Lake Lucerne’s historic steam powered paddle wheel boats to Vitznau where we ride the two different rack rail lines serving the summit of scenic Mount Rigi.

The program concludes back in Zurich with a surprise appearance of the oldest operating tram in Switzerland. Zurich-Oerlikon-Seebach Street Railway number 1 built in 1897 was mixing with modern trams on Zurich’s famous main downtown street, Bahnhofstrasse on a late summer Sunday afternoon. How great is that!

Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes

All are welcome.

tinyurl.com/CERAonZoom

or

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81492517167?pwd=dm9DbnV1QlBtTll0WVZ0Um5HS3dodz09

Meeting ID: 814 9251 7167

Passcode: 880028