Hello. I have got another great route, I would love to see in TSW: The Lötschberg. Next to the Gotthard, it’s another north–south Connection through the Swiss alps. The BLS Ag is running this route. It runs from Spiez to Brig, and has a mountain route and a base tunnel. It is connecting the Berner Oberland with the Wallis. But because it’s more interesting to drive the mountain route than through a long tunnel, it would be perfect if the route would be made in the year 2005/2006, before the opening of the base tunnel. The mountain route: It is 74 kilometres long and has a perfect length for the TSW: You need about 60 minutes from Spiez to Brig over the Mountain Route, if you take an Intecity ( that is the Time for a non stop Ride). On this route there could be 3 interesting service groups: –Freight trains, –commuter and passenger trains and – Special car trains. These special car trains are travelling through the 14.6 km long Lötschberg tunnel, which is on the mountain route so you also have a big tunnel on this route, without the base tunnel. When you travel to the Wallis by car, you can use this service and drive on these trains. They are travelling from Kandersteg to Goppenstein. This part of the route is almost completely inside a tunnel. Without that tunnel, you have to drive through the “Rhône Tal”, which is way longer. The stations and important points are in following order( from Spiez to Brig): –Spiez –Mülenen –Reichenbach i.k. –Frutigen –Kander bridges –Kandergrund (shut down) –Blausee–Mitholz (partially shut down) –Felsenburg (Service Station) –Kandersteg ( beginning of car services and the Lötschbergtunnel) –Goppenstein (ending of the car services and the Lötschbergtunnel) –Hohtenn –Luegelkin Bridge –Rarnerkumme –Bietschtal Bridge –Ausserberg –Eggerberg –Lalden –Brig In Brig you have connection to the Matterhorn Gotthard railway and the routes of the SBB. Now let’s move on to the trains: Here is a selection of the perfect locomotives and trains: • Re 465 BLS (freight and passenger trains) •Re 460 SBB (passenger trains) •Re 420 SBB (freight and passenger trains) •Re 485 BLS (freight trains) •RABe 525 BLS (nickname BLS Nina) (commuter trains) • Re 620 SBB (freight and maybe passenger trains) And definitely the Re 425 BLS (freight, car and passenger trains) Here is a selection of the perfect passenger waggons: • Ew IV BLS and SBB •Apm and Bpm SBB •Bt 50 85 28 94 SBB Control waggon For the car services: • BDt BLS Control waggon • BLS car waggon Here are some pictures at the end: Car service train on the mountain route (they are also travelling there, but rarely) SBB IC on the Mountain Route Re 425 freight train Re 465 Re 425 at the Lötschbergtunnel I hope you enjoy this idea, see you next time! Oh, and if you have other ideas, please bring them in!
This was featured in "Eisenbahn Romantik", check out YouTube. I think this is a lovely route with potential scenarios for novice to expert players!
