Friday 30 August - Appenzellerbahn

We took an early train from Zurich directly to St. Gallen this morning, carefully avoiding the Twindexxs. The first thing to do was to check out the newly restored Muhleggbahn funicular railway. It is little more than a long elevator that's very convenient because it climbs a pretty steep hill. In making our way to the station I was using Google Maps which unfortunately directed me to the upper station rather than the lower one. We found out my mistake half way up the hill.  All good for my step count.

Muhleggbahn Lower Station

St. Gallen has a really nice central area with many streets used by pedestrians and vehicles but with no set out side walks

We then took the Appenzell train from St. Gallen station directly to Trogen. Once out of the town this is a single-track roadside tramway.  The climb up to Trogen is quite steep through very attractive countryside with good views over towards Lake Constance. The weather was good and sunny but with quite a heat haze. The cows were contentedly grazing with their bells ringing madly

New train in a new station at St. Gallen about to run through a new tunnel

At Trogen we turned straight round and came back on the same train which now goes right through St. Gallen and through the new tunnel and on to Gais. This was a first time through the new tunnel which has some quite steep grades.

At Gais we transferred to the train down the Strub rack equipped line to Altstatten. This train has a small wagon on the front which is connected to the train control pipes and has a mechanically operated set of doors for cyclists.

Gais - train for Altstatten

Bicycle car

The ride down the extremely steep line to Altstatten is always, pleasant doubly so today because of the fine views over towards Austria and Liechtenstein.

We decided to walk through the town to the SBB station rather than wait for the bus. It was sunny but there was a pleasant cooling breeze.

We had to ride in an uncomfortable Twindexx from Altstatten to Sargans where we transferred to Ziegelbrucke. This station has ten platforms and can get pretty busy at times with the through passenger and commuter trains to handle.  At Ziegelbrucke we transferred to a train on the branch to Linthal. The ride was pleasant but the air conditioning was not working in our part of the train.  The prospect of travelling in the high humid heat all the way back to Zurich was not appealing but Paul found out that only parts of the double deck coach were affected so we moved to a different part and enjoyed the comfort of air conditioning without having to move out of first class.

Being a Friday afternoon there were plenty of school kids on board as well as people wanting to get a drop on the  weekend in Zurich.