Wednesday 28 August - Rigi Bahn and Luzern

We left early this morning and took the train to go to Arth Goldau. We went to the ticket office and were surprised and delighted to find that Swiss travel passes gave us free transport on the rigi. In the past we have had only a discount.

The train to The Summit was quite full but emptied out after the first couple of stations where many hikers got off. The weather was excellent with very high cloud and we were able to see long distances. This line is a little unusual in that it is rack equipped but uses standard gauge. The Rigenbach rack is continuous

Passing a train on the way up

View from near the summit

View from the summit

Our train at the summit. There is a low car in front of the driving cab so high loads have to be placed on the left side.

Vitznau Rigi train at the summit

At the Summit there was a quick transfer to the train down the other side to Vitznau. Again the views were excellent and this time the train was practically empty.

One memory from the last time I rode this line is the cow bells. They are very loud indeed and even the calves wear them

  

We had a meet part way down and the switch moved remotely like a stub switch with the rack moving as well

Vitznau

The Vitznau shop switcher - battery operated

On the Vitznau turntable which gives access to all shop roads

At Vitznau we watched a boat with a large number of military personnel all going on the train to the summit.  A woman was working her way through the soldiers, looking for business, unsuccessfully. The next train up had to be strengthened by three cars taken from the shop and put onto the train buy a small switcher via a turntable.

We caught a boat to the Swiss Transport Museum

Lake Luzern was beautiful today and many were enjoying it

This model of the Gotthard North Ramp shows the way the railway winds around the church at Wassen

Vevey, Montreux Chillon tram

RhB Crocodile no 402

We took a boat across the lake to Luzern and admired the paddle steamers

At Luzern we decided to take the long way back to Zurich by taking the Seetalbahn which is a standard gauge roadside tramway run by the SBB using GTW units between Luzern and Lensburg. The service is quite frequent and there are many passing sidings on the single line. There are many small villages and excellent views across a couple of lakes.