There is a metre gauge single track alongside a posh shelter. Google maps tell is that it is called Chur Stadt (town).
Here is a ancient picture next to the Churer Obertor (overtower, literally - presumably an old gateway to the town?) ...
... taken in the early 1900s. The Obertor is still there and there are still metre gauge tracks passing in front of it.
Then there were metre gauge vehicles in front of Chur Station ...
... which looks much the same today.
But Chur doesn't have trams (and never did have, fbb thinks?). Yet again, this is a picture of a tram (or is it a train), outside Chur station today ...
... and it is sometimes known at the Chur Stadtbahn (Town Railway) i.e. tram!
Meet the Arosabahn.
Out in the mountains it has normal and sweet little stations, mostly unmanned. This is Lüen Castiel ...
... complete with all the modern appurtenances of a modern whizzo tramway ...
... clock, bench and ticket machine.
Here is the terminus in the very early days ...
... and here, from a similar angle today, but with a train in the way!
Actually, only the end bit of the building is station ...
... the rest is flats and shops!
There is some spectacular engineering en route, most notably the Langweiserviadukt, seen here under construction ...
... and in use way back then ...
... and in use today.
Si it is mostly a railway - but as it approached Chur its exits a tunnel ...
...and, for a while, runs alongside a narrow road and the River Plessur.
But soon it starts being a tram and joins the carriageway ...
... seen here looking towards Chur. There is a depot at Sand ...
... and here buses join in the fray. Chur route 9 appears ...
... en route from Meiersboden.
Then there is a Post Auto service 41 ...
... to a village also served by the Arosabahn.
You might think that this little train would be a tourist-only line, and, indeed, it is a popular line with visitors. But the timetable shows an hourly service ...
.. and late evening journeys in the Summer. But the whole of the upper section of this timetable page is devoted to connections. Connecting trains arrive at Chur as follows:- 1701, 1703, 1656, 1648 and 1656. Everything interconnects with the 1708 departure for Arosa beautifully.
But the Swiss have always been good at that.
But the Swiss have always been good at that.
fbb is left with one concern. Switzerland drives on the right, so a train on the single track FROM Chur will be in the correct "lane" on the road.
But how do they manage the traffic for a train TO Chur? There are all sorts of signals ...
... but fbb cannot work out quite how they are used.
It must be a bit scary to be riding your motorbike happily along and come face to face with a "proper" train (that thinks it is a tram) trundling along the wrong side of the road!
fbb thanks correspondent David for asking whether these trains still ran along the street; and thus directing fbb to a possible extra blog. They do. There was a plan about ten years ago to put the whole lot in a tunnel but it was heartily rejected as being too expensive. Good decision Grishun-folk!
Next delayed Geneva blog : Saturday 8th Swptember
Tram is Strassenbahn (street railway) rather than Stadtbahn.
ReplyDeleteNot so long ago the trains were headed by locos on coaches, if my memory serves correctly, in push pull formation.
In this case, Obertor is more likely to mean "upper gate", i.e. at the higher part of the town (Turm is tower). Chur was previously walled with a number of gateways, and "tor" is a gate within them.
ReplyDeleteApparently there was an Untertor at the other end of the town, pulled down in 1861 (indeed, two others survive, but the others were demolished).
Like in Southampton, where the Bargate separates Above Bar Street (outside the old city wall) and the old High Street (or "Below Bar"). Here's a nice picture, complete with tram to make fbb happy: https://tinyurl.com/yca8eb6e.
DeleteSo why can the trams/trains drive the wrong way down the street without problem? Is it:
ReplyDelete(a) Switzerland isn't in the EU so doesn't have to follow its rues (I'm pro-EU, by the way)?
(b) "Grandfather rights", i.e. the trams have always run there?
(c) Familiarity: the Swiss are well-used to trams?
(d) The rely on common sense?
And why can they have tram/trains, not just hear but elsewhere, while we struggle to build a short length of line at Rotherham?
The EU has no say in traffic rules. If it did we’d be driving on the right.
DeleteA short section of the Blackpool tramway ran on the “wrong”side of the road at the Metropole Hotel before it was modernised (the tramway that is!)
Ahh, you have brought me back memories of my own Interrail trip and stayed in a hostel near Chur Stadt and obviously went on the line. Really good views. Traffic just sort of seemed to manage, most of the signals are red lights which stop all conflicting movements, at one point near the station it goes the wrong way around a roundabout!
ReplyDeleteIf anyone wants a slightly better quality photo of Chur Stadt here is one I took: https://imgur.com/a/S0LZnaT