Rajoice and Sing at Semmering (1)

The Train's The Thing At Semmering

The Semmering railway was constructed between 1848 and 1854. The construction features 14 tunnels (among them the 1,431 m summit tunnel), 16 viaducts (several two-storey) ...

... and over 100 stone arch bridges and 11 small iron bridges. The stations and the buildings for the supervisors were often built directly from the waste rock dug out when making the tunnels.

Across an overall track length of 41 km the Semmering railway overcomes an altitude difference of 460 m; on 60% of its length the gradient is equivalent to a 1 metre difference in altitude on a 40 m route distance.

16% of the line exhibits a curvature radius of only 190 m.

Even while being built, the Semmering railway was perceived as an effort of "landscape gardening" ...

... i.e. it attempted a harmonious combination of technology and nature. Numerous hotels and mansions are witnesses of this epoch. 

A trip on the Semmering railway, which is in full use 160 years after its building, still impresses the traveller.

In 1998 the Semmering railway was added to the list of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.

So, fbb, verschütte die Bohnen - where is it?

It is 95 autobahn kilometres from Vienna (Wien) on the E59.

Until the railway arrived, Semmering was a non event; Early pictures show a rural station with horse and cart transport awaiting the trains.

But the railway brought hyper expansion to this little isolated community. It brought summer holidays ...

... and winter sports.

And, to cater for the jolly holiday makers, along came some huge hotels ...

... at least one of which is closed and bereft of visitors and their attentive staff.

Whether the railway has maintained its supremacy as the travel mode of choice is doubtful as the E59 now caters for the motoring fraternity.

Here is the train route from Wien.

Note the wiggles to conquer the mountainous area round Semmering. The curvatious nature of the route on the approaches to Semmering is shown to advantage on this rail only map.

the station is a few road wiggles away from the village centre ...

... with station at the top and village at the bottom of the aerial view above. Basically everything is a wiggle away from the village ...

... and the station is eschewed by Streetview, so fbb can only peer across from the nearest wiggle. Take note of the tower bottom left below.

Here is a better view showing more of the appurtenances hidden below fbb's viewing wiggle ...

... where the tower (ex signal box?) is seen next to the blue carriage.

The preserved blue and white is part of a small railway museum at the station.

The basic train service consists of a two-hourly all stops "local" between Wien and Graz with an hourly "intercity" (it isn't called that) as shown on table 500.

fbb guesses that the longer distance trains are traditionally loco hauled ...

... and the stoppers are MUs.

But Railjet is the most recent long distance stock on the route.

But it is probably not quite as simple as that. More research needed!

So, tomorrow, a bit more about trains, a glimpse at the buses and, inevitably, a look at cable car transport. There will be a bit of skiing as well.

Doing It The Hard Way

Back in the days of fbb's youth, railway modellers were very much engineers in miniature. In OO gauge there were ready-to-run trains from the likes of Hornby, Triang and Trix and some specialist manufacturers. 

Plastic kits began to appear (Airfix and Kitmaster) and Anbrico made metal kits, as did Wills Finecast. But in O gauge, things were much harder.

One manufacturer of coach kits was CCW.

The coach bodies were made of wood ...

... and, as supplied, the chassis was fairly crude.

There was no glazing, no lightning and very little interior detail.

A dedicated modeller would expect to do all the upgrade work from his own resources.

Now you can buy ready-to-run fully detailed O gauge coaches.

They cost a bit more than CCW, though.

 8 Days to Go 

 Next Semmering blog : Thurs 26th Sept 

Best Bus to Catch to Betws-y-Coed (2)

 Or By Train

This hand coloured magic lantern slide has been enhanced (badly) by fbb - but it is the earliest picture on-line of Betws-y-Coed railway station. Next we have an enlargement from a 1961 photo ...

... which shows two platforms and a bay containing a camping coach. fbb has found no pictures of real chuff chuff steam trains at the station; except more recent charters.

The line runs from Llandudno Junction (and thus from Llandudno) via Betws and on to Blaenau Ffestiniog where a conection is available with the Festiniog Railway down the hill to Porthmadog.

Modern traction has been good old fashioned diesels ...

... more modern old fashioned diesels ...

... and swish new class 197s.

The service is hardly lavish!

There are four return trips on a Sunday.

All The Buses?

The fbbs travelled with Llew Jones 19 ...

... a descendant of Arriva 19 ...

... a descendant of Crosville M19.

There was also an M20 ...

... although in the sixties, for example, they only ran to Llanrwst.

Crosville did publish a network map - better referred to as a "diagram" ...

... which, helpfully (NOT!) doesn't show route numbers. But you would suppose that, as Crosville was the only bus company in town, you only needed a basic guide to go with your timetable book. 

Remember when you didn't need an internet connection, a good phone signal or a lengthy course in necromancy to find out when and where you bus might go. Ah, those were the halcyon days!

Pictures exisit of an Arriva X84 ...

... continuing from Betwys to Blaenau Ffestiniog. Now fbb's unreliable memory thinks that the X84 was a semi permanent rail replacement service operating on a Sunday. But, as ever, he could be wrong.

A recent on-line map for Gwynedd county shows a service X1 between Porthmadog, Blaenau, Betws and Llandudno ...

... but as with so much that is all on line, it is all out of date and thus useless! The service was operated by Express Motors and used the main A470 between Llandudo and Betws.

The timetable was not quite as good as once an hour all the way ...

... with sporadic connections to Dolgellau by service 35.

Now nothing runs on inflated tyres between Betws-y-Coed and Blaenau Ffestiniog. The train is fine but it misses some of the best views by inconsiderately diving into a tunnel - only to re-appear just before the terminus. Here is a view of the tunnel whilst travelling north ...

... and immediately upon exit!

And a map showing tunnel and road.

Roman Bridge station (north of the tunnel) is gloriously remote!

The bus ride over the top was always better!

Also at Betws-y-Coed "interchange" you may well encounter a Snowdon Sherpa route S1.

This has come from Caenarfon via Llanberis, also a stonkingly good ride ...

... and usually double deck; which makes it even better!

A relative newcomer to Betws-y-Coed is the Traws Cymru T10.

Traws Cymru is a network of longer distance bus services that has expanded significantly over recent years.

Publicity is of high quality as is the style of the service ...

... similar to Citylink in Scotland. The T10 thunders long to A5 from Bangor to Corwen ...

... where connections can be made with the T8 and the T3.

The ride is scenic almost all the way and well worth making the effort to enjoy it.

So despite historic cutbacks, there is still plenty of public transport to enjoy at Betws-y-Coed.

And not too far along the A5 westbound, you come to the Swallow Falls.

As a child, fbb was taken there,  in the rain, by family; and his enduring memory is of Grandma protecting her hair and hairnet with a pair of fbb's baby sister's plastic pants. True ingenuity at work, but appalling to the young ones' mother!

But weren't the fbbs desperate for the cyfleusterau cyhoeddus?

 Next Betws-y-Coed blog : Sunday 22nd September