Meringue : Moriarty : MIB (3)

Meringue False : Moriarty Fictional : MIB Fantastic!

The Swiss are famous for watchmaking, cheese, neutrality, an integrated transport system and digging tunnels. Which brings us, naturally (?), to the MIB - The Meiringen Innertkircken Bahn. This little line, which caught correspondent Alan's fancy big time, is nowhere near as famous as most of the country's lines.

Probably because it is not a mountain railway; in fact it is very flat indeed.

It owes its existence to another of Switzerland's specialities, namely hydro-electric power. Two such schemes are located at Innertkirchen, a few miles along the Aare valley from Meiringen. No 1 dates from 1942 ...

... and No 2 from 1968.

Both have been extensively modernised.

The line was originally built as a construction railway to support the building of hydroelectric dams in the Oberhasli and the Grimsel Pass. It was built by the Kraftwerke Oberhasli (KWO) company, which was founded to build and operate the hydroelectric plants, and it was opened in 1926.

As well as construction traffic, the line also operated a limited passenger service for workers and their families. In 1931 a battery railcar was purchased, and a second in 1939.

In 1946 the line received a licence to operate as a public passenger-carrying railway, and to this end the Mieringen-Innertkirchen Bahn company was founded to operate the line as a subsidiary of KWO.

When the license came up for renewal in 1976, the line was electrified and electric tram-type railcars were purchased.

In 1996, a new railcar was purchased to run most services. In 2005, a second-hand railcar was purchased to act as reserve, allowing the former streetcars to be scrapped.

The line is a modest three miles long and the single car, single manned unit maintains as 30 minute frequency, reduced to crosseda slack times.

The running time is eleven minutes.

So let's take a ride. We start at Platform 13 at Meiringen station where there is an excellent connection from Interlaken, but, unusually, a frustrating miss from Luzern and a 29 minute wait!

Almost immediately we pass the site of the former terminus.

The first stop is at Alpbach where once the tram line to Reichenbach falls crossed.

Next is Aareschlucht West where a footbridge leads to the Restaurant featured yesterday (read again).

Then into a tunnel within the cliffs of the gorge.

Soon after emerging is a new station called Innertkirchen Unterwasser which isn't, thankfully. Unterwasser translates as "under water"!

The train then calls at the main station in the village before terminating at the works of the hydro-electric company.

Clever readers will have counted only SIX stations. There is one missing, and here it is, viewed from the passing train.

It is just a door in the wall of the tunnel. This is Aareschlucht Ost "station". No platform, no buildings; just a door. If you are on the train you ask the driver to stop but if you are in the gorge you ring the bell.

Correspondent Alan continues the story:-

I rang the doorbell at the secret underground lair but they said Ernst Stavro Blofeld was not there today.

Apparently on Mondays he has a day off from world domination to volunteer at the local Cats Protection League charity shop or go bus spotting with his cricket-expert cousin Henry.

Why is there a  station in the rock you ask and why do trains only stop there between May 1st and November 1st ? (note 10 on the timetable).  It serves the Aare Gorge tourist attraction.

Note that the path down from the gorge east entrance to the station could be described as slightly tricky. One of those hiking poles with which all Swiss walkers seem to have been issued with would be useful.

And here is the doorbell!

You press the bell, the train stops inside the tunnel, the driver thereof opens the external door and you climb on.

Is this the smallest station in the world?

And what do you see when you get off?

The Gorgeous gorge.

The little dots on the walkway are people. Not for those of nervous disposition!

Thank you Alan for the information. Another item in fbb's ever growing bucket list!

 Next Brian and Bob blog : Tuesday 4th October 

Meringue : Moriarty : MIB (2)

Gorgeous Gorge by Tram and Bus

One way to get from Meiringen Station to the Reichenbach Falls funicular was by tram.

The tramway was opened in 1912, and closed in 1956, being replaced by a bus service. The line was electrified at 500 V DC. It had a length of 1.7 miles, with 11 stops. The only visible remains of line is the tram depot, in the centre of Meiringen ...

... and now used by the municipality, and the abutments of the bridge used to cross the Aare river.

The tram crossed a railway line at Alpbach ...

... and made its way to the lower station of the funicular.

It doubled back and continued beside the river Aare to its outer terminus at Restaurant Aaareschlucht ...

... then and now a popular "watering hole" for tourists visiting the spectacular Aare Gorge (a k a Aareschlucht).

The restaurant ...

... and admission gates to the Gorge are still there today; but no tram!

The turning loop there matched a similar loop back at Meiringen Station. At busy times, as the picture above shows, the tram was equipped with an open sided trailer.

Today, there is a bus to Aareschlucht Ost at the opposite end of the Gorge.

It only runs four times a day but, in typical Swiss fashion, connecting trains from Lucerne and Interlaken are shown, and, dear reader, they WILL connect.

Posh stop signs as well!

Needless to say, our Northampton correspondent travelled to the Aare Gorge by a different route on his recent Swiss Railway Holiday.

He did not approach via the restaurant and the former tram terminus OR the shiny bus stop at Ost. He dropped in from above. Sort of!

But NOT like that.

As we shall see tomorrow.

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Slick Updating?

Thanks to the co-operation of First Bus and some slick technical design, the GoTimetable Sheffield team have uploaded the first batch of changes from 31st October. Mostly they are minor timing "tweaks" but one decision has been to split the cross city service 85 into two chunks.

The southern section (to Chancet Wood) becomes a separate service 96.

New maps are in place for both services.

Whilst this detail may be esoteric for most of this blog's readers (yawn) it does illustrate how quickly and easily the system can accept updates. For the record, ALL the timetables were processed and prepared on Thursday 29th September and in place on-line and in the "App" by tea time (ish) on Friday 30th.

Updates from other operators are expected soon.

See www.gotometable.com

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 Next Meiringen blog Monday 3rd October 

Meringue : Moriarty : MIB (1)

Our Correspondent Let Loose in Switzerland

As is his wont, Alan (from Northampton) is currently on his travels, namely a railtour in Switzerland. A few pre-blogging years ago fbb and Mrs fbb also enjoyed a "Great Rail Journey" to the land of watches and mountains. (also small hats with feathers, leather shorts and very long booming trumpets? Or is that Tyrol?)

Both have visited Meiringen; the fbbs passing through on the railway between Luzern and Interlaken ...

... Alan for a more local visit. To refer to the Swiss Railway's Brunig line as narrow gauge might be considered misleading to UK readers. It is, indeed, metre gauge, so officially "narrow", but bears no resemblance to the little chugging steam lines as dotted about our home nation.

Seen below on plain and level track ...

... the trains lock on to rack and pinion sections where the route is steepest, notably over the Brunig Pass.

The line is part of the small Zentralbahn network.

The Zentralbahn is a Swiss railway company that owns and operates two connecting railway lines in Central Switzerland and the Bernese Oberland. It was created on January 1, 2005, with the acquisition of the independently owned Luzern–Stans–Engelberg line, and the Brünig line of the Swiss Federal Railways. The company has its headquarters in Stansstad.

All trains have to reverse at Meiringen.

Of meringue fame?

It has been claimed that meringue was invented in the Swiss village of Meiringen and improved by an Italian chef named Gasparini in the 18th century. However this claim is contested; the Oxford English Dictionary states that the French word is of unknown origin. It is true nevertheless that the name meringue for this confection first appeared in print in François Massialot's cookbook of 1692.

fbb does not know whether Alan enjoyed meringues whilst he stayed nearby.

Perhaps Meiringen's ultimate claim to fame is as the nearest town to the Reichenback falls where Sherlock Holmes met his end in his last great struggle with arch-enemy Moriarty.

Like Bobby Ewing in Dallas ...

... Holmes was "resurrected" in response to public demand; more likely the desire for greater financial gain by publisher/producer!

Back to the Swiss logic at Meiringen.

Here is the station forecourt with, as usual, the buses stoppong right outside the attractive entrance.

Nearby is a Sherlock Holmes Museum opened as recently as 1991 ...

... complete with statue.

You can also find a familiar street name plate ...

... and catch a No 71 bus to the base station of the Reichenbach Falls funicular.

The funicular was opened in 1899, and was rebuilt in 1999 to the original design. Between 1912 and 1956, it was linked to Meiringen by the Meiringen–Reichenbach–Aareschlucht tramway. Today it is owned by the EWR Energie company, which operates the adjacent hydroelectric power plant, but is maintained by the neighbouring Kraftwerke Oberhasli company, which also operates several other lines in the area.

Here is a spectacular view looking down on the upper station.

And there is a plaque commemorating the suicidal final battle between Holmes and Moriarty.

Did you know number 435? Holmes' deerstalker hat and Inverness cape were never mentioned in the books. They were an invention of illustrator Sidney Paget ...

... who penned the familiar drawings for "The Strand" magazine which first published many of the great detective's exploits in episodic form. But now and forever, Holmes exploits are re-enacted with deerstalker!

Useless fact number 546. fbb's father habitually wore a deerstalker in bad weather but, like the hat on Holmes habove, without the ear-flaps

Tomorrow we look at the Meiringen–Reichenbach–Aareschlucht tramway, amongst other things!

 Next Meiringen blog : Sunday 2nd October