The Transports Publics du Chablais (TPC) ABeh 2/6 546 Les Doigts and the BDe 4/4 401 seen at Aigle railway station Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:28 08:23:23 Tags: Aigle 246 278 279 280 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC homlokátjáró

Directly after the previous gallery here I am with the follow-up of our 2018 Switzerland backpacking trip that included some RhB, a travel on the Voralpen-Express and the Jura Railway, and a very important day of photographing the Waldenburgerbahn before it is converted to metre-gauge. The visit to the CJ could only happen because I managed to call our accomodation in Aigle as the detour to the westernmost part of Switzerland meant we could miss our arrival time, but luckily our cheap and good value hostel was more than forgiving so that's how we managed to do this fantastic travel. My apologies for my very basic level of French! The Swiss Travel Pass is another great perk.

Aigle is probably not that well known to many railfans but it's a very nice area with four, very distinctive narrow-gauge railways (three of which are also rack). The place is just East of Lake of Geneve (Lac Léman), but you can have a look here:

Before 2000 the railways belonged to separate companies (though they mostly shared the directorate) and the new, streamlined terminus was only built in 2008, before that, the trains stopped at the square in front of the standard-gauge station in a rather awkward and haphazard way with random connections and leftover freight cars to be unloaded.

The Transports Publics du Chablais (TPC) Beh 4/8 591 seen between Le Sépey and Les Planches Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:28 10:01:58 Tags: Le Sépey Les Planches 279 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC

This is the only one of the nearby narrow-gauge railways that is not rack-and-pinion, so it has to run into side-valleys to reach its altitude. Already after leaving Aigle it twists into a side-valley, runs along it for a time, rewinds in a tunnel and appears far above the Grande Eau as it gets back in the main valley.

The Transports Publics du Chablais (TPC) Bt 363 seen between Aigle-Dépôt AL and Aigle Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:28 10:32:13 Tags: Aigle-Place-du-Marché Aigle 279 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC vezérlökocsi

After the adhesions part until the depot of Aigle a rack railway on the right bank of the Grande Eau is starting.

The Transports Publics du Chablais (TPC) Bt 363 seen at Leysin-Grand Hotel Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:28 11:26:37 Tags: Leysin-Grand Hotel 278 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC vezérlökocsi

Inside Aigle the adhesion-only line used to lead as a tramway to Aigle Grand Hotel, at the feet of the Les Diablerets railway. Originally the rack-only locomotives of the AL railway were hauled from the SBB station to Aigle Depot AL by the trams. The climbing is aided by system Abt racks at 23% between the depot and Leysin. There are spectacular views from above at the adhesions-only ASD railway.

The TPC Bt 363 seen between Fontanney and Aigle-Dépôt AL Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:28 12:20:24 Tags: Fontanney Aigle-Dépôt AL 278 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC vezérlökocsi

The Aigle-Leysin rack railway climbs out of Aigle on a rather steep gradient across wineyards. Inside the city the trains run along the streets with adhesion power and change direction at the depot. The final section inside Leysin town is soon going to be replaced by a new tunnel. One reason of doing this is that the very last station, Leysin - Grande Hotel is not really used by passengers anymore. When visiting, we were almost the only people to get off the train there and finding a street that would lead back to the more centrally located Leysin-Fayday station was problematic. Anothe reason for the replacement is that the ski lifts lie rather far from the current train stations, and lengthening the rack railway to the Berneuse cable car is going to increase passenger travel by a lot.

The TPC railcar BDe 4/4 401 and driving trailer (cab car) Bt 434 seen between Verchiez and Aigle-Dépôt ASD Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:28 12:24:02 Tags: Verchiez Aigle-Parc aventure 279 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC

You can see the train three times in this panoramic image, but the highest level of the line can be seen in the top-left corner as well. Verchiez has a more than 180 degrees turn to let the trains climb along the side-valley walls twice.

The TPC BDe 4/4 401 and Bt 434 seen between Verchiez and Aigle-Dépôt ASD on the Aigle-Sépey-Diablerets railway Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:28 12:25:32 Tags: Aigle-Parc aventure Aigle-Dépôt ASD 279 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC vezérlökocsi

It's a good thing we managed to take photos of the ASD railcars made by Vevey as the replacements have already been ordered from Stadler in the form of class ABe 4/8 railcars. They are scheduled to arrive in 2024.

A car storage track at Fontanney on the Aigle-Leysin railway Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:28 12:26:48 Tags: Fontanney 278 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC

It's a good thing we managed to take photos of the ASD railcars made by Vevey as the replacements have already been ordered from Stadler in the form of class ABe 4/8 railcars. They are scheduled to arrive in 2024.

The TPC Bt 363 seen between Aigle-Dépôt AL and Fontanney Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:28 13:04:37 Tags: Fontanney Aigle-Dépôt AL 278 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC vezérlökocsi

At the two sides of the gorge of the Grande Eau the ASD and AL lines climb to the top. The rather small creek has a gorge more than a hundred metres deep thanks to the post-glacial floods. There are no settlements in the gorge area.

The TPC Beh 2/6 547 seen between Fayot and Pont de Fayot Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:28 17:11:05 Tags: Fayot Pont de Fayot 280 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC GTW

At this railway my vide camera has just died but still I managed to have one shot of each Aigle railway. I have uploaded this video to my YouTube channel together with the Hauenstein railway clips, please enjoy:

Since that we have visited the Aigle area once again and some really nice shots were taken. Please subscribe to my channel in the meantime as a lot more interesting railway- and model-railway-related videos are being prepared.

An Aigle - Sépey - Diablerets train seen descending between Aigle - Parc Aventure and Aigle - Dépot ASD Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:28 20:25:12 Tags: Verchiez Aigle-Parc aventure 279 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC

After a quick dinner we walked to the end of the street of our accomodation to the vineyards covered hillside to take a few long-exposure night photos of the trains arriving in Aigle. With the slight moonlight and the headlights of the trains a great streak is marking the path that trains followed. I really like taking photos like this and I have shared a great number of such photos already on my website. The green illuminated catenary pole is just next to an approach signal to the Aigle-Depot ASD station which normally would look like this:

An ASD passenger train is climbing uphill between Aigle and Verchiez Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:28 21:01:43 Tags: Aigle-Parc aventure Aigle-Dépôt ASD 279 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC

The ASD train climbs the first few, rather gentle horseshoe-curves among the vineries of Aigle. At Verchiez, a more than 180 degree turn will bring it high above the valley of the Grande Eau after visiting a side valley. In the front the bright rectangle is the wall of the Aigle Castle and beyond the mountains on the other side of the Rhone valley is France. To the right the depression marks Lake Geneva (Le Léman), and if I had been standing just a little bit higher the water would have been visible. Along the ridge on the right-hand side of the photo climbs the Aigle-Leysin rack railway on the other side of the valley of the Grande Eau. On the neyt picture the trace of such an AL train is going to be visible.

Aigle-Leysin rack train is seen climbing between Fontanney and Pont-de-Drapel Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:28 21:06:09 Tags: Pont-de-Drapel Fontanney 278 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC

In the foreground the curve of the ASD is visible and in the small saddle in the middle the Lake Geneva can be seen. I'd like to recommend a few additional night photographs from Switzerland:

The TPC BDeh 4/4 82 seen at Col-de-Bretaye Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:29 11:09:38 Tags: Col-de-Bretaye 281 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC vegyesvonat

It is pulling TPC passenger cars in the back and pushing some freight cars in the front.

The TPC BDeh 4/4 82 seen at Col-de-Bretaye Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:29 11:10:36 Tags: Col-de-Bretaye 281 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC vegyesvonat

It is pulling TPC passenger cars in the back and pushing some freight cars in the front.

The BVB BDeh 4/4 83 seen between Roche-Grise and Col-de-Soud Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:29 11:41:03 Tags: Col-de-Soud Roche-Grise 281 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC vegyesvonat

The supply of the houses at the mountain is done using freight trains of course. We didn't envy the heavily coated conductor though.

The TPC Beh 4/8 91 seen between Col-de-Soud and Villars-sur-Ollon Golf Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:29 12:11:11 Tags: Villars-sur-Ollon Golf Col-de-Soud 281 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC

Unfortunately I didn't record any videos of the BVB as my video camera died a few days before, but still it may be worth having a look at the few shots I managed during another trip:

The BVB BDeh 4/4 83 seen between Villars-sur-Ollon Golf and Col-de-Soud Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:29 12:23:38 Tags: Villars-sur-Ollon Golf Col-de-Soud 281 TPC Svájc kisvasút TPC vegyesvonat

Mixed passenger-freight trains are awesome and there are a suprisingly high number of them in Switzerland.

An SBB InterCity seen between Martigny and Vernayaz Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:29 14:50:38 Tags: Martigny Vernayaz 246 Re460 Svájc

The photo was taken of the Mont Blanc-Express.

The TMR Beh 4/8 71 seen between Les Marécottes and Salvan Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:29 15:15:45 Tags: Les Marécottes Salvan 284 TMR Svájc

A few years back I have made a few videos of the railway, please watch it, and if you would like to see any additional videos of standard-gauge or narrow-gauge trains, subscribe to my channel.

Ships at Thun railway station Photographed by: Takács Bence Captured at: 2018:03:29 18:21:15 Tags: Thun 245 Switzerland

This is same-platform connection at its best!

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