John Lovda's Swiss Rail Photo Album

At the controls of a BLS 465 Locomotive
BLS Hauptwerkstätte, Spiez

Background

I first visited Switzerland in 1976 with my wife on our honeymoon.  We covered just about every corner of the country from Schaffhausen to Geneva to Lugano in two weeks using a Swiss Railpass.  When we returned home and processed our slides, it seemed I had more shots of locomotives than mountains.  I also purchased a Fleischmann Ae6/6 HO locomotive and three coaches at a model train store in Interlaken. I was hooked.

Why do I like photographing Swiss trains? The railroad system is incredible; it covers almost every city and town, it is renowned for its punctuality plus the equipment and infrastructure are extremely well maintained. Unlike the US rail system, it is an integral part of life for most Swiss citizens.

The train schedules are mind boggling in the number of options and efficient timing of changes. The number of trains in motion at any moment in this small geographic area provides a constant variety of photo opportunities. At a major station such as the Zürich HbF, dozens of trains come and go each hour. The country is also small enough to be covered in a (long) day from one base city.

I love the styling of the locomotives. The body of the SBB's newest locomotive, the Re460, was designed by the famous Italian firm Pininfarina (same as Ferrari). The colors and paint schemes are constantly changing, having evolved from plain dark green to red with bigger logos and accent lines.  I have photos of several locomotives taken 25 years apart and it is interesting to follow the transitions.  The red Ae6/6 Städtelok is my personal favorite. The narrow guage, private mountain railroads such as the RhB, FO and BVZ are especially beautiful and well maintained. These locomotives look as if they are washed every morning.

Finally, the spectacular mountains and countryside of Switzerland provides the ultimate scenic backdrop.  I like to call it "God’s model railroad."

A Furka Oberalp HGe 4/4 II Locomotive
near Sedrun

I have returned to Switzerland 13 times since our honeymoon trip in 1976. My wife and I returned for holidays in 1977 and 1983 and were accompanied by our daughter in the summers of 1994 and 1997. I have taken solo photographic trips in November of 1994 plus every March from 1995 to 2004.  March offers the lowest airfares and hotel rates of the year.

The Zürich Hauptbahnhof
The beginning and end of my travels, each day

Many of the historic locomotives that the SBB and private railways preserve are hidden away and run only a few times a year for special events. In 1999, I decided to try getting into the facilities where these older restored locomotives reside. In general, I have been extremely successful obtaining entry permission. The staff at these locations also went out of their way to find English speaking escorts. One can definitely sense the pride these individuals have for their rail system.  Not only was I able to view and photograph the the special locomotives but I was also able to climb into many of the modern prototypes to view the driver’s cab and the electrical machinery. I have visited the Rhaetian Railroad (RhB) Hauptwerkstätte in Landquart, The BLS Hauptwerkstätte in Spiez, the Furka-Oberalp Hauptwerkstätte at Brig-Glis as well as regional SBB depots in Erstfeld, Basel, Lausanne and Luzern. Only at Yverdon-Les-Bain, one of the two main SBB shops, was I unable to arrange an appointment, even with an advance phone call.  It is dangerous to wander through these facilities or yards without an escort. The locomotives are virtually silent when approaching and move about randomly.  All rail employees at the depots wear orange vests for visibility and one was always issued to me as a visitor.

The Fleischmann model train from my honeymoon also started another passion/obsession; the collection of Swiss HO model locomotives. I have never created a running layout. These models represent three-dimensional "postcards" with fond, personal memories of the exact location or situation where I saw the real prototype. My collection started slowly in size and in the 70's and 80's stayed in its box except to run on the dining room table at Christmastime. In 1993 at my wife's insistance, I finally purchased two display cabinets with glass doors so that I can now view these models regularly. Being able to view them regularly and having empty spaces to fill did provide incentives to add items. I currently have about thirty HO locomotives in my collection along with a smaller number of coaches. My collection encompasses Roco, Märklin, Hag, Trix, Lima, Fleischmann and Bemo brands in a mixture of AC and DC with an emphasis on accuracy of detail and the availability of a particular color scheme or engine number. I usually "super detail" them with prototype couplers and brake hose lines. Of the thirty locomotives I own, I have photographs of the exact prototype for over twenty. This provides a personal incentive on subsequent visits either to spot and shoot the prototype of one of my models or shoot and later purchase an interesting model for my collection. My current goal is to set up a ~2.5m long shelf/diorama with a typical SBB InterCity train; possibly with catenary. 

The end of the day, returning to Zurich

I should point out that although I enjoy photographing older, historic locomotives, my real love, and the bulk of my model collection, are the modern prototypes seen day to day hauling passengers and freight.

I have had the good fortune to meet several Swiss individuals through correspondence on the Märklin Mailinglist. In 1999, Fred Krähenbühl was kind enough to provide me with the locomotive number of the newly introduced Märklin Re4/4 II 34344 so I could be watching for the prototype (the number is 11252 and I did spot it near Basel).

Fred and Vreni Krähenbühl

Although we had prearranged a time to meet for a cup of coffee near my hotel, we actually ran into each other 30 minutes earlier at the model train department of Franz Carl Weber on the Bahnhofstrasse. It was an amazing coincidence! The following day Fred and his wife invited me to dinner at their home in Greifensee. Fred and Vreni have invited me on my three subsequent trips and I have always had an extremely enjoyable evening of conversation.  Fred also talked me into giving a little talk and slide presentation to the Highlander's English Speaking Club in Uster with the topic of why I return to Switzerland year after year!

In March of 2000, I had the opportunity to meet Stefan Unholz, a lawyer from Winterthur and an extremely knowledgable individual regarding both Swiss model railroading and the prototype locomotives.

Stefan operates his own website: (http://homepage.swissonline.ch/unholz/english.html) This site contains a detailed HAG database as well as other useful information such as a calendar of Swiss model train flea markets. I have found him to be most helpful and he has gone to substantial effort faxing and mailing information I was looking for to correctly detail one of my new models. We first met in 1999 in Frauenfeld at a model train flea market and again in 2000 in at a show in Gisikon-Root. After the Frauenfeld show, he and his wife were kind enough to take me with them to Basel where they were to attend a model train auction. The 90 minute ride was filled with a wealth of railroad information.  I look forward to future meetings.

All of the images in this website are copyright, John Lovda, 1983-2002, all rights reserved.  Images may be used for non-commercial purposes if you let me know where you will be using them and they are accompanied by my name and address, ie, "John Lovda, jlovda@attglobal.net".  If the use is commercial, let me know also.  I'm sure we can come to an appropriate agreement.  These images all originated as 35mm transparencies converted to Kodak PhotoCD files (pcd) with a max resolution of 3000x2000 pixels.