Gossau SG – Wasserauen railway line

Gossau SG – Wasserauen
Appenzeller Bahnen train with BDe 4/4 II 43 near Gonten .
Timetable field :	854
Route length:	32.10 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Power system :	1500 volts  =
Maximum slope :	37  ‰
Legend 0.00 Gossau SG end point S 23 638  m above sea level M. Transition to the St. Gallen – Winterthur railway line St. Gallen Winkeln (until 1913) 655  m above sea level M. Transition to the St. Gallen – Winterthur railway line Heinrichsbad (19 m) Ziegelhütte (35 m) from St. Gallen 5.03 Herisau 745  m above sea level M. to Wattwil Mühlebühl (61 m) Mühlebühl (15 m) Herisau (until 1910) 763  m above sea level M. 6.81 Wilen 759  m above sea level M. 9.29 Waldstatt 814  m above sea level M. 12.06 Sulzbrunn 804  m above sea level M. 13.55 Zürchersmühle 807  m above sea level M. 15.17 Urnaesch 824  m above sea level M. 19.05 Jakobsbad 873  m above sea level M. 20.88 Gonten 899  m above sea level M. 22.92 Gontenbad 887  m above sea level M. Kaubach (99 m) 25.92 Appenzell 786  m above sea level M. to St. Gallen Sitter 27.79 Steinegg 800  m above sea level M. 29.03 Weissbad 817  m above sea level M. 30.35 Schwende 839  m above sea level M. 32.10 Wasserauen end point S 23 869  m above sea level M.

The Gossau SG – Wasserauen railway is a meter-gauge adhesion railway operated by the Appenzeller Bahnen . It leads from Gossau via Appenzell to Wasserauen and is abbreviated as GAW in official usage by the operator . The connection was built and electrified in several stages by various companies and has been operated continuously since 1949.

history

The route was created in the following stages:

• Gossau SG– Herisau opened on October 1, 1913 by the Appenzeller Bahn (which has been called Appenzeller Bahnen since 1988) as a replacement for the St. Gallen Winkeln – Herisau line that opened on April 12, 1875
• Herisau – Urnäsch opened on September 21, 1875 by the Swiss Society for Local Railways (which was called Appenzeller Bahn from 1885)
• Urnäsch – Appenzell opened on August 16 (to Gontenbad) and October 29, 1886 by the Appenzell Railway
• Gossau SG-Appenzell has been operated electrically with 1500 volts direct current since April 23, 1933
• Appenzell – Wasserauen opened on July 13, 1912 by the Säntisbahn in electrical operation with 1000 volts direct current and switched to 1500 volts direct current by the Appenzeller Bahn on April 22, 1949 in order to enable continuous operation

Steam locomotive G 3/4 "Hochalp" of the Appenzeller Bahn built in 1887

In order to be able to transport standard-gauge wagons on the meter -gauge network, a new roll- stand system was put into operation in Gossau on July 1, 1978 , via which the Gossau – Wasserauen route could be served. Starting in 1989, the roll-head system was expanded to the Appenzell – Gais – Teufen line . At the end of 2003, the freight traffic was stopped and on August 1, 2010 the roll stand system was taken out of operation, which means that official transports are no longer possible.

Accidents

On November 13, 1997, a passenger train in the direction of Waldstatt left the Herisau station too early and collided with an oncoming train. 17 passengers and the driver were injured in the collision.

On January 19, 2007, a train traveling to Gossau was hit by a squall near Wasserauen . The control car tipped over onto the cantonal road running next to the track , the intermediate car came to rest on the embankment, and the BDe 4/4 33 multiple unit remained on the rails. There were no passengers on the train. The driver was injured. As a result of this accident, operations between Weissbad and Wasserauen are suspended in strong winds and buses are used instead.

photos

• 

  Shuttle train with BDe 4/4 in 1979

• 

  Railcar BDe 4/4 II near Gonten

• 

  Shuttle train with Ge 4/4 1

• 

  The new "Walzer" ABe 4/12 trains have been in use since 2018

• 

  ABe 4/12 “Waltz” in Appenzell

• 

  BDe 4/4 44 with advertising for the Ostwind tariff association in the Wasserauen terminus , 2009

literature

• Stephan Müller The history of the Appenzeller Bahnen AB / SGA / AG / SB. Herisau 1981, ISBN 3-85822-014-0 .
• Hans G. Wägli: Swiss rail network and Swiss rail profile CH +. AS Verlag, Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-909111-74-9 .
• Peter Willen: Locomotives in Switzerland 2 - narrow-gauge traction vehicles. Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich 1971.
• Emil Zeller, Josef Hardegger: 1886–1986 100 years of the railway in Appenzell Innerrhoden. Appenzeller Bahn publishing house, Herisau 1986

Individual evidence

1. ^ Emil Lutz, Peter E. Schaufelberger, Hans Hug: 100 years of the Appenzell Railway. Appenzeller Bahn publishing house, Herisau 1975, page 48
2. ^ Collision in Herisau . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 1 . Minirex, 1988, ISSN  1022-7113 , pp. 12 .
3. ↑ Wind sweeps the train off the rails . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 3 . Minirex, 2007, ISSN  1022-7113 , p. 110 .