Seetalbahn

An SBB articulated railcar of the type RABe 520 north of Beinwil am See station

The Seetalbahn is a standard gauge railway line in Switzerland that connects Lucerne with Lenzburg and is named after the Seetal in between . It has been operated by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) since 1922 . A branch line from Beinwil am See to Beromünster and a continuation from Lenzburg to Wildegg were closed and demolished .

The lines also gave the De 6/6 locomotive developed for them the nickname Seetal - Crocodile , and the same applies to the “Seetal” light metal wagons .

history

"Lake Valley of Switzerland Railway Company"

Tank locomotive Ed 3/4 No. 14 of the STB

Tank locomotive Ed 3/3 51 on loan from BBC from 1908 until electrification in 1910

In the municipalities of the Seetal, it was originally hoped that the Basel - Olten - Lucerne route would cross the Seetal. However, the Swiss Central Railway decided to route via Zofingen - Sursee - Sempach .

In the 1870s, the Zurich engineer Theodor Lutz (1841–1890) , who previously worked for the national railway, developed a concept for the cost-effective construction of local railways. According to his ideas, local railways should also use existing roads, which would lose most of the traffic to the newly opened railway anyway.

This also made it possible to run the local railway directly into the town centers. Lutz had a fleeting acquaintance with London financiers, whom he was able to win for the project of a railway planned according to his concept through the Swiss lake valley. So the Lake Valley of Switzerland Railway Company was founded in London on August 22, 1882 .

In 1883 the line from Emmenbrücke to Lenzburg was opened in two stages. In 1887 a branch line followed from Beinwil am See to Reinach . The hope of the English investors for big business was not fulfilled, and so they sold the train in 1894 to the newly founded Schweizerische Seethalbahn Aktiengesellschaft (STB) .

Swiss Seethalbahn Aktiengesellschaft

Share for CHF 500 in Schweizerische Seethalbahn AG from January 1, 1897

The new Swiss owners tried to make their railway more attractive and introduced some notable innovations. In 1894/1896 four-axle open-plan cars were procured. From 1903, four-axle buffet cars operated by the Swiss Dining Car Company were used. In the absence of profitability, they were shut down again seven years later.

In 1895, the line from Lenzburg to Wildegg was extended to create a direct connection to the line from Olten to Zurich of the Swiss Northeast Railway (NOB). In 1906 the branch line from Reinach to Beromünster was extended with the plan to continue building to Sursee and Rothenburg LU .

The most important innovation was the electrification of the line with single-phase alternating voltage of 5500  volts 25  hertz in 1910. An unusual step for a local railway was also the management of express trains from 1913. The electrical operation enabled the Seetalbahn to generate good income during the First World War. because they didn't have to cut their schedule because of a lack of coal.

nationalization

The Swiss Federal Railways were very interested in acquiring the lucrative railway, and so it was nationalized on the concession-based repurchase date in 1922. The SBB operation meant the end of many progressive innovations by the former private owners. The express trains disappeared as did the four-axle open-plan cars, which were replaced by two- and three-axle vehicles. The Seetalbahn became a «normal» SBB branch line and led a shadowy existence within the SBB.

In 1930 the two lines of the former Seetalbahn were converted to the single-phase alternating current system of the Swiss Federal Railways of 15,000 volts 16 2/3 Hertz alternating current. The well-known SBB De 6/6 15301 to 15303 , the Seetal crocodile , which had been procured shortly before , were switchable and could run on both voltages.

Trivia

Seetal and Seetalbahn used to be spelled with an h in the expression valley . Although the term Seetalbahn is common today, the Hochdorf-based Verein Historische Seethalbahn (VHS) , for example, still uses the old, no longer common term.

Beinwil am See – Beromünster railway line

Beinwil am See – Beromünster
Timetable field :	ex 652
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	37  ‰
Legend Seetalbahn main line from Lenzburg 0.0 Beinwil am See 520  m above sea level M. 0.4 Seetalbahn main line to Lucerne 2.2 Reinach Unterdorf 523  m above sea level M. 3.2 Reinach SBB 523  m above sea level M. 4.3 Menziken SBB 548  m above sea level M. 8.0 Beromünster 650  m above sea level M.

The branch line was intended to open up the Wynental and the Beromünster region and was initially opened to Reinach / Menziken on January 23, 1887. With the opening on May 1, 1904, the Wynental received a direct connection to the canton capital Aarau with the Wynental Railway . Nevertheless, from October 1st 1906 the branch line from Reinach / Menziken to Beromünster was extended. A few years later it was switched to electrical operation. The voltage was 5500 volts, which was generated in Beinwil am See with a steam engine via a generator. Only later did the changeover to 15,000 volts take place.

Most recently, 18 pairs of passenger trains ran daily before passenger traffic was discontinued on May 30, 1992 and replaced by buses. This adjustment was made on an experimental basis and initially limited to five years, but in fact passenger traffic was not resumed. The tracks were left for freight traffic. In July 2001 the last freight trains respectively. Circus Knie special trains .

A special feature was the connection of the branch line to the main line from Emmenbrücke to Lenzburg. The route could only be reached via a hairpin in Beinwil am See train station. Direct train journeys to Beromünster were therefore not possible from Emmenbrücke or Lenzburg.

In Reinach and Menziken , the route was used to relocate the meter-gauge Wynentalbahn from the road to an independent track. On the route between Beromünster and Menziken, a cycle path was laid out, which was opened in October 2008.

Railway line (Lucerne–) Emmenbrücke – Lenzburg – Wildegg

Typical routing of the Seetalbahn right next to Hauptstrasse 26 ( Beinwil am See ).

Emmenbrücke – Lenzburg – Wildegg
Timetable field :	651
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	38  ‰
Legend from Lucerne 0.0 Emmenbrücke 438  m above sea level M. 1.0 Emmenbrücke Gersag 1.7 Hübeli 462  m above sea level M. to Olten Hüslentunnel (628 m) 5.9 5.6 Waldibrücke km change (new route) 421  m above sea level M. 8.6 Eschenbach 467  m above sea level M. 11.0 Ballwil 515  m above sea level M. 12.4 Hochdorf Schönau 13.7 Hochdorf 483  m above sea level M. 15.4 Baldegg monastery 15.9 Baldegg 469  m above sea level M. 19.4 Gelfingen 470  m above sea level M. 20.8 Hitzkirch 470  m above sea level M. 21.0 from here "special profile Seetal" 21.9 Ermensee 467  m above sea level M. 24.1 Mosen (formerly Bf ) Seetalbahn branch line from Beromünster 27.2 Beinwil am See 520  m above sea level M. 29.5 Birrwil 521  m above sea level M. 33.1 Boniswil 476  m above sea level M. 34.4 Hallwil 36.9 Seon 446  m above sea level M. up to here "special profile Seetal" 41.56 0.00 Lenzburg hairpin 0.42 Lenzburg city 397  m above sea level M. Aargau Southern Railway , Heitersberg Line from Baden 42.12 Lenzburg (wedge station) 406  m above sea level M. to Zofingen to Aarau Lenzburg industry 2.06 Niederlenz 383  m above sea level M. from Aarau 4.02 Wildegg 354  m above sea level M. to Baden Route section with restricted clearance profile

Renovation of the Seetalbahn

In Seon , this traffic sign warned of the short distance between rail and road.

Problems of the alignment

The routing mostly on existing country roads is nowadays only common on narrow-gauge railways - mostly meter gauge - because their vehicles have a shorter braking distance. In the Seetal, however, largely the same rolling stock was used as on the rest of the Swiss Federal Railways network . Traction vehicles of the series SBB RBe 4/4 , SBB Ae 6/6 and SBB RBDe 4/4 were common . The track leads directly through the towns like a tram.

After the motorization, this led to major problems. In the course of time, the railway line was moved next to the road, but due to lack of space, the gap was often so small that the clearance profiles of the railway and the road overlapped. The main problem was the originally more than 500 unguarded level crossings over a 40-kilometer stretch . Before the renovation, almost half of all accidents at level crossings in the SBB network occurred on the Seetalbahn. Because of the frequency of accidents with several fatalities per year, the Seetalbahn was popularly known as the macabre customer butcher .

So around 1950 a replacement of the railway with buses was requested. Later, the locomotives used were given stripes in luminous yellow and luminous orange ("Seetal shock colors" or "Seetal warning stripes") on the front sides. These warning strips were also available on magnetic boards so that they could be attached to the Ae 6/6 locomotives.

Emmenbrücke – Waldibrücke railway section

The section between Emmenbrücke and Waldibrücke was particularly dangerous with 40 level crossings alone. In 1960 it was first proposed to move the railway in Emmen. In 1983 a building decision was made, but the start of construction was delayed due to objections. After the Federal Council passed a decision in principle for the maintenance and renovation of the Seetalbahn in 1992 , construction could begin in 1994.

The 4.7 kilometer long new line was opened on May 23, 1998. It branches off the route from Lucerne to Olten north of Emmenbrücke station at the Hübeli junction and leads through open terrain to the 628-meter-long Hüslen tunnel . After the tunnel, the Emmen airfield will be bypassed before the old route is reached at Waldibrücke. The elimination of the operationally cumbersome hairpin at Emmenbrücke station and the higher speed can also save five minutes of travel time.

Railway section Waldibrücke – Lenzburg

For the remaining, more extensive part of the route, ideas for a thorough renovation with further new construction sections were discussed. For cost reasons, a concept was finally planned that is mainly based on the following two points:

• Introduction of a new operating concept in which driving is carried out partly according to railroad and partly according to tram regulations, that is, “on sight”.
• Use of narrower vehicles. This was intended to eliminate the clearance overlaps between rail and road. Guardrails should be installed between rail and road at critical points. However, the concept of profile reduction was not implemented, especially because of the dangers for cyclists.

After completion of the renovation work, during which the track systems were also simplified - almost half of the existing 60 switches could be saved, the new operating concept started at the end of 2002. Because there is no significant reduction in the clearance profile, the Seetalbahn can still be used by all standard-gauge vehicles . Only on historic trains with lowered windows do train attendants have to prevent travelers from leaning out of the open window. The section between Emmenbrücke and Hitzkirch has a normal profile, freight traffic is limited to this section.

The renovation of the Seetalbahn continued. Of the 210 level crossings still in existence in 2005 - 53 of which were technically secured - only 85 were to remain in 2009, all of which are technically secured. From 2009 to 2011, a re-routing was also carried out over a length of around 1.5 km in Boniswil. The old train station on Kantonsstrasse was demolished and replaced by a new stop in the center of the village.

Since December 12, 2004 the Seetalbahn has been the S9 line of the Lucerne S-Bahn . The operation is carried out consistently with the low-floor articulated multiple units RABe 520 , which have poor running characteristics due to the only 2.65 m wide car bodies. The narrow special construction should be dispensed with the next time rolling stock is purchased.

Railway section Lenzburg – Wildegg

After the opening of the Seetalbahn, there was only a connection at the northern end to the railway line of the failed national railway , which was only of regional importance. The Seetalbahn was therefore looking for access to the railway line from Zurich via Baden to Aarau of the Swiss Northeast Railway , which carried the main traffic in Switzerland in an east-west direction. The solution was the extension of the main line to Wildegg, opened in 1895 .

From then on the trains ran from Wildegg via Lenzburg Stadt to Emmenbrücke. Lenzburg was no longer served by all trains, because the station could only be approached in reverse from the Lenzburg Spitzkehre service. A special feature was the symmetrical three-way switch installed on the north side of Lenzburg Stadt .

With the Heitersberg Line , opened in 1975 , the main traffic in east-west direction came directly to Lenzburg. The line to Wildegg was thus superfluous, and Lenzburg was again a full-fledged train station. On June 4, 1984 the passenger and freight traffic was stopped, only Lenzburg Industrie was still served by Lenzburg until March 30, 2005 in freight traffic. After operations ceased, the line in Lenzburg was demolished and the route used for a bypass road.

Signage

Until the introduction of the new operating concept in December 2002, special combined gradient and speed signs were used on the Seetalbahn.

See also : "Earlier slope tables of the Seetalbahn" in the article Inclination pointer

literature

• Seetalbahn. No. 10/1983 of the magazine Schweiz - Suisse - Svizzera. Switzerland. Traffic center, Zurich 1983.
• Ruedi Eichenberger: The shortest route from Germany to Italy leads through the Seetal. The adventurous story of the Seetalbahn, which has become 100 years old. In: Lenzburger Neujahrsblätter 1984. Lenzburg 1984, pp. 3-14.
• Peter Hunkeler: A modern regional train for the Seetal - experiences, successes and prospects. In: Swiss Railway Review. 7/2006. Minirex, pp. 366-372, ISSN  1022-7113 .
• Confused location in the Seetal. In: Swiss Railway Review. 2/2003. Minirex, pp. 57-60.
• From the "Lake Valley Railway" to the Seetal Railway. In: Hansrudolf Schwabe, Alex Amstein: 3x50 years. Swiss railways in the past, present and future. Pharos, Basel 1997, ISBN 3-7230-0235-8 , pp. 133-137.
• Kurt Baumgartner, Daniel Zumbühl: The most dangerous section of the Seetalbahn has disappeared. Opening of the new Emmenbrücke – Waldibrücke line. In: Railway Amateur, 7/1998, pp. 448–453.
• R. Wanner: Off for the regional trains from Beinwil am See to Beromünster. In: Eisenbahn Amateur, 6/1992, pp. 406–408.
• Hans G. Wägli: Swiss Rail Network . 3rd edition, AS, Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-909111-74-9 .

Web links

Commons : Seetalbahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• List of articles in the Swiss Railway Review
• Special signaling Seetalbahn on Austro-Swiss Railway Signaling (Mirror-Sight)
• Disused railway line Lenzburg - Wildegg on Chrigu's railway pages
• Rolling stock directory (Josef Pospichal)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Walter von Andrian: SBB modernize the Seetalbahn GTW for the remaining service life. In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 4/2019. Minirex, ISSN  1022-7113 , pp. 214-217.