Tösstalbahn

Winterthur-Grüze-Rüti ZH
Timetable field :	754
Route length:	43.6 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	32  ‰
Legend from Winterthur 2.5 Winterthur-Grüze 452  m above sea level M. to St. Gallen 4.4 Winterthur lakes 468  m above sea level M. 7.2 Sennhof-Kyburg 484  m above sea level M. 8.6 Kollbrunn 493  m above sea level M. 11.3 Rikon 512  m above sea level M. 13.5 Rämismühle - Zell 530  m above sea level M. 15.8 Turbenthal 550  m above sea level M. 18.1 Wila 569  m above sea level M. 21.2 Saland 601  m above sea level M. 25.1 Bauma 639  m above sea level M. from Uerikon Lipperschwendi (55 m) 29.8 web 695  m above sea level M. 32.3 Fischenthal 735  m above sea level M. 34.7 Gibswil 757  m above sea level M. Jonaschlucht (31 m) Kühweid (132 m) Panel cut (14 m) 39.6 Forest 617  m above sea level M. Jonabrücke (65 m) 44.5 Tann - Dürnten 516  m above sea level M. from Wallisellen – Uster Jonaviaduct 46.1 Rüti ZH 482  m above sea level M. to Rapperswil

The Tösstalbahn , abbreviated TTB , was a Swiss railway company . The railway line of the same name operated by the latter belongs to the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and runs from Winterthur Grüze station via Turbenthal , Bauma and Wald to Rüti . It is 43.6 kilometers long and electrified.

history

Share of the Tössthalbahn company from September 2, 1875

The Swiss National Railway (SNB) was looking for a train connection from Winterthur through the Tösstal to Uznach early on in order to establish a connection with the United Swiss Railway (VSB). The Winterthur city ​​president and member of the Council of States, Johann Jakob Sulzer , wanted to set up an independent Tösstalbahn company because his views no longer matched those of the SNB. On June 24, 1865, a meeting took place in Turbenthal to plan a Tösstalbahn, at which a Tössthalbahn Committee was founded, on whose board Johann Jakob Sulzer, the governor of the Pfäffikon district Heinrich Gujer and the entrepreneur Adolf Guyer-Zeller sat as secretary . Guyer-Zeller resigned from the commission in 1870 because he was an advocate of a continuous Töss-Allmannbahn, which was to run from Winterthur to Bubikon , where the connection to the United Swiss Railways, which had been open to Chur since 1859 , would have been established. The commission only planned the Winterthur – Bauma branch line for the construction of which the Tösstal Railway Company was founded on December 17, 1871. Johann Jakob Sulzer, who held the office until 1878, was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Since the communities in the Tösstal could not raise the entire capital for the construction , Johannes Schoch, who was born in the Tösstal and worked in Milan as an industrial clerk, stepped in as a benefactor. He therefore had a large say in the course of the line and in the design and location of the stations he financed. There were some conflicts with the United Swiss Railways because of the two-sided connections of the Tösstalbahn. In Winterthur this was the joint use of the VSB line from Winterthur to Grüze and in Wald the connection to the independently founded Wald-Rüti-Bahn , which was also operated by the VSB. But thanks to the influence of Johannes Schoch and his financial support, a halfway satisfactory agreement was reached. Construction began on February 1, 1872.

The Grüze – Bauma line was opened on May 4, 1875, with the TTB using that of the VSB between Grüze and Winterthur station until its own track was completed in 1882. The continuation to Wald could already be opened on October 15, 1876, despite cost overruns for the first part. This gave the railway a connection to the Glatthalbahn .

From 1902, after the nationalization of the United Swiss Railways, the Tösstalbahn took over operations on the Wald-Rüti-Bahn with its Tösstalbahn locomotives.

On June 10, 1918, the Tösstalbahn, together with the Wald-Rüti-Bahn, was nationalized as one of the last private railways retroactively to January 1st and was transferred to the SBB. Because of the steep slope of 32 ‰ between Wald and Gibswil, this section is still called the Little Gotthard , based on the Gotthard Railway .

From 1911 to 1914 and 1946 to 1951, a few trains also stopped on the Seemer Buck near the Ziegelhütte, serving the Seemer Aussenwachten Gotzenwil , Iberg and Eidberg .

vehicles

The first five locomotives of the TTB were three-axle machines of the type Ed 3/3 with an output of 165  horsepower (120  kW ). Locomotive number 1 was named Johannes Schoch in honor of the patron . The locomotives had to struggle hard on the route from Wald up to Gibswil, which climbed by up to 32  ‰ , but surprisingly two of them were replaced by even smaller ones with only two drive axles in 1884. Initially, six double-decker cars were used , each with a lower and upper passage compartment, 2nd and 3rd class, and initially also with a first-class compartment. Because of the steps that were too high and the outside stairs, these vehicles were not very popular with travelers. They were converted into one-story wagons in 1881 and demolished a short time later.

• 

  Locomotive No. 1 Schoch after being taken over by the SBB

• 

  Locomotive No. 3 Bauma

• 

  Double deck car

expansion

Due to the planned additional traffic from December 2018, construction work was necessary at the following stations in the period from 2012 to 2019:

• Winterthur Lakes: Extension of the outer barrier (new 320 m), adaptation of the platform height to 55 cm
• Seenhof-Kyburg: Expansion to a crossing station, adjustment of platform height to 55 cm
• Saland: Expansion to a crossing station
• Footbridge: Replacement of a platform with a platform height of 55 cm
• Gibswil: Moving the platform and adjusting the platform height to 55 cm
• Tann-Dürnten: New construction of a step-free crossing station

business

The S26 of the Zurich S-Bahn runs on the Tösstalbahn, which connects Winterthur with Rüti and thus travels the entire length of the Tösstalbahn. The 4th partial additions to the Zurich S-Bahn also include an expansion of the service for the S 26 Winterthur - Bauma - Rüti ZH , which will now run every half hour. Due to delays in the planning approval process at Tann-Dürnten station, the Winterthur - Bauma route will initially run every half hour in December 2018 (previously limping, varying departure times). The double-track expansion in Tann-Dürnten to the new crossing station began in October 2018. Commissioning and the start of the continuous half-hourly service between Winterthur and Rüti ZH is planned for the timetable change in December 2019.

Also at the timetable change in December 2018, the S 11 Aarau - Lenzburg - Dietikon - Zurich HB - Stettbach - Winterthur - Seuzach / Sennhof-Kyburg (- Wila ) will now run on a section of the Tösstalbahn. The expansions that have taken place make it possible to run an hourly S-Bahn route to Wila during rush hour, but without a stop in Rämismühle-Zell.

The S43, which originally ran between Wald and Rüti, was replaced by buses on December 10, 2006. However, the discontinued line reappears in a long-term vision of the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (ZVV) in an extended form over the Seedamm von Rapperswil .

Web links

Commons : Tösstalbahn  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• From the annals of the TTB
• Seen station and the Tösstallinie

Individual evidence

1. ^ Markus Bürgi: Sulzer, Johann Jakob. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
2. ^ Doris Müller-Füglistaler: Adolf Guyer-Zeller (1839–1899) . In: Antiquarian Society in Zurich (ed.): Communications from the Antiquarian Society in Zurich . tape 59 . Hans Rohr, 1992, ISSN  0304-4327 , 6.7.2. Adolf Guyer-Zeller's railway ambitions in the Zurich Oberland ( digitized version ).
3. ↑ Johann Jakob Sulzer. Alfred Escher Foundation, accessed on January 17, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Andreas Betschart: Lakes in the modern age . In: New Year's Gazette of the Winterthur City Library . tape 342 . Winterthur 2009, ISBN 978-3-908050-30-8 , pp. 95 & 96 .
5. ↑ Zurich S-Bahn, 4th partial supplements Winterthur-Rüti ZH - JAUSLIN STEBLER. Retrieved October 7, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Infrastructure - ZVV. Retrieved October 7, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Winterthur - Bauma - Rüti - ZVV. In: ZVV. Retrieved January 17, 2016 . 
8. ↑ Half-hourly intervals between Bauma and Rüti are possible. Retrieved October 7, 2018 .