TRAINS OVER GOTTHARD
TRAINS OVER GOTTHARD |
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| The Gotthard line is one of my favorite lines - seen from a railfanners point of view it offers heavy traffic, relavitely low speed and many curves with good photo opportunities and with the mountains as a nice background.
Freight trains are my favorites and the Gotthard line is one of the most important Alp crossings with plenty of freight trains. Having watched trains from many years I have becomed interested in knowing where the trains are coming from and where they are going. For passenger trains this is normally relatively easy to figure out - passenger trains normally follow the schedule quite close - they are never ahead of schedule, and delays are normally a few minutes. Freight trains can be ahead of schedule, but can also have a delay of an hour or more. |
Timetables for freight trains are generally not publicly available - but in Switzerland its different. At http://www.fahrplanfelder.ch/ traditional timetables for passenger trains can be found - but also graphic timetables for each line are available, the graphic timetables show both passenger AND freight trains. Graphic timetables can be found under "Archives" / "Archiv".
I have made this guide primarily to identify freight trains - because they can be both ahead and behind schedule the time is often not enough to identify them. However, by looking at the train operator, the type of freight train and the freight cars - and if it's a intermodal freight, the containers, swap bodies and semi-trailers - it is often possible to identify the train. The guide is made from the trains and times in the 2015 and 2016 timetables. When the new Gotthard base tunnel opens in late 2016, most of the trains will disappear from the "old" Gotthard line, and 1 locomotive will be enough instead of the normal 2 or 3 locomotives. My guess is that the train numbers will be relatively unchanged, so the the info in this guide will probably still be useful. |
SBB IRThe Interregio trains are loco-hauled passenger trains, normally hauled by a Re 4/4 II, but sometimes a Re 460 is seen. The Interregio trains run every hour, one in each direction, between Locarno and Basel SBB or Zürich HB. In the train is a first class panorama car, a little higher than the other cars. |
SBB IR 2184 in Faido |
EC Milano Centrale - Zürich HBEC train Milano Centrale - Zürich HB is operated with ETR 610 train sets from SBB or Trenitalia. |
EC 12 (Milano Centrale - Zürich HB) in Wassen |
SBB Cargo postal trainsA number of postal trains run between Cadenazzo and Härkingen Paketpost. The trains are short and normally carries yellow postal cars, making the trains easy to recognize. Besides the yellow postal cars the trains normally also carries more anonyme closed cars. |
SBB Cargo with postal train 50830 (Cadenazzo - Härkingen Paketpost) in Faido |
DGS 40031/40037 (Rotterdam Waalhaven - Melzo Scalo) Göschenen 14:58
Container train, normally hauled by 2 BLS class 187/485/486 locomotives sometimes with an extra locomotive at the rear of the train. The train can be recognized by green Eucon containers, yellow Magnum Containerships containers, purple ECS containers and various tank containers etc. The wagons are marked AAE. The train got a new timetable from 2016. |
DGS 40031 (Rotterdam Waalhaven - Melzo Scalo) in Wassen |
InterFerryBoats-shuttle 40140 (Milano Smistamento (Segrate) - Bierset) Göschenen 9:37
Hauled by SBB Re 10/10. Look for many Spedirail and Magetra containers and swap bodies and wagons from IFB or AAE. Some of the containers are lower than normal and with tilted roof. Few or no tank containers.
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IFB-shuttle 40140 (Milano Smistamento (Segrate) - Bierset) in Wassen |
HUPAC 40241 (Antwerpen-D. S. Oorderen - Gallarate) Göschenen 9:33Hauled by SBB Cargo Re 10/10 + normally a Re 4/4 at the end of the train. The train carries many tank containers from companies like Bertschi, Rinnen, Simons and Star + Michel Verscheure, Geest and Samskip swap bodies and containers.The southbound train has train number 40241, I don't know the train number of the northbound train. |
HUPAC 40241 (Antwerpen-D. S. Oorderen - Gallarate) in Wassen |
DGS 41023 (Venlo - Melzo Scalo) Göschenen 18:57
Container train, normally hauled by 2 BLS 187/485/486 locomotives. The train consist mostly of Wetron and Jan de Rijk containers and swap bodies. |
DGS 41023 (Venlo - Melzo Scalo) in Göschenen |
Winner-shuttle TEC 41051 (Wuppertal-Langerfeld - Piacenza) Göschenen 10:41
This one is easy - a train with red Winner Spedition trailers and swap bodies hauled by red DB Schenker class 185 locomotives. Red is the keyword.
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Winner-shuttle TEC 41051 (Wuppertal-Langerfeld - Piacenza) in Wassen |
HUPAC train GK 42027 (Köln Eifeltor - Busto Arsizio) Göschenen 11:12
These train are normally hauled by SBB Cargo Re 10/10. The trains are intermodal with many different containers and swap bodies, normally SAE, Mainspeed, Ansorge, Fercam, Löblein and others, as well as different tank containers. |
HUPAC train GK 42027 (Köln Eifeltor - Busto Arsizio) in Wassen |
DGS 43002 (Pomezia Santa Palomba - Rheinhausen) Göschenen 16:28
Container train, normally hauled by 2 BLS 485/486 lokomotives. The train consists of french wagons marked F-CEMAT. The containers are mostly blue (UES, Unit45) and red (CAI). |
DGS 43003 (Rheinhausen - Pomezia Santa Palomba) in Wassen |
GX 45025 (Mannheim Rbf - Chiasso) Göschenen 12:57There is a number of mixed freights running between Mannheim Rbf and Chiasso and return, with trains numbers 450XX. They are hauled by DB Cargo 185's and can be i bit difficult to distinguish them. GX 45025 seems to have relatively many covered wagons. |
Probably GX 45025 (Mannheim Rbf - Chiasso) i Wattinger Kurve |
DGS 45075 (Limburg - Chiasso) Göschenen 14:30Relatively short train carrying aluminiumoxid, hauled by DB Cargo 185's. Normally the train carries blue Obel Logistics containers and DB Cargo Tamns hoppers. |
DGS 45075 (Limburg - Chiasso) in Wattinger Kurve |
Coop train 50512 (Chiasso - Oensingen) Göschenen 15:04Coop train 50515 (Oensingen - Chiasso) Göschenen 22:23 Coops trains between Chiasso and Oensingen are easy to recognize; they are hauled by Railcare class 465 locomotives and normally consists of white containers. Train numbers 50512 and 50515 runs monday - friday, in weekends the trains have other train numbers. |
Coop train 50512 (Chiasso - Oensingen) in Göschenen |
Holcim train 67767 (Sigirino - Huntwangen-Wil) Göschenen 11:41
These trains are transporting materials used for construction of the new Gotthard Base Tunnel and are normally hauled by SBB Cargo Re 10/10. Besides these two trains there are other, similar trains. |
Holcim train 67768 (Huntwangen-Wil - Sigirino) in Wassen |
Trains that no longer run over Gotthard | |
Crossrail GTS-shuttle TEC 40051 (Zeebrugge Ramskapelle - Piacenza) Göschenen 14:58
These container trains are normally hauled by 2 Crossrail locomotives and a carrying almost only blue GTS containers and white CNC containers.
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Crossrail GTS-shuttle TEC 40050 (Piacenza - Milano Smistamento) in Wassen |
Crossrail DGS 40125 (Zeebrugge Ramskapelle - Milano Smistamento) Göschenen 11:59
These trains are normally hauled by 2 Crossrail loomotives. The trains are container trains carrying many purple ESC containers and yellow P & O containers.
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Crossrail train DGS 40125 (Zeebrugge Ramskapelle - Milano Smistamento) in Wattinger Kurve |
BLS steel train 49005 (Emmenbrücke - Lecco) Göschenen 11:55
These trains are normally hauled by 2 brown BLS class Re 4/4 and the wagons are brown or blue, open and with steel products (southbound trains).
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BLS steel train 49005 (Emmenbrücke - Lecco) in Wassen |
