#waldshut

[merpmonde]

German Hochrheinbahn trains

Half the line in Germany was actually shut down for track works during my trip (link to the mini-series if you missed it), so I was on buses for the first day and a half, but at Waldshut, I was finally back on the rails, with a chance to see the Hochrheinbahn fleet.

The Baureihe 612 RegioSwinger is the fastest train on the route. It's a tilting Diesel multiple unit, and I already talked about it after my previous visit to Singen and Schaffhausen. It is the only type that runs the line in full between Basel Bad Bf and Singen as Regional Express (RE) 3, and does so in under 90 minutes (113 km @ 77 km/h).

Parallel to the express services are the omnibus Regional Bahn (RB), mainly RB 30 between Basel Bad Bf and Lauchringen. The workhorses on these routes are Baureihe 641 railcars, cousins of the French A TER, and Baureihe 644 Talent units. Coincidentally, both types were the final designs from small companies De Dietrich and Waggonfabrik Talbot in the 1990s, just before they were bought out by giants Alstom and Bombardier respectively (and later on, Alstom would absorb Bombardier).

Diesel multiple units need... well, Diesel, and if you were wondering, here's a fuel station, visible from the Swiss platform at Waldshut. Signs reading "612" and "644" on the right are clearly the stopping points for the types mentioned above. If you know how annoying it can be to have the petrol pump on the wrong side of your car, imagine how bad it'd be a for a train! Also, 641s can get lost apparently... (I'm guessing they can use another type's board.)

One track at Waldshut is electrified: the one to Switzerland, a country notorious for having electrified its entire passenger network. The train I boarded at Waldshut was a Thurbo-operated RABe 526 GTW, the one with the "power pack" module in the middle.

There aren't direct services between Basel and Schaffhausen on the Swiss side, and sticking to the river requires several changes between local trains, first on the tri-national S-Bahn around Basel, then on the Zürich and Schaffhausen S-Bahn networks. I've managed to get it to show up on the SBB website: 2 hours and 45 minutes, with a bus between Laufenburg and Koblenz as the railway line is no longer used for passenger services.

[lord-here-i-am]

Hl. Mechthild von Waldshut

Gefeiert Am 6. März

Hl. Mechthild Inklusin

lebte im 11. Jahrhundert in Hochsal bei Waldshut in Baden-Württemberg

Mechthilds Grab in der Kirche von Waldshut war bis ins 17. Jahrhundert Ziel zahlreicher Wallfahrten.

[go360photo]

Zum Wochenende eine etwas andere Sicht auf unsere schöne Stadt.

[theperfectmomentsoflife]

[merpmonde]

Hochrheinbahnen part 3: Waldshut to Eglisau

We start this leg in Germany at Waldshut (55 km from Basel Bad Bf), another town with a charming historic centre, though it's only really concentrated around the pedestrian high street, with its colourful and ornate buildings, many named after birds (I count at least eight).

Like many places along the Rhine so far, Waldshut's status was affected by the Napoleonic wars, though a bit differently. For a while, it had been a possession of the Habsburgs, hence it embraces an Austrian heritage. The Habsburgs defeat to Napoleon at Austerlitz led to Vörderösterreich being dissolved, and Waldshut, on the right bank of the Rhine, was handed to the Duchy of Baden. Opposite, on the left bank, the Swiss nuclear power plant at Leibstadt (47 km from Basel SBB, no station) somewhat dominates the landscape.

From Waldshut, the German Hochrheinbahn makes a beeline for Schaffhausen, while the river starts to meander. So, to follow the river more closely, we take a detour in Switzerland, crossing to Koblenz (54 km). Amusingly, there is another Koblenz along the Rhine, in Germany, but not directly opposite - it's way, way further downstream, past Mainz. I've been there but am yet to make a significant post on it.

And so we arrive at Eglisau (80 km), our last stop for today. Between here and Bülach is a short section with connections for trains to Waldshut, Schaffhausen, Zürich and Winterthur. Below, an international Stuttgart-Zürich DB InterCity double-decker crosses the single-track viaduct from Schaffhausen.

And this is the view of the other side of the road bridge:

Eglisau is a lovely little place, with a charming historic centre - tell me if you've heard this one before. And like everywhere else on this trip, it's probably more popular in warmer seasons. Meanwhile, you know I like me a good clock, and a break in the clouds allowed me to use the sundial: nearly 3 PM solar time, and near the winter solstice on the calendar.

[nobeerreviews]

People have the idea that an image must stand for something else, that the real meaning needs to be described with language. Instead it is the image itself that is the meaning.

-- Mark Ryden

(Waldshut, Germany)

[nobeerreviews]

There's a reason we don't see the world in black and white.

-- Celerie Kemble

(Waldshut, Germany)

[nobeerreviews]

I realized these were all the snapshots which our children would look at someday with wonder, thinking their parents had lived smooth, well-ordered lives and got up in the morning to walk proudly on the sidewalks of life, never dreaming the raggedy madness and riot of our actual lives, our actual night, the hell of it, the senseless emptiness.

-- Jack Kerouac

(Waldshut, Germany)