Lausanne–Echallens–Bercher railway

The Lausanne- Echallens - Bercher train, abbreviated LEB, French Chemin de fer Lausanne- Echallens - Bercher, is a narrow gauge private railway in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.

The nearly 24 -kilometer-long route leads from the city center of Lausanne through the northern suburbs and on to Echallens and Bercher in Gros de Vaud, the canton of Vaud hinterland. The LEB is a modern electric train that runs partially underground in Lausanne. Trains run every 30 minutes ( from Echallens Bercher every 60 minutes outside rush hour ). On Sundays in July and August run between Cheseaux -sur -Lausanne and Bercher nostalgic steam trains.

Route

The starting point is located in the center of Lausanne at the underground station Flon (472 m above sea level. M. ). Here are also the end stations of the metro line M1 and the former cogwheel train Lausanne- Ouchy M2 of the Transports publics de la région Lausannoise. The cog railway was decommissioned in January 2006 and expanded into a rack free underground line with rubber-tired vehicles and extended; the official opening ceremony of the Métro Lausanne took place on 18 September 2008. The POD route is 500 meters to the northwest in a double-track tunnel to the underground station also Chauderon where the single track section begins (on the rest of the track, there are a total of six Dodge ). After 988 meters ends of the tunnel and it is followed by a more than 60 per thousand steep ramp to the surface of the Avenue d' Echallens.

The route is now left of this main road. Shortly before the stop Montétan ( 498 m above sea level. M. ) the Place de la Brouette will pass under. Between Union and Prilly Cery - Fleur -de- Lys, the route rises to 35 per thousand. Between Prilly and Le Lussex (590 m above sea level. M. ) followed by another steep section with a slope of 40 ‰. The route from here to the north, still along the main road, but now relatively flat. Until Cheseaux -sur -Lausanne (608 m above sea level. M. ) is the urban environment and from there increasingly rural. To the north of Assen (625 m above sea level. M. ) The route runs from the main road.

At the station of Echallens (617 m above sea level. M. ) is the operation center with depot and workshop. Shortly afterwards, the river talent is crossed on a bridge. From here the route runs to the northeast. Between Sugnens and Fey is the culmination of 652 m above sea level. M. reached. In the station of Bercher ( 627 m above sea level. M. ) the route ends.

History

1871 a first license application for a distance between Lausanne and Echallens was filed. The plan was a kind of monorail, in which a single guide track should be laid on the road. The trains would have been equipped with normal wheels as in horse-drawn carts and had a top speed of 19 km / h. However, the responsible Federal Office refused the request due to technical deficiencies and the immaturity of the system. Instead, they wrote a conventional narrow-gauge railway. The construction work on the " Chemin de fer Lausanne- Echallens " began in December 1872.

The distance between Lausanne and Chauderon Cheseaux -sur -Lausanne was opened on 4 November 1873. It was driven by steam locomotives. The rolling stock was from the recently decommissioned Mont Cenis mountain range between France and Italy, which had been replaced by a base tunnel. On June 1, 1874, the opening of the section between Cheseaux -sur -Lausanne and Echallens was. In the early years a man had to run before the train on the Avenue d' Echallens in Lausanne and Prilly and warn passers-by in front of the approaching danger during the day with a banner during the night with a lantern. These employees were given the nickname " nègre fédéral " ( Federal Negro ), because this scheme had been set up by the Federal Railway Authority.

A second company, the Central Vaudois opened on 24 November 1889, the distance between Echallens and Bercher. But this company was far less successful than the " Chemin de fer Lausanne- Echallens " and soon fell into financial difficulties. Finally took place on January 1, 1913, the merger, and there was the still existing LEB. The entire line was electrified in 1936 with direct current. During comes a voltage of 1500 volts applied on the own route, a voltage of 650 volts is applied to the road running, tram -like section in the Avenue d' Echallens in Lausanne and Prilly.

At the opening in 1873 it had been planned to build the terminus in Lausanne Flon at in order to allow a change to the funicular to Ouchy. But then contented themselves over 120 years with a temporary terminus in the middle of the Place Chauderon. At the beginning of the 1990s, the construction of the tunnel began in the city center. On 28 May 1995, the aboveground terminus Chauderon was replaced by a tunnel station. The tunnel was extended until Flon on 28 May 2000.

Vehicle park

  • BE 4/4 26, 27 (1966)
  • Be 4/8 31-33 (1985 )
  • Be 4/8 34-36 (1991 )
  • RBe 4/8 41-46 (2010) Stadler
  • Bt 51 and 52 (1964)
  • G 3/ 3 8 Echallens (1910 )
  • C2 10 (1908 )
  • C2 12 (1914 )
  • B2 11 (1916 ) ex - Biel Täuffelen -in -Bahn (BTI )
  • C2 20 (1865 ) ex Chemin de fer du Mont- Cenis
  • Z2 5 (1935 ) Bar Cart

Furthermore, ( 1890) is the steam locomotive G 3/3 5 " Bercher " in Blonay -Chamby (BC )

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