Waiting Alone

The meter gauge, heavy, six-axle Ge 6/6 II "Davos" of the Rhätische Bahn (Rhaetian Railways) awaiting departure in Klosters-Platz with a single tank car. You can also see the Gotschnabahn cable car in the background, which takes you up to the 2285m Gotschnagrat in two sections.

This particular specimen was built in 1965 along with five other locomotives, while two earlier examples were built in 1958, for a grand total of seven locomotives.

There were some cosmetic differences between the early and late models, such as the former being equipped with doors in the cab frontsides to permit personnel to move between locomotive and passenger cars, but these doors were welded shut in the 1960s. Later on, the fronts were also modified to match the newer locomotives, with two large instead of three smaller windscreens, the livery was changed from green to red, and the old style pantographs were replaced with more modern ones. These days, some locomotives also received rectangular headlights when major revision works were carried out, but as we can see, this one here still sports the original ones.

What's also interesting is the Bo'Bo'Bo' wheel arrangement, three bogies with two individually powered axles each. I think this is the first locomotive I ever photographed with this arrangement, in contrast to the more common Co'Co' that one usually sees on six axle machines. I'd guess it was done this way due to the many tight turns that these locomotives have to negotiate. They are actually made up of two sections, but the joint in the middle only allows for vertical movements.

I took this during a ski trip to Klosters, where five of the six days were spent skiing and one day spent trying to ski in rather stormy weather and giving up because it was pretty much impossible. Rode the Gotschnabahn down again, and that was a good decision, as the upper section was taken out of service later on due to strong gusts. To pass the time, we rode the RhB to Davos, as the ski pass also allows one to use public transport in the region. It was quite refreshing to see trains merrily plowing through snow without missing a beat. In Germany, you get the feeling that rail traffic comes to a complete and chaotic stop as soon as two snowflakes touch the ground, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. As we can see here, that does not have to be the case. Perhaps it's due to the Swiss being used to proper snow in winter, or being more competent than DB. Or a combination of both?