Re 4/4 173 is the latest withdrawal. The loco is the first with ETCS to be withdrawn (apart from accident victim 187 in 2007) and is currently being used for spare parts at Bönigen works.

Currently in traffic are 170 171 172 174 to 186 188 to 195. Of these all but 190 to 195 have ETCS

165 is preserved by BLS Historic

Am 24.04.2019 um 22:24 schrieb Martin Baumann:

Of these all but 190 to 195 have ETCS

Not exactly. The ETCS gear from 187 was transferred to 190. I wonder if there will be a similar move with the ETCS gear from 173.

It is planned to modernize the Re 465 and attribute them to
- Golden Pass gauge change trains (2 locos)
- Car shuttle trains L??tschberg and Simplon (average 6 locos)
- Freight serivce, MU with Traxxes and Vectrons (remaining locos)

So the brownies will be relegated to freight service, unless they will all be scrapped by then. MU with Re 465 will no longer be possible.

Markus, G??rbetal

resent because Yahoo destroys UTF-8 encoding when forwarding mails:

Am 24.04.2019 um 22:24 schrieb Martin Baumann:

Of these all but 190 to 195 have ETCS

Not exactly. The ETCS gear from 187 was transferred to 190. I wonder if there will be a similar move with the ETCS gear from 173.

It is planned to modernize the Re 465 and attribute them to
- Golden Pass gauge change trains (2 locos)
- Car shuttle trains L??tschberg and Simplon (average 6 locos)
- Freight serivce, MU with Traxxes and Vectrons (remaining locos)

So the brownies will be relegated to freight service, unless they will all be scrapped by then. MU with Re 465 will no longer be possible.

Markus, G??rbetal

Plenty of Brownie action in my enforced extended stay in the Valais last week.

Simplon car shuttles
International freight and more regional freight (single locos, double headed, as banker on Sud Ramp)
Lötschberg car shuttles
One shuttle that was released from the Simplon Autokai and went off up to Goppenstein

resent because Yahoo destroys UTF-8 encoding when forwarding mails:

Am 24.04.2019 um 22:24 schrieb Martin Baumann:

Of these all but 190 to 195 have ETCS

Not exactly. The ETCS gear from 187 was transferred to 190. I wonder if there will be a similar move with the ETCS gear from 173.

It is planned to modernize the Re 465 and attribute them to
- Golden Pass gauge change trains (2 locos)
- Car shuttle trains Lötschberg and Simplon (average 6 locos)
- Freight serivce, MU with Traxxes and Vectrons (remaining locos)

So the brownies will be relegated to freight service, unless they will all be scrapped by then. MU with Re 465 will no longer be possible.

Markus, Gürbetal

181 is now withdrawn

Will the MOB variable gauge trains replace the current Re 420.5 EWIII sets on the Goldenpass?
I was also curious as to whether they will do the run from Montreux (MOB) to Interlaken Ost (BLS) only or whether they will once again regauge and continue along the ZB all the way to Luzern?

Would it not have been cheaper to simply install a third rail from Zweisimmen to Interlaken?

I guess that if Re 465 take over the Goldenpass, that the Re 420.5 will most likely head into oblivion.

Regards

Mike C

Am 06.06.2020 um 18:20 schrieb csipromo via groups.io:

Will the MOB variable gauge trains replace the current Re 420.5 EWIII sets on the Goldenpass?

yes, they will

I was also curious as to whether they will do the run from Montreux (MOB) to Interlaken Ost (BLS) only

yes

or whether they will once again regauge and continue along the ZB all the way to Luzern?

no, they don't have cogwheels

Would it not have been cheaper to simply install a third rail from Zweisimmen to Interlaken?

no, that would have been much more expensive. Don't forget all the three-rail switches necessary. And the platforms on standard gauge are at 55 cm, but at 35 cm on meter gauge.

I guess that if Re 465 take over the Goldenpass, that the Re 420.5 will most likely head into oblivion.

I also guess, they will.

Markus

I don't understand your comment on the MOB coach sets. As far as I knew, the Bruenig trains had locomotives with cog equipment and the coaches were simply running on their wheels. Do the coaches also engage the cogs?

So that I have everything correct. The MOB coaches will be locomotive pulled from Montreux to Zweisimmen, where the coaches will regauge and will then be pulled by BLS Re 465 to Interlaken Ost, where passengers will transfer to ZB trains for the rest of the trip to Meiringen and Luzern.

Regards

Mike C

On Saturday, 6 June 2020, 22:17:49 BST, csipromo via groups.io <csipromo=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

I guess that if Re 465 take over the Goldenpass, that the Re 420.5 will most likely head into oblivion.

Given that...

1) BLS passenger services will be almost all unit in the not too distant future (the way many of the world's major railways are heading)
2) the BLS Re420 are the oldest variant of ex SBB Re4/4
3) there are already only three left in service
4) all three left have not had a full works visit since 2016

...I'd say it's a shoe in

On rack railways the coaches have cogs as well (at least one), on order to be able to contribute to braking on the way down. The glacier express coaches have cogs for example.

They did study the option of converting the Zweisimmen - Spiez railway to narrow gauge, and adding a third rail till Interlaken. but the problem was crossing Spies, for which they did not manage to come up with a good solution.

Krist

Am 08.06.2020 um 09:33 schrieb Krist van Besien:

but the problem was crossing Spiez, for which they did not manage to
come up with a good solution.

There were good solutions. But not cheap ones...

Markus, Gürbetal

177 is also withdrawn

BLS are in the process of removing the worksplates, crests and names from all remaining locos to prevent theft.

176 is the lastest loco to be withdrawn. It had been out of service since December 2020

174 is also out of service. Its authority to run expired on 28.01.2021

Without at least a TK the next locos that expire are

175 09.10.2021

178 26.06.2021

186 21.08.2021

190 27.11.2021

According to Schweizer Eisenbahn Revue BLS expect to have 12 locos remaining at the end of 2021

I take it that otherwise these locos would each need some sort of mega service that just isn't going to happen? 

A TK, as Martin mentioned, is far from being "mega", but you wouldn't spend money on an asset you don't need any more, would you? Technically they are obselete, they are expensive to operate but they are cheap to keep as a reserve. And for the time bing BLS still needs a certain number of them, until the driving trailers are ready for car shuttles with Re 465.

Markus, Gürbetal

Seems a bit over the top using such powerful locos such as Re465 on the car shuttles, but I guess even these are getting old now!

Don't underestimate the requirements of car shuttle traction. Remember that an RhB Ge 4/4 III is often at the limit bringing a car shuttle to the required speed and the plan is to haul car shuttle train in the Vereina tunnel with a locomotive top and tail.

On the other hand, an Re 465 isn't able to pull more than any other modern locomotive.

Markus, Gürbetal