Description
Swiss Independent Railways – Their Electric Locomotives Past & Present
By Martin Fisher.
This is a larger companion volume to the book published in 2018 about the electric locomotives of Switzerland’s nationalised railway company, the SBB.
This new A4 book describes all the various electric locomotives used down the years to the present day by each of the other Swiss railway operators. These are often described as privately-owned and although some are, many are at least partly owned by local government. Indeed, the Federal government has a stake in one or two cases. 30 railway companies feature (several of whom are amalgamations of various smaller operators) plus 11 modern-day Open Access operators and 5 locomotive leasing companies. Like the SBB book, the new publication describes the evolution of Swiss electric locomotive design from the very earliest experimental schemes through to the most recent designs. Both standard and narrow gauge railways feature. In the case of narrow gauge lines particularly, the distinction between locomotives and shunters and/or railcars can be blurred so shunters and railcars are described where they clearly have a “main line” use as locomotives. Photographs are in colour wherever possible but some old archive photos (mostly very rare) are in black-and-white.
Overall, there are just over 500 photos (including 20 in black & white). Technical details are summarised in 32 tables and there are 2 maps to illustrate railway locations.
176 pages in total, plus card covers.
ISBN 978-1-9162968-1-7
