The Glacier Express

Well, this was a very plush train. I tried to list the facilities, including more space and foot room [always important for people with bad knees], DVD screen with apposite information and updates [WC availability, map, next station, temperature outside, height reached in metres, time], larger tables for all with personal extensions, drinks holder, table light, drinks attendant with at your table service, waste disposal built-in at the side of the table, air conditioning, panoramic windows, fully carpeted, decorated wooden panelling with appropriate motifs, wi-fi, headphones for descriptive commentary, armrest, headrest with antimacassar, a spotless toilet nearby and probably some more stuff, as well. This was the only train during the whole week away where the very assiduous ticket collector insisted on checking the tour manager’s group ticket as well as each individual half-price Swiss rail pass and all our passports.

The train reversed at Chur and then headed west, winding its way through the Rhine Gorge to Disentis Muster, where a change of locomotive was necessary. The very hilly bits over the Alps here are too steep in some sections for normal trains to keep a grip on the tracks. These rack railways have an extra metal section attached to the middle of the sleepers, which is a ridged or toothed third rail, in effect. Under the locomotive is a cog, which grips the rack as it turns and adds sufficient adhesion to the process to pull the train up the slope. It also helps slow the train down on a steep descent. This happened in various sections on both sides of the summit and you could hear the added [though slight] grinding noise whenever the rack and pinion was in play.

The train climbed to the Oberalp Pass at 2,046 metres above sea level. The watershed here is between the headwaters of the Rhone, which flow west into France and those of the Rhine which flow east and then north into Germany. We wended our way downhill to Andermatt and then onwards to Brig, where we disembarked. We found the ancient Stockalperschloss, which had pleasant gardens to sit in, for those who hadn’t done enough sitting around already.