Rare rack steam to the Matterhorn
Donald Brooks was surprised in 1978 to see a rack and adhesion loco in steam on the Visp-Zermatt line.
The Visp–Zermatt Railway (VZ), connecting the Rhône Valley to the foot of the Matterhorn, opened its 35km metre gauge line in stages between 1890 and 1891. It follows the narrow valley of the Vispa and Matter Vispa rivers, using Abt rack sections to overcome the steep ‘steps’ that mark the route south into the heart of the Swiss Alps.
For the VZ Abt designed a rack and adhesion 0-4-2T locomotive, HG 2/3 in Swiss notation, and four were delivered by SLM for the opening of the line, four more following between 1893 and 1908. All were named after prominent mountains in the area.
These locomotives had a relatively short life on their home route as the VZ was electrified in 1929 and with the exception of no 7 ‘Breithorn’, SLM 1725 of 1906, all were sold on for further service elsewhere. Breithorn was retained as the
only motive power able to operate independently of the overhead wires, remaining the spare locomotive for many years.
In 1930 the railway constructed an extension along the Rhône Valley to Brig, connecting with the FurkaOberalp to become the Brig-VispZermatt (BVZ). Three years later a daily all-year service replaced the previous summer-only operation.
At the end of May 1978 I was visiting Switzerland for the first time, exploring narrow gauge lines familiar from the books of Cecil J Allen and John Marshall. Arriving at Visp station one morning it was quite a surprise to see Breithorn standing by the narrow gauge platforms, in steam. It was clearly preparing to head off light-engine towards Zermatt, so the obvious course of action was to travel on the preceding service train into the valley and take some photographs of no 7 when it caught up.
Alighting at the first major station, Stalden-Saas, I pictured Breithorn climbing the rack as it arrived and departed as well as in the station. Then it was on to the next passenger working south to continue the chase by train, alighting at Herbriggen after overtaking no 7 at St Niklaus.
Herbriggen offered the contrast of arrival and departure photos on adhesion sections, but as the timetable did not allow no 7 to be caught again before reaching Zermatt I gave up and returned to Visp.
I never discovered the purpose of Breithorn’s journey but it was a very welcome encounter on my first experience of southern Switzerland’s extensive metre-gauge network.
Ultimately the BVZ acquired a diesel, making no 7 redundant and since 2010 it has been on loan to the Dampfbahn Furka Bergstrecke, shedded alongside its VZ stablemate no 6 ‘Weisshorn’, SLM 1410 of 1902, the DFB’s first steam loco.
As for the BVZ, it merged with the Furka Oberalp in 2003 to become the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, a logical union with a line it helped rescue from bankruptcy back in the 1920s.