6x Goods wagons set "Gotthardbahn" of the Swiss Federal
Railways:
- 1 caboose "Sputnik"
- 1 gondola E
- 1 boxcar Gbs
- 1 boxcar K3
- 1 stanchion wagon Ks
- 1 tank wagon “TOTAL” Zs
100 years of electrification of the Gotthard Railway:
The idea of making a railway crossing the Alps is even older than
the railways that exist in Switzerland. After a long discussion
about the alignment between the Eastern or Central Switzerland, the
decision was made in favour of the Gotthard Railway. It was on the
206 kilometers-long railway line between Immensee and Chiasso with
the longest crest tunnel in the world at 15 kilometres that daily
train traffic started in 1882. Due to the great problems with coal
procurement during the First World War, the Board of Directors of
the SBB decided to electrify the Gotthard Railway in order to
become independent of foreign coal suppliers and to increase the
efficiency of the mountain route. The SBB built its own power
plants for the energy supply. The first trains with electric
traction were transported in October 1920. Initially the operation
was carried out with 7.5 kilovolt catenary voltage to avoid
flashovers on the insulators, which were polluted by the soot of
the steam locomotives still running. The catenary voltage was only
increased in May 1921 to 15 kilovolts. By May 1922 the route from
Lucerne to Chiasso was spanned continuously with contact wire.