Just looking through the proverbial cigar box with old(er) pictures, I came across this one..I had to share!
Yes I went on board.
Erstfeldt, June 1997

Youngster?
Naah!!
Just 50 lbs lighter at the time, that's all!!

IIRC Hag had exclusive rights to model that loco.

Thanks, this is almost 18 years ago!
Hard to believe,because at the time Re460s were at most only 5 years old.
They are closing on 25 year soon!
HAG produced the model in some slight variations, but you could also purchase a single unit of this one.
She proudly leads the Re 460 line-up in my train display case

A spin?
Well if you call a 20 m back and forth movement in the yard a "spin" then the answer is "yes"
In those days the SBB personel was authorised to give tours of the Erstfeld depot, or even take you for a "real" ride.

Notably, in 1993 I was taken along in the cab of the Ae8/14 11801 for a "fitness-fahrt" round trip Erstfeld-Fluelen, delivering 3 covered freight cars.
That's even before Marklin made a model of it.
The engine was heavier than the train!

Then, in 2003 the same gentleman proudly invited me for a real interesting one: from Erstfeld to Goeschenen (the whole length of the North ramp of the Gotthardbahn) in a pair of brand new Re 485, pulling a 1300 ton container train.

All seemed "easy enough" as the engines are controlled by two simple joysticks!

But the train had to stop about halfway because of traffic, and the train had to be restarted .
This looked effortless enough, and if it wasn't for a couple of mild chocks caused by the antislip system, you would have never guessed that 12000 HP+ were at work!

Very impressive machines indeed.

Cheers

That bridge is loooong, as Ian555 has found. - about 1.1 meters .

The best examples I have seen using it have scenery that goes down to the floor, if you have the bridge at 'normal' track height. Otherwise it looks best with floor to ceiling scenery and backdrop.

But all the examples I have seen that have nicely proportioned (for height) scenery do look stunning.

One of the recent threads where someone is building a layout and has a lot of bridges, they have a bietschel one at the back, with a single track across it, and I will be interested to see how they scenic it, as it doesn't have a deep gully under it.