Great videos. Very picturesque.

Is it common practice when having these steam days that an electric locomotive is assigned to the consist?
Is that to act as a pusher for when they have long trains and a safety in case the steam loco fails?
And why in some cases in the video we see the electric loco go from the rear of the train to be leading with the steam loco?

Just curious.
Tony

I presume that in many cases, the steam locomotive or classic electric at the front of these trains may not be equipped with up to date safety systems, so the locomotive at the rear serves to link to ETCS and other systems. In a few cases, the historic locomotive has suffered problems and the train was taken over by the other locomotive.

I am guessing that when the electric locomotive is moved to the front of the train, it is because when that locomotive is operating as lead traction, it is easier at the head rather than pushing from the tail.

Regards

Mike C

The addition of electrics in these circumstances have varied reasons.
First of all they are often there as "Angstlok" (anxiety) as old steamers have often small problems that cannot be solved on the road, as was the case with the C 5/6 that dissappeared after the first day.
Then as Mike noted, oldies are not equipped with the ECTS system, and the Re 420's seen in the videos are there to provide that functionality, but not just that.
It provides also the extra pulling/pushing effort needed to climb the hard 2.7% grade, and the extra regenerative electric braking power on the downhills.
Just to put things in perspective, à BR 01 in good condition will probably deliver somewhere between 2000 and 2700 hp. Not enough to pull these 12 coaches/ 600 tons + train up the ramp at 70 km/h! The Re 420, with its 6000 hp can do the job single handedly.
Same applies to à lesser extent to the Ae 4/7 and Re 4/4 I seen in these videos.
I also guess that placement front or rear of the electric helpers is the result of good judgment on where the best spot is to accomodate sometimes conflicting requirements of showing off the steamer in full splendor and good safe raiiroading practice.
Hope this answers some of your questions.
Cheers
Jacques

Same Gotthard event, but a different video: https://www.youtube.com/...nue=25&v=-nxdkeyZRDY
BTW, instead of the steamer C 5/6 2969 mentioned in various postings and also in the videos, the loco B 3/4 1367 (model available from Liliput) was also used on some sections.

great video!

thoughts:

1) Swiss rivers are mostly rocks
2) Buying real estate near the train tracks while they are constructing a new line elsewhere is probably a good strategy. The value will typically be lower due to the train noise, but that goes away in the short term!
3) Videographers should gently ask other photographers to switch off the camera shutter sounds!
4) Swiss e-lok drivers probably never thought they would have to breathe coal smoke and steam inside a tunnel!

The Locomotive at the rear of a train cannot serve as a "link" to ETCS. For ETCS to work, the ETCS-equiped locomotive has to be the leading locomotive. On the "old" Gotthard Line, ETCS isn't required, so the steamer gets the leading position.

But for the parts of the Gotthard line that belong to the new tunnel, you'll need ECTS L2, since the conventional signals were replaced by cab signaling and ETCS stop markers. On the north side, the part from Brunnen to Erstfeld is affected by this. There, you'll need the Re 420 as the leading locomotive.

This video is absolutely fantastic !
Thanks for sharing.

Agreed, having a footplate ride was real interesting.

The video Jacques posted after this one was also interesting, although I did feel he could have made better use of the drone.

But in the first video Jacques posted, I wondered what had gone wrong that the rescue train had to come. You see the 01 travelling light, then the rescue train appears going in the reverse direction on the same line, then appears hauling all the coaches with the Ae4/7 on the back end. The rescue train I'm assuming is the Swiss version of the German Tunnel Rescue Train.