Mostly easy :
- HB is the abbreviation for Hauptbahnhof, and this means main station. Occasionally one also sees the older abbreviation Hbf, but it means the same.
- There are two main series of the Ae 6/6 type (total 120 machines). The first 25 units (numbered 11401 to 11425) are the so-called Cantonal Locos (in German Kantonsloks) which carry the crests/insignia of the 25 original Cantons (states) of the Swiss Confederation. These have much more decoration than the locos with the numbers 11426 to 11520. These machines are named after large Swiss communities.
- Two upper headlights: Correct, many of the Ae 6/6 and other SBB locos had two upper lamps for some time, and one of those was a red one. This was the so-called Fahrberechtigungssignal and was "fired up" by the driver when the train exceptionally ran on the right side of sections with double track (normally, one used to drive on the left side in Switzerland). Therefore, other train drivers and the station staff knew that the train was using the right track on purpose/deliberately and not due to some kind of error.
- But where do you have the "TC" from...? Probably some kind of Italian abbreviation (maybe "treno combinato" or "treno commerciale"), because the train is coming from the Italian-speaking South, but I can't place it exactly at the moment, sorry.

And wonderful, the good old Ae 6/6 11451 "Winterthur" in the picture - the town where the loco was built and also the town where I live. But there shouldn't be any bear on the coat-of-arms, we have two lions in it.

Correct.

Oops, I didn't want it to appear that big...

Ah Ha! I understand.

When I was young we would travel to Italy by train every year to stay with my Grandmother. We would catch the train at Victoria, London at 10.30 am, down to Dover and then by ferry to Calais where two friendly brown FS coaches would be waiting. We would get on these and get shunted (or so it seemed) all round Europe before waking up in Milan early the following morning, then without changing on down to our destination, Bologna.

As children we were warned never ever to leave our coach when the train was approaching a station, we might find ourselves cut off and shunted somewhere we didn't want to go.

I guess that would be called 'TC'.

Even recently, the EC Tiziano and other trains south through the Gotthard had coaches and the restaurant which ended their travel at Chiasso, so it occasionally happened that passengers booked to Milano ended up stranded at the Swiss border. Most often, they would be told to change cars by the conductors, but it still happened from time to time.
Today, ETR 610 travelling from Basel or via Zurich often contain two trainsets, one which ends in Lugano while the other continues on to Milano. If you don't get on the right one, you might have an unexpected layover and train change...

Currently, it is also possible to travel from Zermatt to St. Moritz via the Glacier Express Through coaches. They travel from Valais to Grisons attached to Zermatt to Brig trains, Brig to Disentis and and are then brought to destination by a scheduled RhB train. The complete Glacier Express consists run the whole route but not hourly.

Regards

Mike C