I just received the second of last year's new Re 4/4s (Re 425) from Roco. The first (79781) is Re 4/4 185 with a R3 revision date 27.10.94. The second one (79819) is Re 4/4 174 with a R3 revision date of 02.10.93. This means that both of these loks can go with my Liliput and Lima/Rivarossi BLS EWI rolling stock.

That revision date is too early for the GoldenPass train, as that service began in 2001. I guess that I can ignore the Revision dates for practical purposes.

I also have to find out when the BLS EWIV fleet was upgraded for push-pull operation, as the coaches in my collection all have the yellow markings and therefore correspond to the later period of operation. The BLS EWIV fleet was ceded to the SBB in 2004 in return for the former Swiss Express EWIII coaches. The coaches were initially delivered to the BLS in 1985 with a second batch in 1991.

I guess that the brownies could also be used to pull international and SBB Eurocity and Night Trains on the BLS routes, such as the "Berner Oberland", "Loetschberg", "Matterhorn". I have seen these trains with either Ae 4/4 or Re 4/4 (425).

I have to check the revision dates of my Rivarossi Loks to see where they fit in. I wonder what the revision date on the 3rd Roco Re 4/4 will be.
Hopefully it will be more recent (say 2000-2010) or perhaps earlier (maybe 1982-1985).

For modern freight trains, I have assorted Re 465, 485, 486, the new Re 475 and BR 186 (Railpool).

I started out collecting SBB and SOB/BT models. After visiting Interlaken in the 1980s, I began to add some BLS stock. With subsequent trips, I added more BLS to my collection and with the operation of BLS trains on the Gotthard and even on the Zurichsee line (to Landquart), they became of greater interest to me.

All in all, it makes for a very colourful and interesting collection.

How important are details like revision date to you? Do you try to assemble trains to fit that period or do you overlook that kind of detail and just use the locomotive with a train you want to model? I don't want this to become a topic about rivet counting and nitpicking.

Regards

Mike C

Hi Roger,

sorry to let you know that your last post may cost you up to $700. I don't know if you have these already, but they pass through Immensee multiple times per day:
https://www.ricardo.ch/d...re-446-015-0-1040998368/
https://www.ricardo.ch/d...-re-446-016-8-937278610/
https://www.alpnacher-modellbahnen.ch
https://www.alpnacher-modellbahnen.ch/re446/

I'm not even going to mention the matching Voralpen Express coaches from HUI Modellbau.

As far as your DB train, a BLS MU would probably be right for either the Red Train (DB Containers) or the Spedition Winner train.
Here is a video of Summer 2005 on the Gotthard:
This is a video from Arth-Goldau around 2003:

Regards

Mike C

To make the whole BLS thing more complicated, it was announced today that BLS Cargo has acquired the operations of Crossrail BV (Belgium), which will now be integrated into BLS Cargo. Crossrail was formed when the RM (Regionalverkehr Mittelland), the former VHB-EBT-SMB was split into freight and passenger operations and the passenger operations were acquired by BLS. Crossrail was the new identity of the Cargo division, which began operations between Basel and Italy using it's Cargo centre in Wiler and terminals in Domodossola and Chiasso. Initially, Crossrail worked with partners in Italy (Serfer) and Germany and Belgium (DLC LeJeune). DLC and Crossrail merged and that entity became known as Crossrail BV. Over time, DLC's stake in Crossrail was taken over by KLW Walter and Rhenus and by 2015, the majority of control belonged to Rhenus Logistics.
In 2017, the company was restructured and as part of that restructuring, operations south of Basel Bad. Bf were ceded to SBB Cargo.
This new agreement retroactively cedes all operations of Crossrail BV (Belgium) to BLS Cargo, which will strengthen the position of BLS Cargo in operations between Antwerp and Zeebrugge and points in Italy.

Regards

Mike C

Hi Mike,

I see that you are well aware of what is happening in the railway world of my native country

Thewolf

My trains have to fit the period (era3a) but I can't afford to be picky on revision dates - that would leave me with next to no trains.

I have the Crossrail Re 436 and Am842 from Maerklin (37346). I also have an AC version of the Trix 185 (22636 chassis swap with 37446) as well as the Roco 185s (68503 and 68512 "Ewals").
All of those models fit the period from the formation of Crossrail up until 2014 or so when the BR 185s were returned to CB Rail and were replaced by BR 186.
I can use those locomotives with Crossrail, Ewals Cargo and other consists for that period.

Regards

Mike C

I wonder if that means that there was some damage to your particular locomotive (as in a broken part) or whether they detected some issue with the production?

I will have to give mine a closer look. So far, it has not yet emerged from it's box.

Regards

Mike C