BERNINA WINTER.....Photos by Craig Stevens

Craig, who lives in California, is another of my valued internet friends. We both have a common interest in Swiss Railways with Craig's main interest being the Rhätische Bahn, a railway that he first came into contact with whilst working in Europe. Craig returned to Switzerland in February 1996 for a visit and has kindly provided me with these photos of snow-clearing operations on the Bernina line. I have never witnessed this activity myself so I will let Craig describe the subjects in his own words.......

"The trip we were on started at Alp Grüm and moved north-northwest, just past Ospizio Bernina. The RhB had left about 8 miles of sidings uncovered just for the group I was with. I understand they still do this trip in the winter.
The top row of pictures are of the Xrot m 9213 snowplow being assisted by the Gem4/4 number 801 "Steinbock".

The middle row shows the "Schneepflüge" X 9132. It is being pulled by an ABe 4/4 unit. I do not remember the number at this time, but I'm still looking.
On the bottom row of pictures, the left and right photos were taken just north of Ospizio Bernina. I do not remember the location of the center photo, but the plow and Steinbock have just come out of an avalanche tunnel"

Please click on thumbnail to see a larger photo

To enable quicker downloading, the photos on these pages are smaller versions of Craig's original scans. If you would like to contact him I will be more than happy to pass on any messages.