Reflections in a Gotthard Bahn...

Reflections in a Gotthard Bahn...

…in a Matterhorn-Gotthard Bahn coach, that is.

It is a bit past four in the afternoon at the interchange station of Disentis-Mustér in Switzerland’s Canton Graubünden.
This Rhätische Bahn Regio Express, originating at Scuol-Tarasp in the Lower Engadin region, has completed its long,
but consummately scenic, trip across a broad swath of Graubünden.

It carries a few coaches belonging to the Matterhorn-Gotthard Bahn. The RhB Ge 4/4 II locomotive will take a very short
breather before running down to the “back” of the train, which will shortly become the front, as she pulls it back to its point of origin.

Disentis-Mustér, site of a huge Benedictine Monastery, is the western terminus of the Rhätische Bahn and the eastern terminus of the MGB. RhB locomotives must terminate here, as the line west, to Andermatt, Brig, and on to Zermatt, requires use of the cog-assisted locomotives of the MGB to negotiate its steep rack and pinion stretches of track. One such locomotive, waiting for its own train, is reflected in the windows of the MGB coach.

Photo and Narrative ©2010 Steve Ember