C 5/6 2978 "Eléphant"

Builder SLM Winterthur
Year built 1917
Works number
Weight in working order 128 tonnes
Length over body 19,2 m (63 feet, 0 inches)
Maximum speed 65 km/h (36 mph)
Boiler pressure 15 bar (225 psi)
Power 1620 hp
Grate area 3,7 sq meters
Driving wheel diameter 1330 mm (4 feet, 4 inches)
Fuel capacity Coal - 8 tonnes. Water18 cu m

 

Train VVT du tour du lac de Neuchâtel, en tête de voitures Pullmann, juste après le viaduc de Boudry La C5/6 lors de sa visite au VVT en 1997

Origin :

From 1913 to 1917, SLM Winterthur delivered 30 units of the largest steam locomotives to CFF. These were 4 cylinder double expansion (compound) locomotives under the De Glehn system.

Following the Crocodile electric locomotives entering into service on the Gotthard line, the C5/6 hauled and shunted trains from Basle. In 1967, the last official CFF steam hauled train was hauled by a C5/6.

C 5/6 2978 :

Delivered in 1917, No. 2978 represented the last steam locomotive of CFF. After being withdrawn from service it was overhauled at Bienne Works, before hauling special trains. After some official runs in 1982, the engine stayed at Vallorbe Depot for a long time. At the beginning of Autumn 1989, the loco visited festivities in Holland as a representative of Switzerland., then returned to Bienne Works for a minor overhaul.

On the 4th November 1989, the loco reached the VVT depot at St-Sulpice. This machine ran numerous special trains for the VVT also enabling us to run our first trains between Travers and Les Verrieres. CFF staff drove the loco when it left the depot on their own trains.

After many season of good and loyal service for the VVT, this machine returned to it's owner for a general overhaul in Bienne Works, in view of the 150th anniversary of Swiss Railways in 1997. On this occasion it hauled a special train from Bienne to St-Sulpice hauling the historic 1930 carriage set full of enthusiastic passengers.

Links :

More information about the biggest steam locomotives from the Swiss railways : Steam Team Biel/BienneVisitez nos pages en françaisBesuchen Sie unsere deutschsprachige Seiten

Show it on a Video for the 150 years of the Swiss Rail, at the 15th of June 1997 in Lausanne-Triage,
http://www.notrehistoire.ch/video/view/317/

 

 

http://www.voisin.ch/vvt/ : 05.05.2016