Western Switzerland Railways

Grandfey Viaduct on the Lausanne–Fribourg–Bern railway over the Saane

In the early 1860s, the rail links between Romandy and German-speaking Switzerland were controlled by three railway companies, the West Switzerland Company (Compagnie de l’Ouest Suisse; SO), the Franco-Swiss Company (Franco-Suisse, FS) and the Lausanne–Fribourg–Bern Railway (Chemin de fer Lausanne–Fribourg–Berne, LFB). One of the lines ran from Lausanne along the southern foot of the Jura to Biel/Bienne and on to Herzogenbuchsee, where it met the competing line running via Fribourg and Bern. The West Switzerland and Franco-Swiss were thus opponents of the Lausanne–Fribourg–Bern, which also owned the westernmost Geneva–Versoix line. This harsh competitive situation was compounded by financial difficulties due to construction cost overruns.

After long and difficult negotiations, the three railway companies formed a business association under the name of the Association des chemins de fer de la Suisse Occidentale (Association of the Railways of Western Switzerland) on 1 January 1865. Each railway company provided its own infrastructure and rolling stock. Revenue was distributed according to a fixed ratio. The business community was managed by a three-member operating committee—with each company nominating a representative—and a supervisory board. Three members of the Supervisory Board were appointed by the Western Switzerland and two each by Franco-Swiss and the canton of Fribourg. The association paid 8,000 francs per kilometre per year to the firm of Laurent-Bergeron et Comp. The financial situation of the three western Swiss railways stabilised and from 1868 onwards the association was able to pay a very modest dividend. Financial and construction matters remained the responsibility of individual railway companies.

Ownership of the network of the Association of the Railways of Western Switzerland

Ownership of the network of the Association of the Railways of Western Switzerland

The map shows the ownership structure of the network of the Association of French-Swiss Railways at the end of 1871 before its merger as the Western Switzerland Railways.

Le Day Viaduct on the line to Paris between Pontarlier and Vallorbe

The D 3/3 No. 503 of the SOS was the first compound locomotive in Switzerland.

The three railways agreed to intensify their cooperation in 1871. The business would no longer be leased to a company, but run directly. Under pressure from the French-speaking cantons, especially Vaud, the three West Swiss railways merged on 1 January 1872. The new Western Switzerland Railway Company (Chemins de fer de la Suisse Occidentale et du Simplon) now had the largest route network of any Swiss rail company with 315 kilometres of line. The cantons used their influence to help the Western Switzerland build the Palezieux–Payerne–Fräschels line (known in French as the ligne de la Broye longitudinale—longitudinal Broye line)[note 1] and the Fribourg–Yverdon railway (transverse Broye line). These lines were originally intended to form the western end of the Swiss National Railway (Schweizerischen Nationalbahn; SNB).

The shares of the merged railway companies were exchanged for those of the Western Switzerland Railway, whereby, depending on the share price, additional payments were made in the form of bonds totalling Swiss francs (CFF) 14 million. The capital of the Western Switzerland was composed of shares worth CFF 85 million and bonds worth CFF 102 million at the end of 1876 following the closing of this financial transaction. The Swiss Central Railway (Schweizerische Schweizerische Centralbahn) and the Swiss Northeastern Railway (Schweizerische Nordostbahn), together with a banking group that was responsible for funding the expansion of rail networks, attempted unsuccessfully to raise the necessary funds for the Western Switzerland and to form a joint operation between the three railways. The funding was provided by the Societe Suisse pour l'industrie des chemins de fer ("Swiss Company for the Railway Industry"), which forced the SO to reorganise the administration. Its board of four members was replaced by a single director in 1875.

In 1872, the Western Switzerland acquired a significant stake in the Jougne-Eclépens Railway (Chemin de fer de Jougne à Eclépens; JE), which had a direct connection to the network of the French Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM). The SO wanted to prevent a competitor taking over the JE, which was constantly fighting financial problems. The Jougne-Eclépens Railway went bankrupt in 1876 and was taken over fully by the Western Switzerland.

There were four deaths and three injuries after a collision in Palézieux on 7 July 1876.[1]

Their operating results allowed Western Switzerland and Western Switzerland–Simplon to pay a dividend every year.

In contrast, the NOB, like other railway companies, experienced a profit slump during the years of the "railway crisis".

The Western Switzerland–Simplon Railways (Suisse-Occidentale–Simplon; SOS) was created on 26 June 1881 as a result of the purchase of the Simplon Company (Ligne du Simplon; S) by the Western Switzerland at a price of around CFF 13.2 million. Since the Simplon Company was financially too weak to promote the construction of a Simplon tunnel, the canton of Vaud in particular pushed for a merger of the two railways. The SOS, with investment capital of CHF 248 million and a network length of 581 kilometres, was the largest railway company in Switzerland at the time. The Geneva–Lausanne–Brig routes and the extensions from Lausanne via Romont to Bern and via Yverdon and Neuchâtel to La Neuveville formed its main route network. Its strategically most important goal was the building of a connection from Brig to Domodossola by tunnelling under the Simplon Pass, but this did not proceed for the time being. The SOS invested around CFF 670,000 in preparatory work in 1886 alone.

The SOS commissioned the Saint-Gingolph–Saint-Maurice railway, the Swiss section of the railway along the south shore of Lake Geneva on 1 June 1886. The Savoy section from Saint-Gingolph to Évian-les-Bains belonged to the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean Railway (Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée; PLM).

On 21 January 1888, large masses of rock disintegrated at Cheyres and fell on the track creating piles of rubble two or three metres high. A Payerne–Yverdon passenger train loaded with about 40 passengers ran into the rubble, causing the two locomotives to derail. The fireman of the bank engine was killed, while the other fireman and the driver of the bank engine were seriously injured.[2]

The Western Switzerland Railway and the SOS operated other railway lines:

• Jougne–Vallorbe–Pontarlier and Verrières–Pontarlier line of the French Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM)
• Bulle–Romont railway (Chemin de fer Bulle-Romont, BR)
• Pont–Vallorbe Railway (Chemin de fer Pont–Vallorbe, PV)
• Travers–Buttes railway (Régional du Val-de-Travers, RVT)
• Simplon Company (Compagnie du Simplon, S)[note 2]

The operating results of Western Switzerland–Simplon Railways were always positive. Freight and passenger traffic contributed approximately equally to this. The SOS was able to distribute a modest dividend every year.

Network of the Western Switzerland–Simplon (SOS)

The following map shows the Western Switzerland–Simplon route network before the merger with the Jura–Bern–Lucerne (JBL):

Network of the Western Switzerland–Simplon at the end of 1889

Poster of the JS from 1897

On 1 January 1890, the SOS merged with the Jura-Bern-Lucerne Railway (JBL), including the Gümligen–Lucerne line, which belonged to the canton of Bern, to form the newly established Jura–Simplon Railways (JS). The Swiss Confederation also participated in the new railway company by means of a voluntary share purchase. Exactly one year later, the Jura–Simplon Railways took over the Pont Vallorbe Railway operated by the SOS. The JS eventually initiated the construction of the Simplon Tunnel, which had been discussed for decades.

Map with the route network of the Jura-Simplon railway of 1894

Overview of the history of the Western Switzerland–Simplon (O: opening;   T: takeover):

From 1881, the SO designated their locomotives with Roman numerals: classes I and II consisted of locomotives with two drive axles, class III consisted of passenger locomotives with three drive axles and class IV consisted of freight locomotives with three drive axles. In rolling stock statistics, these class designations were partly used from 1873. The locomotives acquired from the Jougne–Eclépens Railway were named in the statistics as class V and the Simplon Company locomotives as class IV. The locomotives were designated according to the uniform system used throughout Switzerland from 1887.

This is a list of the locomotives used by the SO and the SOS. The designation of the class valid from 1902 is listed in brackets.

Class from 1873	Class from 1887	SO no.	SO/SOS no. from 1871	Name	JS no. from 1890	SBB no. from 1903[note 4]	Manufacturer	Build year	Scrapped	Image
I	A2T (B 2/3)	6–20	6–20	Taken over from the West Switzerland (see there) in 1872			Karlsruhe	1856–58	1888–1902
I from 1881: II	A2T (B 2/3)	21–25	1–5				Cail	1858	1890–1892
II	B2 (Ec 2/4)	1–12	51–62	Taken over from the Lausanne–Fribourg–Bern Railway (see there) in 1872			Esslingen	1862	1895–1895
II	A2T (B 2/3)	1'–3', 26–28	21–26	Various	74–79	1074–1079	Koechlin	1868/70	1904–1907
–	B2 (Ec 2/3)	–	63	Chambésy	263	6195[note 5]	SACM	1888	1923
		–	64	Genthod	264	6196[note 6]			1922
		–	65	Céligny	265	6197			1909
		–	66	Crans	266	6198			1909
		–	67	Myes	267	6199			1909
III	B3T (C 3/3)	–	70 from 1874: 80	Valais	410	2410	Koechlin	1871	1906
		–	71	Lucerne	401	–			1901
		–	72	Bâle	402	–			1900
		–	73	Soleure	403	–			1900
		–	74	Argovie	404	2407			1909
		–	75	Zurich	405	2401			1904
		–	76	St-Gall	406	2402		1872	1903
		–	77	Thurgovie	407	2408			1906
		–	78	Schwytz	408	2406			1904
		–	79	Tessin	409	2409			1904
		–	81	Grisons	411	2414		1875	1904
		–	82	Appenzell	412	–			1900
		–	83	Uri	413	2411			1904
		–	84	Unterwald	414	2403			1910
		–	85	Glaris	415	–			1901
		–	86	Schaffhouse	416	2412			1911
–	A3T (B 3/4)	–	91–94	–	201–204	1421–1424	SLM	1887	1917
IV	C3T (D 3/3)	51–55	101–105	Taken over from the West Switzerland (see there) in 1872			Cail	1858	from 1901
		56	106	La Côte-aux-Fées	506	3364	PLM	1864 von SO	1913
		57	107	Buttes	507	3370			1907
		58	108	Chaumont	508	3371			1910
		59	109	La Reuse	509	3372	Creusot	1865 von FS	1911
		60	110	La Thielle	510	3373			1914
		61	111	La Concorde	511	3374			1909
		62	112	Broye	512	3375	Koechlin	1865	1914
		63	113	Venoge	513	3352			1924
		64	114	Rhône	514	–		1870	1897
		65	115	Léman	515	3376			1925
		66	116	Versoix	516	3377		1871	1906
		67	117	Aar	517	3378			1912
		68	118	Avançon	518	3353			1912
		69	119	Gérine	519	3390			1904
		–	120	Mont Cenis	520	3379		1871	1911
		–	121	Culoz	521	3365			1912
		–	122	Turin	522	3380			1907
		–	123	Gênes	523	3381			1910
		–	124	Florence	524	3389			1909
		–	125	Milan	525	3354			1910
		–	126	Suze	526	3382		1872	1921
		–	127	Italie	527	3355			1909
		–	128	Mulhouse	528	3366			1915
		–	129	Strasbourg	529	3383			1916
		–	130	Mannheim	530	–			1901
		–	131	Cologne	531	3391			1906
		–	132	Anvers	532	3356			1908
		–	133	Rhin	533	3357			1924
		–	134	Francfort	534	3367			1903
		–	135	Verrières	535	3384			1912
		–	136	Moudon	536	3385	SACM	1874	1925
		–	137	Payerne	537	3386			1913
		–	138	Avenches	538	3358			1910
		–	139	Estavayer	539	3359			1912
SO V	B3T (C 3/3)	–	87–89	Taken over from the Jougne–Eclépens Railway (see there) in 1876			Koechlin	1869	1898–1909
SO VI from 1881:  I	A2T (B 2/3)	–	41–46	Taken over from the Compagnie du Simplon (see there) in 1881			Fives	1858	1892–1896
SO VI from 1881: II	A2T (B 2/3)	–	27–29				SACM	1875	1903
–	E3 (E 3/3)	–	201–202	Acquired from the Pont–Vallorbe Railway (see there) for operation on its line			SACM	1886	1948, 1924

During shortages of rolling stock—especially during the Franco-Prussian War period—the SO responded by renting mostly French locomotives.