Schipkapass Railway

Livia with Kaya (from 01.12.2019):

The Bülach-Baden-Bahn, also known as the Schwenkelbergbahn or Schipkapass-Bahn, was a 19-kilometer standard gauge railway line of the Swiss Nordostbahn (NOB), which opened in 1877 and connected Niederglatt with Wettingen. Its main purpose was to provide continuous freight traffic between Winterthur and Baden and to compete with the Swiss National Railway (SNB) line opened in the same year. After the National Railway was taken over by the Nordostbahn in 1880, the Bülach-Baden railway with its steep gradients was no longer of any significance for freight traffic. As early as 1882, the dismantling of the track between Wettingen and Otelfingen reduced the length of the line to just under 13 kilometres. Operations on the remaining Niederglatt-Otelfingen line were discontinued by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) in 1937; after the final closure in 1969, around four kilometres of track in the village centre of Buchs ZH were immediately demolished (source: de.wikipedia.org).

We walked from Oberhasli to Buchs, along the worn out "Bahnweg". The first track goes through the dense forest. This forest path is still very popular with horse lovers on this rather rainy day.

Later, where the tracks are already dismantled, there is an exciting path on an elevated meadow. Those who find it too wet or muddy can simply take the parallel hiking trail on a wider gravel path.

Countless paths lead through the Schwenkelberg, also very suitable on hot summer days. An experience of a special kind.