Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago
patreon.com/AEKarnes
My time serving as Fireman at Dampfbahn Furka Bergstrecke on the formidable rack-adhesion four cylinder compound class Hg 4/4, originally built in Winterthur Switzerland and exported to tackle the mountains of Vietnam, now back home in the Alps where she belongs. This may be the most challenging mountain railway in the world, with the steepest gradient at 11.8%. If I can fire an engine here, I can fire any engine anywhere. Besides stalling my driver once on the Gletsch to Muttbach section on the 4/4, all other attempts I made at the route were successful.
The Hg 4/4 uses System Winterthur, in which all four cylinders are on the outside and the low pressure cylinders drive the rack gears through a gear reduction, with the crankshaft speed at exactly twice that of the adhesion crank axle.
Truthfully, the ABT direct-connected system ABT locomotive class Hg 3/4 is better optimized and better suited for this line than the 4/4.
During my time there I also fired the Weisshorn, class Hg 2/3 four cylinder simplex up the line and successfully made the ascent for Gletsch to Muttbach without stalling.
patreon.com/AEKarnes
My time serving as Fireman at Dampfbahn Furka Bergstrecke on the formidable rack-adhesion four cylinder compound class Hg 4/4, originally built in Winterthur Switzerland and exported to tackle the mountains of Vietnam, now back home in the Alps where she belongs. This may be the most challenging mountain railway in the world, with the steepest gradient at 11.8%. If I can fire an engine here, I can fire any engine anywhere. Besides stalling my driver once on the Gletsch to Muttbach section on the 4/4, all other attempts I made at the route were successful.
The Hg 4/4 uses System Winterthur, in which all four cylinders are on the outside and the low pressure cylinders drive the rack gears through a gear reduction, with the crankshaft speed at exactly twice that of the adhesion crank axle.
Truthfully, the ABT direct-connected system ABT locomotive class Hg 3/4 is better optimized and better suited for this line than the 4/4.
During my time there I also fired the Weisshorn, class Hg 2/3 four cylinder simplex up the line and successfully made the ascent for Gletsch to Muttbach without stalling.
