Fire at Blonay-Chamby museum line in Switzerland

A fire at the Blonay-Chamby museum line in Switzerland near Montreux has destroyed a goods van and casued damage to an electric steeple-cab loco, an EMU, two coaches and the store of spare parts on Sunday morning, 15 December: http://www.blonay-chamby.ch/?page=p_news&id_p_p=195 and http://www.24heures.ch/vaud-regions...-exclut-la-these-de-l-accident/story/11188154. As there were two fires in two different locations on either side of the main depot and workshop a museum society officer did not believe the fires were incidental.

Christoph

 

Damn, isn't this the second Swiss fire in as many months?

 

Yes

http://www.ballenberg-dampfbahn.ch/

http://bo.bernerzeitung.ch/region/thun/Es-ist-ein-schlimmer-Anblick/story/15716890

It looks bad, but probably not as bad as the Nuremburg museum fire a few years ago. 01 150 was badly damaged in that fire, and is now in mainline service in Germany. It appears from the photos the locos at Interlaken are merely scorched, rather than burnt.

 

I hope the stock isn't too badly damaged ! I visited his line in July during a visit to Vevey - on Lake Geneva - and found it both interesting and charming with an eclectic mix of motive power. Saddened to think of a fire but sadder still to hear it's thought to be deliberate.