The history of the Ramsei–Sumiswald–Huttwil Railway (RSHB)

At the turn from the 19th to the 20th century, a spirit of optimism prevailed in many places. Faith in technology seemed almost limitless. Everything appeared possible, every problem solvable, and humanity looked ahead to a golden future.

Every region that still lacked a railway connection was therefore developing ambitious plans, determined not to miss the connection to the wider world. Cities such as Zurich, which had already connected its local mountain Uetliberg by railway in 1875, served as shining examples.

Another positive example was the line opened in 1899 from Burgdorf via Hasle-Rüegsau and Konolfingen to Thun. Both innovative and courageous, the Burgdorf–Thun Railway chose electric operation from the very beginning – only the section from Burgdorf to Hasle-Rüegsau dated back to 1881. The highly modern three-phase current system was used, although it required a technically complex two-pole overhead line.

But let us return to the period around the turn of the century: the major European powers, the United States and Japan were competing for influence over world markets and territories. Many countries possessed vast colonial empires across the globe.

Industrialisation was advancing rapidly, though accompanied by social tensions. Electricity gradually entered households in large cities, initially mainly for lighting. In 1905, Albert Einstein presented his theory of relativity, fundamentally changing the previously accepted view of physics. Transport and communication technologies experienced rapid breakthroughs. Land and water were no longer considered obstacles.

In 1901, a Daimler automobile won the long-distance race around Nice and carried the name “Mercedes” around the world. In 1906/07, the Zeppelin airship LZ3 flew over the Swiss Lake Constance region. Swiss caution towards innovation only began to fade when the 135-metre-long airship LZ4 completed a “Swiss flight” on 1 July 1908. The twelve-hour journey led from Lake Constance to Lucerne and back. An enthusiastic passenger described the LZ4 as the “conqueror of the ocean of air”.

Exactly one month earlier, on 1 June 1908, another event was celebrated north of Lucerne: the inauguration of the Ramsei–Sumiswald–Huttwil Railway (RSHB).

The history of the RSHB actually dates back to the 19th century. In 1890, two separate applications were submitted for a railway line from Ramsei to Sumiswald. In 1891, another proposal followed for a railway from Bern via Worb and from Sumiswald to Huttwil. Apparently, however, sufficient financial resources could not be secured for any of the three projects.

In spring 1897, the idea of building a railway from Goldbach-Ramsei to Huttwil became more concrete, and this time enough support was found to obtain a concession. What remained undecided at first was whether the route would pass through Sumiswald or Wasen in the Emmental.

Even after the constituent assembly of the RSHB took place on 16 April 1904 at the Restaurant Hirschen in Grünenmatt – during which it was announced that share capital amounting to 2,044,500 Swiss francs had been subscribed – uncertainty about the final route alignment still remained. This was still the case even after the Grand Council of the Canton of Bern approved a loan of 1,768,000 Swiss francs in November 1905. Ultimately, however, the Ramsei–Sumiswald–Grünen–Huttwil project (19.5 km), with a branch line from Grünen to Wasen (5 km), prevailed.

Following land acquisition and the awarding of construction work to the Zurich company Müller, Zeerleder & Gobat, construction of the standard-gauge line began on 22 June 1906. The largest engineering structure was the 210-metre-long Wyler or Sumiswald Tunnel, located shortly after Sumiswald station in the direction of Huttwil.

Originally, the four Grüne bridges and the two Rothbach bridges were planned as steel structures. However, due to the high price of steel, they were ultimately built in concrete. The ballast used for the railway came from a nearby quarry.

After completion of the construction works, total costs amounted to only 2,718,532 Swiss francs compared to the original estimate of 3,021,000 francs – clear evidence that costs had been carefully managed.

The official opening date of operations was 1 June 1908. From the very beginning, the commercial and operational management of the RSHB was entrusted to the Langenthal–Huttwil Railway (LHB).

When ordering locomotives, the RSHB made use of the experience already gained by the neighbouring Langenthal–Huttwil Railway (LHB) and Huttwil–Wolhusen Railway (HWB). Up to that point, E 3/3 locomotives had been operating there. The RSHB therefore commissioned the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM) in Winterthur to build three considerably more powerful and faster “Mogul”-type 1'C locomotives: the Ed 3/4 21–23.

At the same time, the RSHB took over the HWB’s E 3/3 number 7 for its branch line to Wasen, where only trains with a trailing load of around 70 tonnes and a speed of approximately 25 km/h were expected. However, the RSHB parted with this locomotive again as early as 1916 and sold it to France.

The Swiss Industrial Company (SIG) in Neuhausen am Rheinfall supplied both heavy passenger coaches and combined baggage/postal cars to the RSHB. SIG also received the contract for the freight wagons – quite literally “got the train rolling”!

As early as 1910, the RSHB annual report mentioned difficult financial circumstances and outstanding invoices. As a consequence, reducing operating costs became essential. In addition, larger gaps in the timetable had to be filled.

Calculations showed that trains operated with steam railcars would be significantly cheaper than trains hauled by locomotives. Similar railcars were already being used successfully on the Uerikon–Bauma Railway (UeBB), the Rorschach–Heiden Mountain Railway (RHB) and the Régional Saignelégier–Glovelier (RSG).

The RSHB therefore decided to make a new investment and ordered two steam railcars from SLM in Winterthur: the CFZm 1/3 numbers 31 and 32. Both featured a smoking compartment and a non-smoking third-class compartment, as well as baggage and postal compartments. However, photographs show that number 31 was, at least for a period, labelled CZm 1/3 – without any indication of a baggage compartment.

Because the steam railcars could be operated by a single person – the driver also performed the duties of the fireman – and because coal consumption was reduced by more than half, operating expenses fell considerably. According to statistics, 67% of all RSHB services were operated by these two steam railcars.

The disadvantages proved to be the limited seating capacity (28 seats, later increased to 40), the relatively low power output and the maximum speed of only 45 km/h. To ensure that the speed did not decrease even further, care was taken to operate the railcars either alone or with only light trailing loads.

As the RSHB could now dispense with one of its Ed 3/4 locomotives, locomotive number 23 was transferred to the LHB in 1912, where it received the new number 12.

After the Huttwil–Eriswil Railway (HEB) was merged into the Langenthal–Huttwil Railway (LHB) in 1927, the RSHB replaced its two steam railcars in 1932 with two similar but less worn examples from the former HEB. Both at the HEB and later at the LHB and RSHB, these vehicles carried the numbers 41 and 42.

The two older RSHB railcars then had their steam equipment removed and were converted into ordinary two-axle passenger/baggage coaches (CF 14 and 15, later CF 234 and 235). It should also be noted that already in the 1930s, the LHB handled operations on the RSHB, LHB and HWB lines and used the rolling stock of all three railways across the entire network.

This effectively meant that a steam railcar service could be replaced by and operated with a locomotive-hauled train. Particularly suitable for this purpose were the cost-saving and single-operator LHB “motor locomotives” Ed 2/2 1 and 2 from 1931. A “motor locomotive” represented something between a steam railcar and a conventional steam locomotive.

Initially, the RSHB steam railcars and locomotives were maintained and overhauled in the depot workshop at Sumiswald. From the 1920s onwards, however, this work was carried out in the larger workshop at Huttwil. In 1936, a third “motor locomotive”, the HWB’s Ec 3/3 5, appeared in the greater Huttwil area.

In 1939, eleven pairs of trains operated on weekdays between Ramsei and Sumiswald, seven between Sumiswald and Huttwil, and six between Sumiswald and Wasen. Missing a train often meant a long wait for the next one. This had already been the case in 1908, when the RSHB first began operations: at that time, ten pairs of trains ran between Ramsei and Sumiswald, five between Sumiswald and Huttwil, and five between Sumiswald and Wasen.

The RSHB steam railcars 41 and 42 remained in service until electrification in 1945/46. Afterwards, they too were stripped of their steam equipment and converted into combined two-axle passenger/baggage coaches (CF 236 and 237).

Today, only one steam railcar still exists in Switzerland: the CZm 1/2 31, which operated for decades on the Uerikon–Bauma Railway. The operational vehicle, built in 1902, is owned by the SBB Historic Foundation.

1946 also marked the end for the three steam locomotives Ed 3/4 21–23 that had entered service with the RSHB in 1908. Together with two additional Ed 3/4 locomotives from the Emmental region, they were sold in 1946 to the Usines Schneider in Le Creusot, France, where they were withdrawn from service and scrapped during the 1950s.

The poet Jakob Käser from Madiswil dedicated the following lines to the steam locomotives sold abroad:

“Today, while Swiss people
are seen all over the world,
I too must leave my homeland
in return for faithful service.

This dear valley and the LHB
are not forgotten so quickly.
Even in a foreign land
I remain a Swiss child abroad.

I can no longer keep pace with time.
I am no longer fast enough,
that is why the VHB sold me,
just like an old cow.

Everything here is electrified.
I am no longer needed.
So God protect you, dear Switzerland,
should I never see you again!

How people’s eyes once sparkled
whenever I passed by!
And now one only hears:
it’s just an old cart!

For many years, day after day,
we hauled the trains around here.
Now we can be glad if someone
still glances at our old black bodies.

We are going to France. Farewell Switzerland!
Ingratitude is our reward,
and our future work now belongs
to a foreign nation.”

On 1 January 1944, in the midst of the Second World War, the LHB (Langenthal–Huttwil Railway), the HWB (Huttwil–Wolhusen Railway) and the RSHB (Ramsei–Sumiswald–Huttwil Railway) merged to form the VHB (United Huttwil Railways). The HEB (Huttwil–Eriswil Railway) had already been integrated into the LHB on 1 January 1927.

The newly founded VHB also entered into an operating agreement with the EBT (Emmental–Burgdorf–Thun Railway). This became necessary because the funds for the electrification carried out in 1945/46 were granted only under this condition. The introduction of electric operations on the former RSHB took place in two stages: first on the Ramsei–Sumiswald-Grünen–Wasen im Emmental section on 7 October 1945, followed by the Sumiswald-Grünen–Huttwil section on 12 April 1946.

More than 50 years later, on 1 January 1997, the merger process continued: the three companies EBT, SMB (Solothurn–Moutier Railway) and VHB merged to form Regionalverkehr Mittelland (RM), which actively participated in the Bern S-Bahn network.

Another round of mergers followed in 2006: on 22 June 2006, the RM shareholders approved the project, followed one day later by the shareholders of BLS Ltd, to combine the two railways into a single company – today’s BLS. Incidentally, BLS has so far successfully resisted all takeover attempts by SBB that have been discussed over the years.