SBB RAe 4/8 - Churchill-Pfeil

Swiss trains 04 "Churchill-Pfeil"

Vehicle description:

The history of the “Roten Pfeile” began in the early 1930s with the construction of these vehicles for local transport. A light railcar was needed for routes with low passenger volumes. This is how the 10 one-piece railcars, some electric and some diesel, were built, which were very popular with the population. The “Doppel Pfeil” was put on the rails before the outbreak of war, just in time for the “Landi 1939” national exhibition. Exhibited at the national exhibition in Zurich, it was an attraction.

The Doppel Pfeil was intended as a social car and was luxuriously equipped as such. This is how it got its name "Churchill Pfeil". In 1946, the then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited Switzerland. The state guest was driven through Switzerland in this vehicle. These trips are said to have also been the occasion for important political discussions in the post-war period.

In 1953, the Federal Railways acquired two more Doppelpfeile, but they only had a short life. The "Churchill Pfeil" survived, however. After a long period of decommissioning, it was bought by the private company "Intraflug", refurbished in the workshop of the Swiss Southeastern Railway SOB and used by the Mittelthurgau Railway MThB. And after the "demise" of the MThB, it finally returned to the SBB as a historic vehicle. Today, as in its recent days, it can be rented as a charter vehicle and used for special trips on the Swiss railways..

The "Churchill Pfeil" is equipped with 28 tables and a bar, and offers space for 112 passengers to socialize. It was built by the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works in Winterthur (SLM) and the Swiss Wagon Works in Schlieren. Its maximum speed was 150 km/h as early as 1939, a top speed that it could never reach because the Swiss rail network was not built for it.

The Scenarios / Fahrdienste:

• Churchill-Pfeil-01:

Tour group from the ship from Quinten on Lake Walen
They pick up the "Churchill Pfeil" at the depot in Sargans, drive to Unterterzen to pick up the passengers and then to Weesen, where they change to the bus.

• Churchill-Pfeil-02:

Bathing trip to Bad Ragaz
Coming from Rapperswil, you drive into the Ziegelbrücke train station. Then the trip continues to Bad Ragaz and finally you take the train to the Sargans depot.

• Churchill-Pfeil-05:

Churchill Pfeil in the Urner Bergland
Take your passengers from Erstfeld up to the north portal of the Gotthard Tunnel in Göschenen and then take the train to Gurtnellen for storage.

• Churchill-Pfeil-06:

From the Dazio Grande to the Biaschina
Show your passengers the beauty of the upper Leventina. Dazio Grande, the gorge through which the "Ticino" eats its way south, and the Biaschina with its spiral tunnels, which the train uses to negotiate the way into the valley.