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update 27.10.2024: Turning slowly to the finals

In summer 2024 our team had been quite challenged with professional and private tasks. Our project leader had an intense flight schedule and passed company-internal training as a Line Training Captain at Swiss International Air Lines, and our head of engineering moved to a new home. Therefore the wheels turned a bit slower than anticipated in our project, that is 100% happening in our private spare time. But the pace is up again, and we are taking the last few turns into the finals. 

Following milestones could be accomplished since the last update:

  • In cooperation with Benq, the famous company providing visual solutions, we did a subproject to find the best solution for visualization of the external view. Our initial intention to use three beamers and a canvas had to be abandoned soon, as the canvas would have had a height of at least 4 meters and a diameter of 10 meters (!). This solutions would result in several issues: apart from immense cost for beamers and canvas, we would have faced problems to shield exterior light from the hangar roof windows, a huge floor space usage which would have boosted the rental cost (we rent the space from Fliegermuseum Altenrhein per square meter used), and a near impossibility to move the simulator for events. Additionally the software does not provide 180° views natively. As a train driver's view is anyway focused on the track ahead and the sideview is not half as important as for a pilot in a flight simulator, we decided to abandon the beamer/canvas solution – at least for the first version – and install a monitor in front of the train drivers window. This should provide adequate reality at a reasonable cost and efforts. (Fun fact: the whole project started in my mind when I looked at the loco's front and joked around that already in the 1980s, when the cab had been updated by Rhaetische Bahn, they had installed front windows in (near) 16:9 aspect ratio – the ratio that later became our today's TV and monitor standard worldwide...)
  • We found an even simpler and better solution to drive the famous Hasler speedometer, which originally had received his electronic signals from a small motor on the driving wheels. We now provide a pseudo sinus signal produced by pulse width modulation from a microprocessor. 
  • All electronic components that until now only had been patched together on trial boards have now been brought up to industry standard by our head of engineering and been installed on the electronics rack on the back of the cab.
  • The so called controller, which gave inputs to the tap changer of the locomotive, is now back from the laboratory and installed in the drivers console.

What's still to do:

  • Aussensicht / Visual: In cooperation with Benq, we are looking for the optimal monitor solution for the outside visual.  
  • The braking system is our last piece of resistance. We are designing solutions to transmit the position of the two brake handles (loco and train brake) into the computer, and excerpt the resulting signals from the braking software model into two pneumatic circuits. We will have a vacuum circuit simulating the train brake and providing vacuum for the brake instruments, and the same with compressed air to simulate the loco brake and power the respective instruments. Therefore we  will install a vacuum pump and a compressor in the technical rack on the back of the cab,
  • Specifying and buying a suitable PC with components matching our requirements.

We are looking forward to doing trials with a functioning sim in spring 2025, and may inaugurate the simulator later in 2025, together with all our fantastic team members and supporters.

More news to come...

update 24.01.2024: we should soon be ready for test runs

Our project advances further: The technical and electronics rack on the back of the rear cab wall has been finalized and set up with several power supplies, computers and a whole lot of electronic components, in order to make the 1950s analog technology of the locomotive comaptible with the 2020s digital technology of our computer environment. And the low voltage power network of the loco works again: The loco kind of starts to "live again"!

Following milestones could be accomplished since the last update:

Autumn 2023: Nearly all interfaces for the locomotive's components could be set up, from the wipers up to the passenger door remote control, from the compressor switch to the vacuum pump control handles. Thanks to the great support of Urs Brosi from RhB, who supplied us with original drawings of the electrical network and the setup of the electrical connection boards, we could identify all needed functions and signals on the old original connection board, and prepare connection cables to our own modern connection board.

November 2023:The new technics and electronics rack, which houses all precision power supplies, computers and connection boards for the cable harnesses to the front of the cab, could be set up with the great help of Gazmed Ibrahimi, a professional electrician for Regatron AG, and has been mounted to the rear of the cab's aft wall. One after the other, the different electrical components will be mounted there.

December 2023: In order to provide a professional wiring for all the connections between the original vintage connector board of the locomotive and the brand new electronics rack at the rear of the cab, a new high tech connector board has been installed in the loco's nose compartment, and several cables been laid between the old original and the new connector board. From there, signals and power will be transferred to the electronics rack at the back via cable harnesses. These components have been sponsored by Phoenix Contact, which we highly value and appreciate,

January 2024: Some of the original components of the cab's interior have been transported back from the laboratory to the cab and been re-installed. Many components can now be operated or show correct values like in the active days of the locomotive. The loco can be "booted" like in reality: if the basic power is turned on, the low power network comes to life and shows correct values on the indicators. When the pantograph and the main switch are thrown, the main voltmeter jumps up to 11kV. And the 36V network provides power to cab lighting as well as headlights. It looks a bit like she's alive again, when we turn on the headlights – what an incredible feeling!

What's still to do:

  • Outside view system / Visual: We are still occupied engineering the visual, and are working on a round canvas solution with short distance beamers.
  • Setting up a pressure air and vacuum circuit: besides mounting an air compressor and a vacuum pump underneath the electrical rack at the back of the locomotive cab, we need to construct the piping for these circuits in order to drive the brake instruments correctly.
  • Re-mounting of the original controller on the cab. This was impossible up to now due to the tight and limited space underneath the driver's table.
  • Specifying and buying a suitable PC with components matching our requirements.

We are looking forward to being able to test run the simulator in late spring 2024 and celebrate the official inauguration of the simulator still in 2024, together with all our fantastic collaborators and sponsors.

More news to follow...

Update 17.12.2022:

THe project advances nicely – step by step

Ever since the cab had been delivered to Fliegermuseum Altenrhein on 14. June 2022, work is in progress on this non-profit project as fast as our main jobs in aviation and engineering allow.

Head of engineering Christian Rohrer is busy to make all the mechanical, electrical and pneumatic controls, dials and switches of 1950s technology compatible with the digital environment of a PC and Trainsim running on it.

Simon Heinz has put all his vast knowledge in Facility Management into the cab to clean the locomotive thoroughly but gently, in order to preserve the patina, the smells and the signs of 57 years of hard work on the network of the Rhaetian Railways.


The following milestones could be achieved:

September 2022: The electromechanical safety features and protections of the original power controller could be bypassed. The power lever now works again as in the original locomotive.

Oktober 2022: The electrical signal of the sequence switches of the power lever could be read out and connected via a complex A/D gate to the digital environment of the PC. As of now it's possible to drive the Trainsim loco with the original power lever.

November 2022: A large part of the registers in the Trainsim software (where all the values like speed, acceleration, position of switches and so on are saved) could be identified and read out. Now it's possible to simulate the vacuum brake lever with an electronic sequence switch and to operate the vacuum train brake in trainsim with this hardware.

November 2022: A 1000W Dolby Surround sound system has been installed in the cab. This way, all the authentic sounds of systems which are not installed "live" on the cab anymore will be heard in a powerful and realistic way while operating the sim, like the high voltage sequence switch or the ventilators of the drive motors..

Dezember 2022: Our head of engineering and a friend of his were able to bring the original Hasler tachometer of the Ge 6/6 II to life without using the wheel hub pickup who originally transmitted the wheel RPM to the tachometer. For this task, they used the highly precise power source of the engineering company they both work for. Now the tachometer displays the Trainsim speed register perfectly well, even sounding his distinct, characteristic electromechanical sounds,


Still to do;

  • Outside Visual Display
  • Engineering and construction of real vacuum and air pressure systems to have the perfect feels and sounds when operating the train / loco brakes
  • Interface work for all further components, like wipers, whistle, compressor and vacuum pump switches, door control and so on
  • Wiring of all components with the A/D interface
  • Reinstallation of all components from the laboratory in to the cab
  • Mounting of a technics rack behind the cab, housing the compressor, vacuum pump and the PC

Update 14.06.2022:

cab successfully cut off and transported to altenrhein

Today we could transfer loco 703 to Vögele Recycling in Chur, and could cut off the two cabs with the help of the highly motivated and professional team of Stocker Netzbau AG and Vögele Recycling. After a whopping 6hrs of hard work with cutting torch and flex cutter, Stocker's team loaded the two cabs onto their trailer, drove our cab II to Fliegermuseum Altenrhein, and then took cab I to its final destination, the simulator hall of our partner association DESM at Boltigen BE.

In this newsreel of Swiss National TV SRF "Schweiz Aktuell" (german only), today's work s nicely shown .

Update 13.06.2022:

Loco 703 successfully transferred to chur

This monday, we could transfer our loco 703 from Landquart to Chur according schedule. Our train driver and engineering team member Riccardo Keller made the impossible possible, and together with the loco schedule department scheduled the slightly older locomotive Ge 4/4 I 605 "Silvretta" to pull our loco 703 to Chur. So "St. Moritz" was accompanied by a "sister of age" on her last run. Immediately after our arrival at the Chur depot, our team started to dismantle a few things and to prepare the loco for tomorrow's cutoff of the cabs.