the TEAM

Markus Rohrer

Project Manager / Website / Social Media

After graduation from the technical university ETH Zurich with a degree in Engineering, Markus performed an engineering internship at Rhaetian Railways (RhB) in autumn 2000 before heading on into another field of work. This is the reason for his ongoing emotional bonding with the RhB and their 700 series locomotives. The news about them being scrapped kicked off the idea of saving a cab as a simulator.

Markus is primarily tasked with the project management. Beside this, he is responsible for the engineering of the outside view system (visual), and the sound system within the cab, as well as the whole coordination with supporters, external partners and the Fliegermuseum Altenrhein. Furthermore he is tasked with the website programming and the appearance on social media.

Even though one side of his heart still beats for the railroads, he has taken a professional turn and started his career as an airline pilot with Swissair immediately after his engineering internship in 2001. Earning his wings in 2003, he has been working as a pilot ever since. He currently flies for a living for SWISS International Air Lines as a Captain on Airbus A320, and for passion at the Fliegermuseum Altenrhein where he flies Pilatus PC-7 and P-3 air force trainers. He also performs sightseeing flights in Switzerland and other countries.

Christian Rohrer

Scientific Consultant / Electronics and Software Engineer / Physicist

Christian has taught students in physics for a whole professional life, and found a second professional passion as a scientific advisor for a Swiss company producing electronics in the field of drive and control technology. His incredible knowledge in the field of electronic interfaces is invaluable for us.

He is responsible for all the interfaces between the "heavy metal" hardware of the loco cab and the simulation software, as well as for additional scientific advice to the project.

Gazmed "Gazi" Ibrahimi

Electrician at Regatron AG

Gazmed supplements our team with his long standing experience as an electrician. His well-appreciated and skillful help in setting up and finalizing the electronic rack which contains all power supplies, power switches and the connection boards for the electronic wiring as well as his connections to Phoenix Contact (the company who sponsored the electronic connector boards) have helped us greatly to get a professional solution for our electrical wiring needs.

Jürg Suter

Project partner / Dr.-Ing. / Dipl. Geographer

Jürg Suter is president of Vereins Dynamisches Eisenbahn System Modell (DESM). His association does scientific research on how simulators can be used to examine complex problem formulations in the railroading system. To achieve this goal, DESM owns a laboratory where several locomotive and signal switchboard simulators are set up in a network to perform research.

After 16 years of being a real railroad employee from the bottom up (he started off as a train dispatcher and then station manager), Jürg studied geography and earned his doctorate under the lead of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c. mult. Eckehard Schnieder, Head of the institute for traffic safety and automation technology at the technical university of Braunschweig.

The cooperation with DESM is of high importance for our project, as they have gained a lot of knowledge in the field of simulator technology during the past years.. In turn, DESM is profiting from our new way of using a regular personal computer software to operate the simulator, and our research in electronic and software interfaces.