This little european state has an important and prestigious tradition in mechanical industry, so we wish to explore something in this important country for industrial heritage. Between many museums and historical places, we had chosen two important examples: Winthertur and Bauma.
City of
Winthertur is probably the capital of Swiss mechanical industry. In fact, we
find here, at least two of the most important swiss mechanical indutries, the Swiss
Factory of locomotives and engines (SLM), and Sulzer Group. SLM was founded in
1871 by an english engineer, Charles Brown (1827-1905), and became quickly a
famous builder, especially of locomotives, well-known also in the wolrd. Of
course, the greatest quantity of materials was created for swiss buyers; and
this name is so important, in the history of swiss industry, and of the state,
that the historical archive is part of the foundation for heritage of swiss
federal railways state company (www.sbbhistoric.ch;
http://www.sbbhistoric.ch/bahngemeinschaft/treffpunkte/slm-archiv-winterthur/).
Many historical SLM locomotives are still in service, or preserved in museums
(the most important is the Swiss transport house of Lucerne - http://verkehrshaus.ch/).
The second
important “step” is the Halle (Hall) 181, a part of Sulzer factory, which has
been since 2010 under restoration to become the place of the Swiss museum of
steam engine (http://www.dampfzentrum.ch/).
This museum was created by foundation Vaporama (http://www.vaporama.ch/); it was not
possible to find a place in Thun for a large hall for this unique collection of
old steam engines, but fortunately a suitable place was located in the
industrial city of Winthertur – Sulzer Brothers’factory is an ideal place to
save those materials. At present, the museum and the collection can be visited with
an appointment; in Thun, you can visit the workshop of the foundation, where
works of restoration and maintenance of operative engines are carried out.
If you go to
Thun in summer, we suggest to complete the visit with a trip on the lake with
the historical paddle steamer Blümlisalp,
owned by the foundation, restored in 1992; operator is the BLS railway society, which is operator
of navigation on lake Thun (http://www.bls.ch/d/schifffahrt/schifffahrt.php).
An important place for industrial archeology is the area of the hills between Bauma, Uster and Wetzikon (near Zuerich). We have the industrial didactic road of the Zuercher Oberland
(http://www.industrielehrpfad-zo.ch/index.html). It is an itinerary with an important integration of little historical factories which preserve their original mechanical equipments - or they had been transformed in little museums (wood industry, textile, mills). And you see also an old locomotive-yard (at Uster), the oldest steam ship in public service on a swiss lake (lake Greif), a brewery. The best solution to reach this place is by public transport from Zuerich or Rapperswil. At present, it is not possible to reserve a visit for groups; if you wish to make a trip, you have to require brochures to the tourist office of the Zuerich Oberland (http://www.zürioberland.ch/xml_1/internet/de/application/d3/f42.cfm).
