A nice Christmas present for the steam railway Furka Bergstrecke (Dampfbahn Furka Bergstrecke DFB). The cogwheel steam locomotive HG 4/4 # 704 received the definitive and unlimited operating permit from the Federal Office of Transport (BAV). The heavy locomotive, built in 1923 by SLM Winterthur for Indochina (Vietnam), was never driven in Switzerland and now had to meet all the requirements and conditions for approval that modern rack-and-pinion vehicles have to meet. This was not easy to achieve and required many test runs during the summer of 2018. On this day the locomotive with a load of 70 tons is on a brake test run on the 11.0 % gradient from Realp to the Wilerbrücke. The train stopped after several brakings and the head of rebuilding of the locomotive, Jakob Knöpfel, is checking the temperature of the brakes.
