On May 23, 2024, the steam cogwheel locomotive HG 4/4 # 708, built in 1930 by SLM in Winterthur for the former railroad company Compagnie Génerale de Colonies Paris in Indochina, now Vietnam, was fired up for the first time in several decades. The following day, it pulls out of the depot in Realp and onto the turntable. The locomotive was brought back from Vietnam in 1990 as part of the "Back to Switzerland" campaign, more or less as scrap. Like its sister locomotive # 704, it was completely refurbished over many years by the staff at the workshop in Uzwil and is as good as new. On this day, the plan was to heat the locomotive up to 14 bar boiler pressure and repair any leaks so that it could be presented to the boiler inspector in the next few days. This type of HG 4/4 locomotive had never run in Switzerland before and was delivered directly to Indochina by SLM.
