In 1923, a new central railway station was built at Thun in Switzerland and the area around it was redeveloped and, as this took place, the tracks of the local Steffisburg-Thun-Interlaken (STI) tramway also had to be renewed. Towards the conclusion of the work, a load test was carried out using the local steam roller together with the tramway’s water sprinkler car. It will be noted in some of the accompanying photographs that the steam roller has wooden planks under its rolls to spread its weight, thus preventing damage to the surface over which it had to travel.
The roller is German-built Hartmann No 339 of 1919 which was registered with Thun Council in 1920. It was to the Kemna ‘Type EM’ design - now more usually known as ‘gun tractors’ - which were eventually turned out after the conclusion of World War 1 in steam roller form. Six of these found their way to Switzerland and two of them, Nos 332 and 342, are still in existence there.
The local Thun roller was being moved by rail on one occasion and unfortunately came to grief at Oberdiessbach station on the Emmental-Burgdorf-Thun railway, presumably when it was either being loaded - or more likely off-loaded.
It’s still possible to travel from Thun to Interlaken, either by fast electric trains or somewhat more leisurely under steam on the paddle steamer PS Blumlisalp on the Thunersee. This vessel was built by Escher-Wyss at Zürich and entered service in 1906.
Derek Rayner - Rolling Autumn 2019
Thanks to the DampfWalzenClub Schweiz (DWCS), in particular Markus Zeigler and Ernst Huwyler, for assistance with this article.
