body by pininfarina

body by pininfarina

Not as “movie-star in-your-face” as a red Ferrari or Porsche, nor perhaps as lithe as a red Italian Frecciarossa
high speed trainset from the same legendary designer, this Pininfarina styled machine is, nonetheless, a brawny sprinter.

SBB Re460 No.067 (“Hohle Gasse” is her name) arrived at Interlaken-Ost at the “back” of her long train, her ample power controlled by her driver from the control car at the other end. Now...after grabbing a quick catnap in the Alpine sunshine of this October afternoon, she is ready to
stretch her legs, turn on her “real” headlights, and take her more “traditional” place on the point of a soon-to-depart SBB Express.

She would probably enjoy a trip through those warm sudsy rollers over at Urs’s Loco-Wash and Detailing Emporium,
to soap away some soot on her flanks and Alpine bug-splatter on her windscreens, but she knows that
power and speed are beautiful too, and that her operators won’t let her stay soiled for very long.

More popularly known as the “Lok 2000,” the 460 first appeared in 1991 and was still being built in 2003.
Still a bullet-proof mainstay of the SBB/CFF/FFS, she smoothly and effortlessly accelerates long
passenger trains to speeds in the 200 km/hour (120 mph) range throughout Switzerland.

She may be fast and red, but she's also "green." Slowing down might not be as much fun for her as running fast,
but her big AC drive motors also throw power back into the overhead lines as she brakes, giving her not only a smooth
"Zero to One Eighty" but a very smooth deceleration as well, guaranteeing no tidal waves in her passengers' coffee.

I’d call that a trusty red racer.

Sexy, too ;-)

This image is available as a custom printed Photo Note Card.

Photo, Narrative, Design ©2011/2012 Steve Ember