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Old Swiss trains get chance at new life online

Historic steam train
Switzerland has the densest railway network in the world. Keystone

The Swiss Federal Railways is selling its old locomotives on the Internet. Control cars, rails, switches and a firefighting train with a CHF1 million ($1 million) price tag are among the vintage vehicles on sale.

You will be hard pressed to find anything for less than CHF25,000 on sbbresale.chExternal link, according to the Sunday editions of the German-language Blick newspaper and French-language Le Matin.

Several pieces have already been sold so the state-owned company is now looking to expand its offering.

“We want to operate even more sustainably and, if possible, give vehicles and facilities a second life,” a company spokesman told Blick.

“In addition to the ecological component, there is also an economic side: if we can sell more products, this will relieve the budget,” he added.

According to the report, anyone can order locomotives, switches and tracks for home use, be they railway companies, dealers, logisticians, property owners, craftsmen or municipalities.

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