Rail heritage restored to former glory

The roof at Lausanne station has been restored to its original state swissinfo.ch

The great roof at Lausanne station and the waiting room in Biel have recently been restored to their former glory.

Both buildings were given a new lease of life as part of conservation efforts by the Swiss Federal Railways.

The gigantic metal frame which protects the platforms in Lausanne dates back to the first decade of the 20th century.

“The structure was erected in only four months, with trains moving in and out of the platforms below,” explains Jean-Michel Bringolf, head of architectural projects for the French-language region of the Federal Railways.

“It was an extraordinary feat exemplifying how advanced engineering was at the time.”

Riveting

Since its completion, this roof made of riveted steel in the fashion of the Eiffel Tower in Paris had only had sporadic maintenance work done on it.

But in the last stage of the complete makeover of Lausanne station, the Federal Railways decided to restore the roof to its original state.

It took almost a year and a half but the working conditions differed dramatically from when it was first built at the end of the Belle Époque. Labourers had to work mostly at night on immense scaffolding hung from the ceiling.

Piece by piece, they stripped and repainted the metal and wood, then replaced the covering and glass elements.

“We did not have to replace a single rivet. And once stripped the steel was like new. It’s a magnificent material and I was very impressed,” said Bringolf.

It was also an occasion to change all the fittings on the platforms. The seating, waiting rooms and the destination boards are brand new and have been standardised.

Night light

With its clear colours and glasswork, the hall bathes in natural light. But it is most impressive after dark when a spectacular effect is created by indirect light.

“The idea was to give the impression of a single light source illuminating the entire station, whereas before you came into the dark led by only a few yellow lights,” Bringolf said.

“It’s the railways’ policy to increase the lighting everywhere for security reasons and to make our buildings more visible,” he added.

“These lights account for only a small fraction of the renovation costs but they have got people talking.”

Waiting for the train

On a much smaller scale, the waiting room at Biel station boasts a series of frescoes painted in 1924 by Philippe Robert during the period known as the “Crazy Years”.

“Just after the First World War, the Swiss authorities made great efforts to promote art,” Bringolf explained. Money was freed up to decorate Biel station and Robert won the competition.

Originally, permission was only given for one wall opposite the entrance to be painted, but after a lengthy and heated correspondence, Robert got his way and received enough funding to do four frescoes.

The final result was worth the effort. On entering the waiting room, the traveller is invited to explore the sequence of allegorical paintings: “the ages of man”, “his loves”, “passing of the hours” and “the seasons”.

Nymphs

Scantily clad nymphs frolic in a garden of Eden, accompanied by signs and characters that evoke destiny, the passing of time and death.

The renovation was carried out in 1993 and 1994. “They had been disfigured with grafitti but the paintings suffered more from an ill-advised restoration effort in the 1950s,” Bringold said.

“The intention at that time was to protect the works of art by covering them with varnish, but it turned yellow, so restorers had to identify first what kind of varnish was used in order to remove it.”

Not stopping with the frescoes, the Railways tackled the entire waiting room.

The original benches were kept but the lighting was redone and the tiled floor, which was considered worthless, was replaced by a steel floor and a table in the centre was added to give the space a more contemporary look.

Beautiful wait

“This waiting room is mentioned in the catalogue of the exhibition called Le Temps des Gares (The Era of Stations) at the Beaubourg Centre in Paris in 1980,”said Bringolf.

As a listed site, Biel’s waiting room was eligible for municipal and cantonal grants.

“It is not always easy to do renovation within our maintenance budgets. And it’s also not easy to obtain state grants since the Railways is a state-owned company and the government doesn’t normally subsidise itself,” Bringold said.

That’s one reason why the Swiss Federal Railways created its own heritage foundation, to preserve monuments and make them accessible to the public.

swissinfo, Marc-André Miserez in Lausanne and Biel

In brief

The great roof of Lausanne station took four months to build in 1912. It is an excellent example of a metallic structure dating from the Belle Époque.

Recently the Federal Railways restored the station’s hall and installed a new, state-of-the-art lighting system.

Frescoes in the waiting room of Biel station are the work of Philippe Robert (1881-1930). He was from a family of painters from the canton Neuchâtel countryside.