RhB Class Ge 4/4 III "Glacier on Tour" Electric Locomotive

LGB 21428 – RhB Electric Locomotive, Road Number Ge 4/4 III 651 (Glacier on Tour) The twelve class Ge 4/4 III electric locomotives with their three-phase motors and GTO inverters are the most powerful units on the Rhaetian Railroad (RhB). Many units in this group serve as advertising mediums, yet road number Ge 4/4 III 651 with the name "Fideris" is out of the ordinary. Extensively decorated with chrome sheets, it advertises as "Glacier on Tour" for the "slowest express train in the world" – the Glacier Express. It started for the first time on June 25, 1930 at 7:30 AM in Zermatt and finally reached the Engadine location of St. Moritz via Visp, Brig, Andermatt, Disentis/Mustér, and Chur after just eleven hours. The three Swiss railroad companies RhB, Furka-Oberalp Railroad (FO), and Visp-Zermatt Railroad (VZ) wanted to link up with this train to the tradition of popular luxury trains before World War I. This succeeded and the Glacier Express still crosses the 291 kilometer / 182 miles meter gauge line regularly in the cantons of Grisons, Uri, and Wallis.