page_title: United Swiss Railways
section_title: Operations
hierarchical_section_title: United Swiss Railways / Operations
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Sitterbrücke bei St. Gallen. Die Brücken über die Sitter, Glatt, Uze und Thur wurden nach den gleichen Konstruktionsprinzipien errichtet.
context_page_description: The United Swiss Railways was a former railway company in Switzerland. It was the smallest of the five main railways that were nationalised from 1902 to form the Swiss Federal Railways.
context_section_description: The rising price of wood forced the VSB to search for alternatives for firing their steam locomotives and it secured a large peat deposit in Möggingen near Radolfzell in 1857. Nevertheless, as the railway developed as a means of mass transport, the company gained access to foreign coal deposits. The conversion to coal firing was largely completed at the VSB in 1861.
  The VSB implemented telegraphic signalling with electrical signal discs invented by Matthäus Hipp in 1865. Carriages and locomotives were converted to the buffer system in 1872.
  The Federal Shooting Festival (Eidgenössisches Schützenfest) took place in St. Gallen from 18 to 27 July 1874. The VSB transported 140,000 people to St. Gallen over ten days. This required the assistance of staff and rolling stock from the NOB and the VB.
  The first through train from Rorschach via St. Gallen was introduced to serve the Swiss National Exhibition (Schweizerische Landesausstellung) in Zürich in 1883. Previously passengers had to change in Winterthur from VSB to NOB trains.
  The company changed from Bernese time to Central European Time on 1 June 1894. Direct coaches ran between St. Gallen and Geneva from 1 June 1896.
caption: Sitter Viaduct near St. Gallen. The bridges over the Sitter, Glatt, Uze and Thur were built according to the same design principles.
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