When the industrial revolution in Switzerland started in earnest, tens of small private
railroads were built as connection lines from "big" railroad´s stations up small river valleys and to connect more distant
villages to the main train lines. One of them,
BD, Bremgarten-Dietikon line was opened 1. July 1876 as a narrow gauge local line to connect the marvelously beautiful
medieval town of Bremgarten to the main SBB line between Basel and Zürich at Dietikon station. This was the beginning of the train company BD, Bremgarten-Dietikon Bahn.
Another small railroad, but this time of normal gauge, connected Wohlen and Meisterschwanden. This company,
WM or Wohlen-Meisterschwanden
Bahn started cooperation with BD. A third rail was installed on the WM track so that narrow gauge trains could run all the way through and finally in the year 2000 these two
companies were fusioned into what became the
BDWM Transport AG. Finally the normal gauge third rail was dismantled and all that remained was the narrow gauge line.
Then in 2018 another fusion took place as BDWM Transport and the narrow gauge rail company Wynen- und Suhrentalbahn WSB fusioned into what is now called Aargau Verkehr AG AVA.
WSB operated a narrow gauge line from Schöftland to the larger city of Aarau and further on to Menzigen. In 2019 Aargau Verkehr AVA operates one metre gauge line from
Dietikon via Bremgarten to Wohlen, and this is the line S17 of the Zürich area S-Bahn system, then the Aarau–Menziken and Aarau–Schöftland lines of the former Wynental-
und Suhrentalbahn (WSB) as line S14 of S-Bahn Aargau and finally also a new S-Bahn line called Limmattalbahn from Zürich-Altstätten to Schlieren, which is to be continued to
Killwangen-Spreitenbach in 2023.
This train is of the type that Aargau Verkehr uses at the time as this text was being written in 2019. These are of the type ABe 4/8 built by Stadler. There are 14 of these units
and they are called "Diamant" or diamond. The colours shown on this picture are still from the times of BDWM Transport AG. In 2019 these trains are now gradually all getting a new
livery by new tapings with a prominent new AVA logo at their fronts.
Picture from Wohlen station 27.9.2017 by Ilkka Siissalo.