Out in the fog: PTT Heiden 1998

One of the nicest things about liking buses is that often despite being surrounded by beautiful countryside our hobby often takes one right off the tourist trail and to neat and tidy villages like Heiden in Switzerland which look always to be taking part in some Best-Kept-Village-Competition. Rather like our Forest of Dean in England the Appenzell has a nostalgic bypassed feel about it and looks very traditional Swiss and sleepy. Heiden is situated high up in these high rolling hills right off the beaten track and not being served by the railway supports quite a large Post Bus Garage with routes radiating off in all directions down towards the various main-line railway stations on the two nearby valley floors including the large town of St.Gallen. This view was taken at the end of February 1998 and the village was engulfed in low cloud casting a feeling of gloom over the vehicles to be found there. By this time the Saurer RH was getting thin on the ground and even P25647 was a recently displaced St.Gallen bus working out it's last duties here and although the batches of Setra S213 UL buses that had replaced most of them now dominated the twenty strong allocation they had recently been joined by five Neoplan double-deckers bought to avoid the need for duplications at busy times