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Saturday 4 January 2014

TuTaTo;

Post Auto or PostBus as this Bus is called today in Switzerland, is a Swiss Icon, every child knew and  still knows, my guess, the big yellow bus with is particular sound of "tutato"  when driving around the dangerous corners of  steep and long winding roads in the mountains.


I guess in the 1950is  or a bit later. See the skis at the back.



PostAuto Schweiz in Swiss Standard German,  Now Postbus. CarPostal Suisse in Swiss French, and AutoPostale Svizzera in Swiss Italian) is a subsidiary company of the Swiss Post, which provides regional and rural bus services throughout Switzerland, and also in France and Liechtenstein. In Swiss German dialect they are also called Poschi or Poschti.
The Swiss Post  Auto service evolved as a motorized successor to the stagecoaches that previously carried passengers and mail in Switzerland, with the Swiss postal service providing postbus services carrying both passengers and mail. The buses operated by PostBus are a Swiss icon, with a distinctive yellow livery and three-tone horn. The company uses an image of a posthorn as a logo on its buses and elsewhere. On some mountain roads, indicated by a traffic sign of a yellow posthorn on a blue background, the buses have priority over other traffic.


Lenzerheide, Heidsee, 1920

1849: Creation of the postal network diligence.
1906: First service of PostBus between Bern and Detligen.
1919: Inauguration of the line crossing the Simplon Pass.
1921: Grimsel Pass, Furka Pass, San Bernardino Pass and Oberalp Pass are open to traffic.
1923: A three-tone horn is installed on the buses travelling on mountain routes.
1949: The bus lines of the Principality of Liechtenstein are operated by PostBus.
1959: All buses are of the same yellow color.
1961: Last service of horse diligence on the line Avers-Juf*.
2003: For the first time, PostBus carried more than 100 million passengers.
2005: PostBus Switzerland established as a subsidiary company of Swiss Post.

Juf 2126 m or 6975 ft above sea level


Juf is a village in the municipality of Avers in the canton of GraubündenSwitzerland. At 2,126 metres (6,975 ft) above sea level, it is the highest village with permanent residents in Switzerland and in Europe. Juf has a population of about 24 inhabitants divided over 6 families in a concentrated settlement. They were 20 in 1991 and 30 in 2001. The first inhabitants were immigrant Walser who arrived in 1292.



The first Post Auto Chur-Tschiertschen 1925, transporting Mail and people;


1951, with a slide back roof. 

The posthorn, children sang perhaps still do, tutato Postch isch do...or tutao Poscht Auto...♫



               

17 comments:

  1. Very nice post. Our Sierra Nevada mountains are beautiful, but the mountains in that last photograph are truly majestic! Reading about installing the 3-toned horns on the buses reminded me of a friend who was tired of slow RVs & sightseers who refused to move over into turnout lanes so other people could get by. She had an air horn installed on her sedan & one day I rode to town with her & I'll tell you! When she blew that horn at a slow-moving RV they couldn't move into the turnout lane fast enough! I laughed so hard by the time we got to town my ribs were aching. I wanted to put one on my car, but my husband wouldn't let me citing some silly law against it. Oh well.

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    1. Funny! some cars had three tone horns or worse installed, but I thing it is against the law now!

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  2. Oh my gosh, what beautiful photos, especially the very last one. What a marvelous ride that must have been for the students and the driver, and how it surely took away any stress of the day, just being there.

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  3. Wonderful old photos Titania. A ride in a bus with a slide-back roof must have been quite something.

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  4. These are great photos...and I am glad to not only see the buses that traversed those mountains, but that HIGH village of Juf. Thanks.

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  5. I would love to link this post to Viridian's Sunday Stamps meme when she chooses postal issues as a theme.

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  6. Very interesting. I didn't know they had post buses carrying people.

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  7. The early mail coaches were supposed to be the fastest wagons on the roads and held the right of way over other traffic. The posthorn was used by the mail coach driver to warn anyone ahead on the road to get out of the way. It is a kind of bugle and the distinctive posthorn calls were used for effect by several composers from Mozart to Mahler. Perhaps the early motor post bus used three tone horns for the same reason.

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  8. You can see the snow trimmings in these sepia photos!

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  9. Great photos of postbuses, mountains, curvy roads and mountain villages. Just delightful.

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  10. The mountains remind me of the movie "The Sound of Music".

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  11. I enjoyed this SO MUCH. I'm sure the postbus seems ordinary to the Swiss, but it's enchanting to those of us who have never been to Switzerland. I can see how important that "tutato" was on those mountains!

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  12. Wonderful to see the old images of Switzerland - do post more as it is a country that does not features much on S.S.

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    1. Sue; thank you so much, I have lived now longer in Australia, but I have so many memories of SWL where I spend my childhood, schooling and further education.

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