Born in 1932 in Nyon, a small town of 5,000 inhabitants at the time (17,000 today), located between Geneva and Lausanne, I was very familiar with the “red train”, as the Nyon-Saint-Cergue-Morez railway was known. Until the autumn of 1944, Switzerland was entirely surrounded by Nazi Germany and Fascist, then German-occupied, Italy. The train could seldom cross the border into France, and if so only with German permission or following action by the French Resistance. The borders being closed, the inhabitants of Geneva could no longer go skiing in French Haute-Savoie, and flocked to the Swiss Jura instead. The little train was packed with passengers every winter weekend.
Extra carriages were added to the busy trains. As children, we enjoyed travelling on the ski wagons. These were low-sided flat wagons,…