Virtual Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Sunday - Montreux Oberland Bernois


Golden Pass train ready to leave Montreux.  You can ride in the front for a small fortune. The driver sits in a small cabin above the tourists - still the best seat in the house.

The Montreux Oberland Bernois (MOB) is an out and out tourist line marketed under the name Goldenpass.  Most trains are full of tourists with their baggage and we avoid these if at all possible. Trains run from Montreux, climb the hill overlooking Montreux and Lac Leman and run through pleasant countryside to Zweisimmen where everybody has to change to a BLS train which will take them to Interlaken. The line is metre gauge adhesion using 900V DC overhead.

Many of the locomotives have special liveries

This is the Chocolate train which takes tourists to a chocolate factory - for a price

The first class interior is comfortable, spacious and panoramic.

Before leaving Montreux lets take a look around
Looking from the platform into the maintenance sidings, heavily restricted by the geography. The main line climbs out of Montreux on the left hand (east) side.

Montreux area. The station is at the top with a Goldenpass train ready to leave. There are three gauges here.  The SBB double track standard gauge between Lausanne and Brig for Italy is at the top with a white stopping train to Villeneuve. This is heavily used by both passenger and freights. The MOB meter gauge is in the middle with the 800mm gauge Rocher de Naye rack line to the right. Thus in this picture we see three gauges, three different electrical systems as well as a rack.

There are several stations on the climb out of Montreux and a good service is provided for regular people by these short units.

Chateau de Chatelard

The views from the train as we climb out of Montreux are excellent and a good time can be had by getting out at one of the platforms and walking around.

Chernex is almost at the top of the climb, although the station is on level ground

There is a workshop at Chernex

This is a 1954 vintage Deutz switcher still in use

The Chernex station cat doesn't seem to mind the trains

At Montbovon there is a connection with the trains of the Fribourg system (TPF). It is here the Chocolate trains leave the MOB to go to the Nestle factory at Broc

TPF workshop at Montbovon

Our train is ready to leave for Zweisimmen

Chateau D'Oex

The countryside is pleasant with forests of tall trees

Zweisimmen can be chaotic with many tourists having to change to the standard gauge BLS train

A BLS class 465 (based on the SBB class 460) on a push pull train at Zweisimmen.

Zweisimmen is going to be an interesting place to visit in the future because an innovative gauge transfer system is being installed.  This will not only change the gauge of the through coaches but will also change the height of the cars to conform to different platform configurations.

The new system will require completely new passenger cars for through working.  It is believed the locomotives will be changed

This short video shows how the gauge change system will work.

This cab ride video is worth watching for the first few minutes which show the climb out of Montreux with a 180 degree curve in the tunnel.

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