Swiss Alpine Steam - Glacier Express Route - Rack Railway - Dampfbahn Furka Bergstrecke

The Furka Steam Railway runs along the original route of the Glacier Express through some of the most pristine landscapes in the Swiss Alps.

The high altitude Furka summit line line opened in 1925 and closed in 1982, after the new Furka base tunnel opened, making year-round operation possible. Previously, the trains could only run from late spring to early autumn and even once the route was electrified, the wires had to be taken down each year ahead of avalanches. Originally the whole 17.8 km long summit route between Realp, Gletsch and Oberwald should have stayed shuttered, but railway enthusiats refused to accept this and reopened it in stages between 1992 and 2010.

The motive power is provided by 0-4-2, 2-6-0 and 0-8-0 rack and adhesion locomotives, all built by SLM in Winterthur in the early 20th Century. Some of these locomotives are native to the line and have always stayed in Switzerland, like the black loco Nr. 4 as it is seen in this short film. Other engines were sold to French-Indochina (later Vietnam) after World War II and where then repatriated to Switzerland amidst much celebration in 1990. In the film, the blue Nr. 1 is one such example! The largest of them all, the massive 0-8-0 rack tanks with external System Winterthur rack gear were built in the early 1920s in Switzerland and exported directly to French-Indochina. The black and olive green giant Nr. 704 is one of two such locos that were brought back to Switzerland. Since 2018, 704 has been in steam on the Furka line, while its sister engine Nr. 708 is undergoing long-term restoration to running order.

These images were taped in late September 2020, on a warm late summer day when quite unusually three steam locomotives were in regular service. Normally, two steam locos are complemented by one diesel for the first train of the day. These clips show the service on the westernmost part of the line between Gletsch and Oberwald.

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Der Bahnbetrieb auf der Dampfbahn Furka Bergstrecke (DFB) im späten September 2020 mit den drei Dampfloks 1, 4 und 704 im Wochenendbetrieb.