Discover

BLONAY-CHAMBY

'The Blonay - Chamby Railway' is a short, around 3 km., steep but adhesion worked metre - gauge line operated as part of the Bloney - Chamby Railway Museum using vintage steam and electric locomotives and rolling stock. It is rail connected at both ends, at its upper terminus, at Chamby with the Chemin de Fer Montreux Oberland Bernoise and at the lower end, Blonay, with the Vevey - Les Pleiades, Chemin de fer électriques Veveysans, line.

Contents
History and Aims
The Museum Line
The Museum Collection

History and Aims


The Blonay - Chamby Railway and Museum was opened in 1968 with the aims of operating the metre gauge railway line from Blonay to Chamby and in doing so preserving railway equipment of technical or historic value. For this purpose the Blonay - Chamby Railway has purpose built two motive power and carriage depots at Chaulin - Chamby, a short distance from its upper terminus which nowadays houses what is generally regarded as the largest and most representative collection of metre gauge relics in Europe.

The Museum Line


The Blonay - Chamby Museum Railway is a railway preservation group staffed entirely by volunteers who operate trains each Saturday and Sunday between May and October. Vintage steam engines or electric locomotives haul equally vintage coaches slowly through a spectacular environment with fine views over Lake Geneva and the Alps. Visitors can access the shed / museum complex from Chamby, travelling the short distance on a vintage tram.
A further part of the remit of the preservation group is the encouragement of local and regional tourism and tourist traffic on adjacent lines. The timetable for the Blonay - Chamby line can be found on Table 115 of the Swiss National Timetable.

The Museum Collection


The locomotive collection includes the following items, not all of which are in working order:
(Note : The list is taken from personal observation in May 2006 and lists items on display or working at that time).
The museum is also home to over 20 items of rolling stock.
No.NameClassCyls.Builders DetailsWorks. No.Date BuiltNotes.
No.1 ''Le Doubs'' G3/3 OC SLM 618 1890Ex-Regional des Brenets/On Loan from Luzern Transport Museum.
No.4 ''La Rimini''HG2/2 OC Krauss 4278 1910Ex-Ferrara Rimini Railway
No.5 ''Bercher'' OC SACM 4172 1890
No.6 G3/3 OC SLM 1341 1901Ex-Brunigbahn/Simplon-Jura
No.7 G2/4 IC SLM 316 1882Ex-Mulhouse Tramways
No.104 ''Zell'' G2x3/3 OC Hanomag104371925"Mallet" type, 0-6-0+0-6-0T (Compound)
No.105 ''Todtnau'' G2x2/2 OC MGB 2051 19180-4-0+0-4-0T
No.9214 Xrotd OC SLM 2299 1912Rotary Snowplough, ex-Bernina Bahn. 0-6-0+0-6-0T
99.193 G5/5 OC MFE 4183 1927Ex-Deutsche Reichbahn
No.3 HG3/4 OC SLM 2317 1913Ex-BFD / FO. (Abt rack)
BLF6 BCFeh4/4 SLM 146 1911
No.3 Ze2/2 SIG/Al 1914Ex-Rhine Valley Tramways
No.7 Ce2/2 Rat/CIE 1904Ex-Fribourg Corporation Tramways
No.10 BCFeh4/4 SLM/BBC 1914Ex-Loeche-Les Bains.
No.11 BCFeh4/4 SLM 2191 1903Ex-MOB
No.51 Bo-Bo SLM/BBC1476 1963
No.52 Ce2/2 SWS/MFO 1914Ex-Stadtische Strassenbahn, Bern (StStB)
No.60 Bo-Bo SLM/BBC4775 1963
No.75 Ge4/4 MFO/SLM2328 1913
No.111 BCe4/4 SLM/BBC 1913Ex-Chemins de fer Gruyere
No.926 Te2/2 SZ 1935

'Abbreviations'

★ Al ; Alioth

★ BBC : Brown, Bovrie et Cie

★ CIE : CIE, Geneva

★ MFE : Maschinenfabrik Esslingen

★ MFO : Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon

★ Rat : Rathgeber, Munich.

★ SLM : Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works, Winterthur.

★ SACM: Societe Alsaciene de Constructions Mecaniques, Grafenstaden.

★ SZ : Strassenbahn, Zurich.
Steam Locomotive Cylinders: OC Cylinders outside frames / IC Cylinders inside frames.

This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.

psst.. try this: add to faves