Blonay-Chamby
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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 Electriques Veveysans, line.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
Abbreviations Used : Rat: Rathgeber, Munich; BBC: Brown Bouvrie et Cie; CIE: CIE, Geneva; MFE: Maschinenfabrik, Esslingen; SLM: Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works, Winterthur. Steam Locomotive Cylinders: OC Cylinders outside frames / IC Cylinders inside frames.
| No. | Name | Class | Cyls. | Builders Details | Wks. No./Date Built | Notes. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No.1 | Le Doubs | G3/3 | OC | SLM | 618-1890 | Ex-Regional des Brenets/On Loan from Luzern Transport Museum. | |
| No.4 | La Rimini | HG2/2 | OC | Krauss | 4278-1900 | Ex-Ferrara Rimini Railway | |
| No.6 | G3/3 | OC | SLM | 1341-1901 | Ex-Brunigbahn/Simplon-Jura | ||
| No.7 | G2/4 | IC | SLM | 316-1882 | Ex-Mulhouse Tramways | ||
| No.104 | Zell | G2x3/3 | OC | Hanomag | 10437-1925 | "Mallet" type, 0-6-0+0-6-0T (Compound) | |
| No.105 | Todtnau | G2x2/2 | OC | MGB | 2051-1918 | 0-4-0+0-4-0T | |
| No.9214 | Xrotd | OC | SLM | 2299-1912 | (Rotary Snowplough), ex-Bernina Bahn. 0-6-0+0-6-0T | ||
| 99.193 | G5/5 | OC | MFE | 4183-1927 | Ex-Deutsche Reichbahn | ||
| Bfd3 | 2-6-0T | OC | SLM | 2317-1913 | (Abt rack) | ||
| BLF6 | BCFeh4/4 | SLM | 146-1911 | ||||
| No.7 | Ce2/2 | Rat/CIE | 1904 | Ex-Fribourg Corporation Tramways | |||
| No.10 | BCFeh4/4 | SLM/BBC | 1914 | Ex-Loeche-Les Bains. | |||
| No.11 | BCFeh4/4 | SLM | 2191-1903 | Ex-Chemins de Fer Montreux Oberland Bernoise | |||
| No.51 | Bo-Bo | SLM/BBC | 1476-1963 | ||||
| No.52 | Ce2/2 | SWS/MFO | 1914 | Ex-Stadtische Strassenbahn,Bern (StStB) | |||
| No.60 | Bo-Bo | SLM/BBC | 4775-1963 | ||||
| No.111 | Bo-Bo | SLM/BBC | 1913 | Ex-Chemins de Fer Gruyere |
