Mountain route
Furka Cogwheel Steam Railway
Realp → Oberwald · Switzerland
Furka Cogwheel Steam Railway in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 18 km
- Fastest time
- ≈ 1 h 45 min
- Average speed
- 10 km/h
- Top speed
- 20 km/h
- Train
- HG 3/4 steam locomotive
- Countries
- Switzerland
- In service since
- 1925
- Operator
- Dampfbahn Furka-Bergstrecke (DFB)
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Volunteer-run steam locomotives claw over the 2,160 m Furka Pass past the Rhône Glacier on track abandoned when the base tunnel opened in 1982.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 12225506 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 3 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: the railway’s own site — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
How long is the Furka Cogwheel Steam Railway?
The Furka Cogwheel Steam Railway runs 18 km from Realp to Oberwald.
How long does the Furka Cogwheel Steam Railway take?
The fastest scheduled journey is ≈ 1 h 45 min for the 18 km. That is an average of 10 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 20 km/h.
Who runs the Furka Cogwheel Steam Railway?
Dampfbahn Furka-Bergstrecke (DFB), with HG 3/4 steam locomotive.
How old is the Furka Cogwheel Steam Railway?
The line has been in service since 1925. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
View on the world railway map →More mountain routes
- Jungfraubahn
Tunnels INSIDE the Eiger to Europe’s highest station at 3,454 m, the “Top of Europe” since 1912.
Wikipedia ↗ - Nilgiri Mountain Railway
India’s only rack railway: X-class steam pushes the blue coaches up 1-in-12 grades from palm plains to Ooty’s tea hills; UNESCO-listed in 2005.
Wikipedia ↗ - West Coast Wilderness Railway
The 1896 copper railway hauls itself up 1-in-16 grades on Abt rack cogs, steaming once more from Queenstown’s bare hills into the King River rainforest.
Wikipedia ↗ - Gornergrat Bahn
Europe’s highest open-air railway climbs from Zermatt to 3,089 m: the Matterhorn framed in the window from the first curve to the summit ridge.
Wikipedia ↗
More train routes in Switzerland.