Blonay to Chamby

The three kilometres between Blonay and Chamby have been judged twice as a railway, and failed both times. In the 1960s so few people used them that the Confederation made their closure, with no replacement of any kind, a condition of renewing the local company's concession; the last train ran on 22 May 1966. Volunteers took the line over as a museum, and when their first trains ran on 20 July 1968 they carried 2,900 people in a weekend and 20,000 in the season. A regular service was tried again from 1998 to 2000 and missed its targets. The museum trains have run every summer since 1968.

Switzerland's first museum railway climbs from Blonay, above Vevey, across a stone viaduct and through a tunnel to Chamby on the Montreux–Oberland Bernois line, with Lake Geneva below. There the train reverses down to Chaulin-Musée, where about 80 metre-gauge locomotives, railcars, trams and coaches built between 1870 and 1940 are kept in two halls, most of them still in working order. The trains are the only way in.

Steam and electric trains run every Saturday and Sunday from May to October, with steam on several departures each day. A day ticket with the museum costs CHF 24, and tickets are sold only at the stations.

The journey starts at Blonay, on the regional line from Vevey, where the rack section up to Les Pléiades begins. The museum's trains are made up of historic coaches with wooden seats and windows that open, behind a steam locomotive or an old electric. The single track climbs out of the village at up to 50 per mille, by adhesion alone, past the small halts of Chantemerle and Cornaux, and the view widens over the vineyards to Lake Geneva and the mountains on its far shore.

Viaduct, ledge and tunnel

The line opened on 1 October 1902 as part of the Chemins de fer électriques veveysans route from Vevey to Chamby, electric from the first day. Its three kilometres pack in everything a mountain railway has: a curving stone viaduct over the gorge of the Baye de Clarens, a stretch cut into the hillside, and a tunnel. At Chamby it meets the Montreux–Oberland Bernois, which still uses the line to move rolling stock between its own network and the Vevey lines. Steam locomotives take water there, and the train reverses and runs four minutes back down to Chaulin-Musée, about 20 minutes after leaving Blonay.

The museum the trains lead to

The museum was built by its volunteers in stages: the first hall and workshop in 1973, a second hall in the style of an old locomotive depot in 1993, the station buffet in 1998. In 2005 the association bought the 11,690 square metres of land it had rented until then, paying for it partly by selling a French locomotive that was not suited to the steep line. In 2022 the Vaud section of Swiss Heritage gave the museum its heritage award, for more than fifty years of keeping old railway skills alive.

The trains

The steam fleet includes SEG 105, a Mallet of 1918 from the Black Forest, and BAM 6, built in 1901 for the Brünig line and the first steam locomotive to reach the museum, in 1967. BFD 3 of 1913 is one of the rack locomotives built for the Furka line that the Furka Steam Railway runs today. Among the electric locomotives, the Bernina Railway's Ge 4/4 81 of 1916 came to the museum under its own power on the night of 13 to 14 October 1972, by way of the MOB, towing a rotary snowplough. The line's own railcar, CEV BCFe 4/4 105 of 1913, returned in 2017 and is being overhauled.

From Chamby, MOB trains run down to Montreux, for the GoldenPass line over the mountains to the Bernese Oberland and the rack railway to the Rochers de Naye.

The museum trains run on Saturdays and Sundays from early May to late October, and on Whit Monday. In 2026 the season ran from 2 May to 25 October; the 2027 dates had not been published in November 2026. There are three timetables, for Saturdays, for Sundays and for the last Sunday of each month, and event weekends have their own. Trains from Blonay run up to Chamby, reverse and terminate at the museum about 20 minutes later; trains back from the museum run to Blonay in 15 minutes without stopping at Chamby. There are no reservations: buy a ticket at the station and board.

Times below are the 2026 timetable, read from the museum's own timetable page (opens in a new tab) and the Swiss national timetable in November 2026. The museum may change the traction, steam or electric, at short notice; check the page before travelling.

Saturdays

Trains back from Chaulin-Musée leave at 10:40, 11:40, 13:35, 14:20, 14:55, 15:40, 16:40 and 17:50, reaching Blonay 15 minutes later (steam in bold).

Sundays

The same departures from Blonay, with steam on the 11:10, 14:05, 15:25 and 17:10. Trains back leave Chaulin-Musée at 10:40, 11:40, 13:35, 14:20, 14:55, 15:40, 16:40 and 17:50. On the last Sunday of the month extra trains leave Blonay at 11:25 and 17:20 and the museum at 15:05, and steam works only the 11:10, 14:05 and 15:25 up and the 13:35 and 14:55 back.

Getting to Blonay and Chamby

Blonay is 16 minutes from Vevey on the regional trains of the Transports Montreux–Vevey–Riviera, every half hour from platform 7 of Vevey station. Chamby is about 20 minutes from Montreux on the Montreux–Oberland Bernois. On three Sundays in 2026 (30 August, 27 September and 25 October) the Riviera Belle-Époque steam train ran from Vevey at 10:40, reaching the museum at 11:30.

The museum sets its own fares, outside the Swiss national tariff. A day pass costs CHF 24, or CHF 10 for children aged 6 to 16, and covers entry to the museum and as many rides between Blonay and Chamby as you like; a ride without the museum costs CHF 10. Every train from Chamby ends at the museum, so from Chamby only the ticket with museum entry is sold. Tickets are sold at the line's own stations, with no online sale and no reservations.

Parents pay full price and only one child pays half; under-6s ride free. Event days, such as the steam festival, have their own fares, and a season pass costs CHF 120. Fares read from the museum's fares page (opens in a new tab) in November 2026.

No rail pass is valid on the museum trains. They are run by a volunteer association at its own fares, outside the national tariff, and the museum states that no Swiss public-transport pass or travelcard earns a discount, naming the GA and the Half Fare Travelcard.

Swiss Travel Pass, GA and Half Fare

Not valid on the museum trains. They are valid on the way there, because the regional trains from Vevey to Blonay and the MOB trains to Chamby are ordinary Swiss public transport.

Interrail and Eurail

Not valid on the museum trains, which sell only their own tickets, at their own stations. The museum's fares page lists no pass of any kind among its discounts.

Is a pass worth it here?

Not for this journey: the museum's own CHF 24 day pass is the ticket. A pass already bought for a longer trip in Switzerland pays for the ride to Blonay or Chamby.

Conditions checked in November 2026 against the museum's own fares page.

The line sits above the Vevey end of the Riviera, so the places worth adding to a day on it are close by: the lakeside town the trip begins from, the castle village at the foot of the line, a meadow summit reached by rack railway, and the vineyard terraces to the west.

Vevey is the place to stay: Blonay is 16 minutes away by regional train, the lake is at the end of the street, and Montreux and Lausanne are a short ride along the shore. Montreux, on the MOB line through Chamby, is the alternative.

The places below keep their own websites and take direct bookings.

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