Riding on the ICONIC Furka Dampfbahn | Full trip review

The Furka Mountain Steam Railway (DFB) is a licensed mountain railway in Switzerland. It operates on a metre-gauge rack-and-pinion line running from Realp in the Canton of Uri—through a tunnel beneath the Furka Pass—to Oberwald in the Canton of Valais. The line is operated by the non-profit public limited company DFB-Dampfbahn-Furka-Bergstrecke AG. Its staff consists almost entirely of volunteers (known as *Fronarbeiter*) from several countries who provide their labour free of charge through a support association dedicated to the railway's construction, maintenance, and operation. Until 1981, the Furka mountain route was part of the Furka-Oberalp Railway (FO), which ran from Brig via the Furka Pass to Andermatt and from there over the Oberalp Pass to Disentis. Today, the route begins at the DFB station in Realp in the Canton of Uri, which is connected to the Matterhorn-Gotthard Railway line via a shunting track. It follows the Reuss River upstream in a westerly direction. A rack-and-pinion section climbs via Tiefenbach station to the summit point at Furka station. Below the pass summit, a 1,874-meter-long tunnel—traversed without a rack system and featuring a 35‰ gradient—leads through the mountain into the Rhône Valley, crossing the border into the Canton of Valais. Near the tunnel's western portal lies Muttbach-Belvédère station; from there, further rack-and-pinion sections extend to Gletsch and Oberwald. At Oberwald station, the mountain route rejoins the Matterhorn-Gotthard Railway line. The entire route between Realp and Oberwald spans approximately 18 km. Maximum gradients are 118‰ on rack-and-pinion sections (specifically just after the Furkastrasse level crossing; otherwise 110‰, using the Abt system with two rack bars, identical to the Furka-Oberalp Railway) and 35‰ on adhesion sections. In 1992, the DFB resumed public operations on the Realp–Tiefenbach section; a year later, the line was extended to Furka station (located before the Furka Summit Tunnel). Following the refurbishment of the tunnel—which no longer met clearance requirements due to mountain pressure—and the Gletsch station, as well as the modification of a road crossing at Muttbach, operations along the route from Realp to Gletsch became possible again in 2000. Unlike the previous arrangement, the crossing over the Furka Pass road could not feature a rack rail; consequently, the track alignment had to be slightly altered, and a short section required a steeper gradient. On August 12, 2010, the DFB also resumed operations on the final section of the line between Gletsch and Oberwald station. TIMELINE: 00:00 Intro 00:43 Realp station 03:32 Train consists 03:50 Riding from Realp to Tiefenbach 07:50 Tiefenbach station 08:23 Riding from Tiefenbach to Furka 10:30 Furka DFB station 11:03 Lunch break 11:06 Train walk & interior 12:44 Riding from Furka to Muttbach-Belvédère trough the Furka-Scheiteltunnel 14:37 Riding from Muttbach-Belvédère to Gletsch 18:00 Gletsch station 19:11 Switching locomotives 20:50 Riding from Gletsch to Oberwald 24:40 Oberwald station 25:00 review #switzerland #steamtrain #furka #dfb #historical #train #review #trip #wallis #mountains #viral #blowup #fyp