The fifth day of our Golden Pass Panoramic tour in winter had us booked on the lunchtime Golden Pass departure for Zweisimmen travelling with the Berne Lotschberg and Simplon railway company. We had hoped to spend the morning in Interlaken revisiting the Bahn Treff large scale model collection but were disappointed to find that the SBB Historic organisation who provided the space for it in one of their buildings at the western end of Interlaken West station had decided that the loss making attraction was not a core business activity and discontinued it. The space previously occupied by a number of large linked models of Swiss narrow gauge railways is now an off license.

Not to be deterred, we considered a ride up Harder Kulm which is located to the north of Interlaken but it was closed for the winter. Instead we walked around the town and down part of the ship canal, taking photos such as these:

An IC2000 set approaching the camera over the western Aare bridge heading for Interlaken West



A BLS push pull set arrives in Interlaken West heading west



We're waiting for a train to take us to Interlaken Ost - it's a long walk especially with cases and when you stay in a local guesthouse, hotel or campsite, you get free transport on trains and buses within the Interlaken area. We got on a similar push pull unit which was having great difficulties with its doors which may explain why it was late...

Once at Interlaken Ost we found the designated platform and waited for our train to arrive and here it is



The video camera was working overtime again. Here's a flavour of the journey to Zweisimmen.


A still taken on the journey up to Zweisimmen



At Zweisimmen we changed trains for Montreux. This leg of the journey is operated by the metre gauge Montreux Oberland Bahn. Their midday Golden Pass Panoramic train has very interesting driving trailers front and rear. Our reservations were for the leading coach but until we boarded, we didn't know where our seats were. Maybe having seats numbered in the 80s should have been a clue. I'll save the answer til later, but as a clue, I ran out of video tape and have selected so many stills to use in the blog that I have held it over for another time. Meanwhile this is a photo of the driving trailer...



David