Furka Oberalp Bahn

The Furka Oberalp Railway (german: link=no, Furka Oberalp Bahn) is a narrow gauge mountain railway in Switzerland with a gauge of . It runs in the Graubünden, Uri and Canton of Valais. Since January 1, 2003, it is part of the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn when it merged with the BVZ Zermatt-Bahn.

The line begins in Disentis in the canton of Graubünden, where there is a connection to the Rhätische Bahn (RhB). It then runs over the Oberalp Pass to Andermatt in the canton of Uri. Through the Furka Base Tunnel it reaches the Goms District area and Brig in the canton of Valais. In Brig, it connects to the BVZ Zermattbahn since 1930.

The first half of the line was opened by the French company ''Brig-Furka-Disentis Bahn'' (BFD) in 1914. Trains could go as far as Gletsch, starting from Brig. Construction of the second part over the Furka Pass and Oberalp Pass was well under way when the war situation in France halted all works by 1915. The company lingered on, but was finally bankrupt in 1923. Two years later the railway had a new owner, called ''Furka Oberalp Bahn'', founded by the cantons and the neighbouring railway companies. Construction work resumed, now with important federal funds, and on July 4, 1926 regular through services between Brig and Disentis could start. RhB trains reached Disentis under electric traction in 1922.

In 1930 the tracks of the newly electrified BVZ reached Brig, which gave birth to the famous Glacier Express. The oncoming crisis and the war limited the number of tourists. Nevertheless the FO line was considered to be of strategic importance. This finally made funds available to electrify the line and purchase the necessary motive power. At the same time the Andermatt–Disentis line was protected against avalanches to allow winter services.

Schöllenenbahn

The Schöllenenbahn (SchB) was opened in 1917 from Göschenen up to Andermatt. It has a station connecting with the Gotthard railway line of the Swiss Federal Railways. Initially it was electrified with 1,200 V DC. In 1941, when electrification of FO started, SchB was converted to 11,000 V AC. In 1961, it merged with the Furka Oberalp Bahn.

Furka Bergstrecke

There are many avalanches between Realp and Oberwald. The section over the Furka Pass used to be closed during winters. The mountain section was closed in the winter of 1981 and was replaced by a tunnel (length: ) in 1982. The association called ''Verein Furka-Bergstrecke'' and the company Dampfbahn Furka-Bergstrecke now run a heritage railway with steam locomotives on the old route.

Rolling stock

When FO was founded in 1925, it came in possession of the BFD rolling stock, introduced in 1914 and consisting of
* 10 steam locomotives HG 3/4 1–10, built by SLM
* 40 wooden coaches, of which 30 with bogies, including 10 luggage and mail vans, all built by SIG, Neuhausen
* 30 goods wagons, including 10 covered wagons, 10 open wagons and 10 flat cars, all built by Chantiers de la Buire at Lyon, France
* 17 goods wagons, purchased from RhB for the construction work on the line, originally built in 1888/89 by SIG and S.A. Nicaise & Delcuve, La Louvière, Belgium
For a long time, FO couldn't afford to buy new coaches and wagons and rebuilt many of these vehicles. Some of the large luggage and mail vans were rebuilt as passenger coaches, some became covered goods wagons. Two axle coaches got luggage compartments to provide for a well adapted transport capacity. When some coaches got new bogies from SWS, Schlieren in 1947, the old bogies were reused to build 4 covered wagons. During the Second World War, three flat wagons had been built using underframes from coaches. 1949 these coaches came back to service with new underframes and bogies from SIG. FO always suffered from not having really enough vehicles but was lucky having two neighbouring companies where additional rolling stock could be leased for peak traffic.

Electrification during the Second World War necessarily brought new rolling stock. SLM delivered together with
* MFO 5 locomotives HGe 4/4 31–35 and
* BBC
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