Bernese Oberland Railway
railway in Switzerland
The Bernese Oberland Railway (German: Berner Oberland-Bahn, BOB) is a narrow-gauge mountain railway in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. It runs, via a "Y" junction at Zweilütschinen to serve Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald from Interlaken. The railway is rack assisted (that is although an adhesion railway, rack and pinion operation is used on steep sections of the line to assist traction).
The BOB is owned by the Berner Oberland-Bahnen AG, a company that also owns the 800 mm (2 ft 7+1⁄2 in) Schynige Platte Railway. Through that company it is part of the Allianz – Jungfrau Top of Europe marketing alliance, which also includes the separately owned Wengernalpbahn, Jungfraubahn, Bergbahn Lauterbrunnen–Mürren, Harderbahn, and Firstbahn.
History
Planning
The first proposals for the Berner Oberland-Bahn, made in 1873, showed a line from Interlaken (at that time Aarmühle) to Zweilütschinen with later options to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald with starting point at Bönigen. Four years later an 80 years concession was obtained for construction and operation of the line and the company, Berner Oberland-Bahnen AG was founded on 2 November 1888.
Negotiations with landowners proceeded quickly and by March 1889 the foundations for the bridge over the River Lütschine at Gsteig were already under construction.
Failure of the plan to extend to Visp
In 1897 the company obtained a concession to construct a 54.7 km line from Lauterbrunnen to Visp, with stations at Stechelberg, Steinberg, Oberborn, and Blatten. It would have involved the construction of a 4,650 m tunnel at 2,200 m elevation under the Breithorn mountain.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bernese Oberland Railway” as railway in Switzerland. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as railway in Switzerland. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q225083. VIAF identifies the subject as 306283043. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1873, 1888, 1889 and 1897.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bernese Oberland Railway”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bernese Oberland Railway primary sources, Bernese Oberland Railway archive and Bernese research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bernese Oberland Railway”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bernese Oberland Railway” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.