Montreux Oberland Bernois Railway
Swiss railway company

The Montreux Oberland Bernois Railway (French: Chemin de fer Montreux Oberland Bernois, German: Montreux Berner Oberland Bahn, abbreviated MOB) is a company that operates an electrified railway line, the Montreux–Lenk im Simmental line, in southwest Switzerland, one of the oldest electric railways in the country. Its main line, 62.4 km (38.8 mi) in length, is built to the 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge. It connects Montreux, Gstaad, and Zweisimmen. At Zweisimmen, passengers may transfer to the Zweisimmen to Spiez line — a standard gauge line owned by BLS AG. A 12.9 km (8.0 mi) branch-line also connects Zweisimmen to Lenk.
History and route
The main line of the MOB was opened in stages, the first, from Montreux to Les Avants (10.9 km or 6.8 mi) on 17 December 1901, followed by the Les Avants to Montbovon (11.2 km or 7.0 mi) section on 1 October 1903. The next stages from Montbovon to Château-d'Œx (10.6 km or 6.6 mi) and then Gstaad (13.1 km or 8.1 mi) followed on 19 August 1904 and 20 December 1904 respectively, the final 16.6 km (10.3 mi) of the line reaching Zweisimmen on 6 July 1905. The spur line to Lenk was opened in 1912.
From the very start, the MOB had the character of a mainline railway and, at an early stage, through trains with dining and saloon coaches were introduced. The creation of the Golden Mountain Pullman Express in 1931 was unfortunately at a time of world economic crisis and this accounted for its lack of success. The saloon coaches 103–106 built for this train by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL) were sold to the Rhaetian Railway in 1939, where they are still in use (As 1141–44).
The public source identifies “Montreux Oberland Bernois Railway” as swiss railway company. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Montreux, Oberland and Bernois.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q617732. VIAF identifies the subject as 134635825. The Library of Congress control number is n2009055822. Authority coordinates are 46.436, 6.911. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1901, 1903, 1904 and 1905.
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This entry incorporates text from “Montreux Oberland Bernois 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.