Swiss Museum of Transport

The Swiss Museum of Transport stands on the shores of the Vierwaldstädter See (Lake Lucerne) alongside the St Gotthard railway. Its collection of steam locomotives includes a replica of Limmat, built at Karlsruhe for the opening of the Zurich – Baden line in 1847, but the majority are Swiss-built. Switzerland has always been at the forefront of electric traction and in a European context the museum’s electric locomotives and railcars are its most significant exhibits. The museum also displays the development of rack railways, like that which ascends nearby Pilatus and the two lines to the summit of the Rigi, one of which, completed in 1871, was the first of its kind in Switzerland. Other sections of the museum are concerned with road transport and aviation. Steamers operating on Lake Lucerne include the Uri of 1901, the Schiller of 1906 and the Gallia of 1913.