3) I have read that the whole journey is divided into 3 stages
● lucerne to interlaken normal train
● interlaken to zwesimmen toy train
● zwesimmen to montreux classic (vintage) train
I don’t know where you read the above but it is bad information, especially the bit about ‘toy’ train which refers to the only part of the route which is a full size main line train! The whole route is a ‘normal’ Swiss railway, but the three parts are operated by different companies and are different track gauges.
Luzern – Interlaken (not the true Golden Pass but rather the Brünig Pass) – red and white metre gauge trains operated by ZB
Interlaken – Zweisimmen – main line type standard gauge train operated by BLS railway (the least ‘toy’ like of the three trains in fact!)
Zweisimmen – Montreux – metre gauge train operated by the MOB railway (blue/black and cream livery) . The MOB operates different types of rolling stock (coaches)
My standard saved text for threads about this route follows:
Current tourist branding can be confusing
The Luzern – Interlaken railway is actually the Brunig Pass (the true Goldenpass is just the MOB railway Zweisimmen – Montreux).
The Luzern – Meiringen – Interlaken line is the Brünig pass line operated by Zentralbahn (ZB), which dubs the regular trains “Luzern – Interlaken Express’.
A few facts about the Montreux – Zweisimmen railway – ie the MOB (Montreux-Oberland Bernois):
The Golden Pass is historically only Montreux – Zweisimmen, only more recent marketing branding takes the ‘Goldenpass route’ east of Zweisimmen to Interlaken and beyond to Luzern.
The Golden Pass is the touristic branding for the Montreux – Oberland Bernois (MOB) railway which runs from Montreux to Zweisimmen, but after a few years of favouring ‘Goldenpass services’, the company decided it was losing its tradition and has reverted to putting the Chemin de Fer Montreux – Oberland Bernois name on publicity and train coaches.
MOB pioneered the Panoramic coach concept on Swiss trains, starting in 1976.
There are now several versions of panoramic coaches in service, but MOB keeps changing its mind how to dub each service.
It hardly matters anyway as most modern Swiss trains have large windows, even if not officially panoramic. The key element of a ‘panoramic’ coach is ‘toplight’ windows above your head but in practice very few of the major views from panoramic trains are directly above your head, so the view through the normal side part of windows is normally fine.
I recommend using regional trains on the MOB (the real name for the Montreux – Zweisimmen railway). Again, this gives you the flexibility to get on a train at whichever time suits you.
If you do do the MOB railway you can catch any train, there is no need to book, and in fact you could pick it up anywhere along the line if you fancy.
Here is the timetable PDF for the MOB:
http://www.fahrplanfelder.ch/ fileadmin/fap_pdf_fiel ds/2018/120.pdf
Be sure to check this:
Traveling on the Golden Pass route
Golden Pass tickets and seat reservations