Furka steam railway

side trip from where??? and what time of year?

From Luzern to Interlaken. The Furka railway would be a diversion from that route. September or May would be the time of year we would be traveling.

Doug, The Dampfbahn Furka is nowhere near Luzern or Interlaken. It would not be a side trip. I doubt you could do it as a day trip. Look on a map to see where it is. Swiss rail map: https://www.sbb.ch/content/dam/infrastruktur/trafimage/karten/karte-sts-pass-gueltigkeit.pdf
You cannot travel in a straight line in the Alps, which is why it has all these scenic but circuitous railways.

The official website is here: https://www.dfb.ch
In 2017 they are running from 24th June to 8th October. And, apart from 5 weeks in July/August it is weekends only. So May is no possibility, September possibly..

in May they will still be digging it out of snowdrifts, which is why the FurkaOberalp Railway closed it and replaced it with a tunnel. It would be a huge diversion, very nice in fine weather but an expensive way to get cold on a wet day. Have you tried the Brienzer Rothorn Bahn? It's actually on the line from Luzern to Interlaken so no detour at all, just cross the road from the main Brienz station.

http://brienz-rothorn-bahn.ch/?lang=en

It would be quite a detour. Looking at this upcoming Saturday:
Leave Luzern at 7:18 am getting to Realp at 9:50 am, with train changes at Erstfeld, Goeschenen, and Andermatt.
10:15 Furka steam train arriving Oberwald at 12:30 pm.
12:50 pm Postbus over the Grimsel Pass arriving Meiringen at 2:34 pm.
2:51 pm train arriving Interlaken Ost at 3:24 pm.

A true Trainspotter should have no problem with this. Normal people, hmmm.

Hi everyone and thanks for your replies. It now looks like we will be in Switzerland in September of 2018 so theoretically snow should not be a problem. Also we never intended it to be a day trip and have lot's of time so the schedule that Sam suggested (see below) would not be a problem for us. We were hoping to hear from someone who had ridden this train and could hear an opinion of it. Again, thanks for your replies.

(Leave Luzern at 7:18 am getting to Realp at 9:50 am, with train changes at Erstfeld, Goeschenen, and Andermatt.
10:15 Furka steam train arriving Oberwald at 12:30 pm.
12:50 pm Postbus over the Grimsel Pass arriving Meiringen at 2:34 pm.
2:51 pm train arriving Interlaken Ost at 3:24 pm.)

The trains are run by an association of enthusiasts and manned by volunteers, hence the very limited schedule even when the route is passable. The trains are around 100 years old and have been completely renovated (most of the steam locos spent many years in Vietnam after the line was electrified). The coaches do not have modern comforts, which means you can open the windows and take photos!! The scenery is imposing to say the least but the glacier it used to run past has shrunk back massively and many of the famous views in old photos aren't possible. So far so good. There is a down side. The area is at altitude, when the sun is out it's fantastic and you need high factor sunscreen BUT when the weather turns you can be in the clouds (and I mean in not under). This means you could be travelling very slowly in cold, damp conditions, on hard wooden seats and can't see anything - all but the hardiest railway fan might ask why they paid such a huge fare! Which is currently 73 francs per person one way for the whole journey (about 10 miles) with steam (or a staggering 121 Francs in 1st Class), and you can't use SwissPass. On a nice day it would be a fantastic tour, but you can't trust swiss weather.

Steve, thanks. Your reply was very helpful.