20 Francs Brienz-Rothorn Railway

The Brienz Rothorn Bahn, opened in 1892, is one of the last steam-powered rack railways in Europe still operating its original nineteenth-century locomotives in regular passenger service — not as a heritage novelty, but as a functional mountain railway. The Swiss Federal Mint issued this piece as part of its annual commemorative program recognizing infrastructure with genuine historical longevity rather than mere anniversary milestones.

The BRB famously resisted electrification campaigns that converted most comparable Swiss mountain lines through the mid-twentieth century, a decision driven partly by cost and partly by the railway's remote position above Brienz on the Bernese Oberland shore of Lake Brienz.