On October 30, 1979, the Club Vapeur d’Aigle was created, and immediately the construction of a circuit in the St-Pierre park in Aigle was decided. Guided by the first President of the CVA, Willy Shaerer, the whole team set to work, and it was after a few months, on February 3, 1980, that the first tests could be made.

The circuit was 300 m long with a radius of 10 m and even had a 6 m tunnel. On March 4, 1980, this course was officially inaugurated, and the 22 members could be proud of this success. From 31 May to 1 June 1980 the 1st Aigle Steam Festival took place, and since that year, known not only in Switzerland but also outside our borders, an international steam festival has been held every year.

Participants are not only attracted by the pleasure of being with people who share the same hobby, but also by this region where the culinary side is well known.

Until 1982, there were only private locomotives running on the circuit, but since then the club has acquired a “Mölm” locomotive in 71/4″ from the Ch. Ball company, Stein am Rhein.

All kinds of improvements were made to the circuit, and it was soon realized that the size of this park would soon no longer be sufficient given the success achieved. Despite discussions with the municipal authorities, the expansion of the park was not possible, and the last and 7th Festival in Aigle took place from 20 to 22 June 1986. It was in August 1987 that the club definitively left Aigle and the canton of Vaud.

The search for a site to set up a new circuit led the club in Valais to the end of Lake Geneva in Le Bouveret, in the municipality of Port-Valais. After finding an ideal site near the train station, a stone’s throw from the lake, the name of the club was changed to Club Vapeur du Chablais. With such a location, all dreams were allowed, the idea of the Swiss Vapeur Parc was born.

The municipality of Port-Valais, which was very favourable to the idea of this park, agreed to the proposed plans.

Major work awaited the initiators of the park to allow the construction of the double level of the tracks, the buildings, the bridges and the various constructions planned.

It was on 19 March 1988 that the first stone was laid and it was on that day that the great adventure began. Thanks to the continuous commitment of the club’s managers and the goodwill of all, the first sponsors are starting to arrive.

A commemorative stone near the rotunda evokes the names of the founders of this club:

Willy Shaerer, Alfres Grimm, Charles-Henri Coutaz, Georges Gachnang, Pierre Jaquerod, Philippe Reber, Claude Gachnang, Georges Hinnen, Angel Bonvin and Charles Ramel.

The park was inaugurated on June 8, and the 8th International Steam Festival took place from June 9 to 11, 1989; On this occasion, visitors were able to discover the origins of the Swiss Vapeur Parc Soon enough, everyone realized the attractivness of this new park, and it was decided to create a limited public company.

The Swiss Vapeur Parc

At the beginning, the surface area of the park was 10,000m2 (100a), the length of tracks 5 and 71/4″ was 1000m and that year, 60,000 people visited the site. In 1992, the S.A. was created to manage the park; it was led by Alfred Grimm. It is thanks to the will of this man as well as his ideas, that the Swiss Vapeur Parc has magnificent reproductions of buildings that we can discover throughout walks in this beautiful place. Imagine going to a stonemason and presenting him with a photo of the Halles de Neuchâtel while saying to him: “There you go, I am going to reproduce this building in Le Bouveret on a scale of 1:9 on the basis of these photos, but to do so I need to have your help to make all the sculptures of this prestigious building.” After the first interview, our future stonemason Clovis Bressoud thought he was crazy, but after receiving a visit from Freddy Grimm three or four times, he went to Le Bouveret, saw the motivated team that was there every Saturday and said to himself, maybe they are crazy but I am starting to believe in this extraordinary story. It took our stonemason 16 t of “pietra dorata” from Grosseto (Italy) to build this building. The construction itself lasted three years and was inaugurated on June 17, 1995. The real building of the Halles de Neuchâtel was built in six years and was inaugurated 420 years earlier, on June 27, 1575. This story is just a small example of the beautiful buildings in the park today.

The ever-increasing success of the park, including school classes, groups, and various company visits requires a certain rolling stock capacity in order to address the influx of all these visitors to the park. The steam locomotives are: “Mecklenburg,” “Mölm”, “Waldenburg”, “Decauville”, and then petrol machines such as vehicle reproductions from Furka Oberalp (FO), Aigle-Leysin (AL), Bex-Villars-Bretaye (BVB), Montreux-Oberland Bernois (MOB) (with closed cars allowing the passengers to stay dry in case of rain) built by Claude Gachnang.

Alongside these SVP machines, we must not forget the private locomotives of the members that also delight the visitors: SNCF 241, 141 R and 231, SBB-A 3/5, DB 01 215, 2-8-0 New York Central in 7 1/4″ as well as 5″ “Bayer Garrat” (GAM/Africa), “Niagara” (Union Pacific) and the “Mountain” of New York Central.

At the end of 1992, the Swiss Vapeur Parc lost its leader Fredy Grimm, after a long battle with illness, and it was Pierre Jaquerod who took over the presidency of the Swiss Vapeur Swiss Vapeur Parc. Year after year, the park grows; 1996 we added 7000m2 (70 a). A 50m suspension bridge was built and the route now reaches 1500 m, new switches were installed as well as 500 m of siding tracks . Besides all this, we must not forget the constructions of miniature buildings, such as: the Café de la Treille,the Château d’Aigle, The Church of Saanen, the Kuklos, Plein Roc, the Nax sawmill, the Bank and many others.

All these constructions were erected from 1989 to the present day, thanks to the motivation of a close-knit team. Currently, a total of 95,000 hours are to be taken into account as well as 4,000 m of electrical cables, 23 t of scrap metal and 15,000 m3 of earth moved. The motto of this great company remains “to have fun for the sake of pleasure”, and with more than 160,000 visitors in the year 2000, the goal seems to have been achieved. Pretty little trails crisscross the park from one end to the other to discover the two lakes where magnificent miniature boats sail, some of them steam-powered. There are also benches placed all around the lakes, terraces, cafes where it is possible to eat. In summer, night traffic is possible, on some evenings with lighting and illumination of the buildings; The park then reveals the magic of the place.

Every year since its opening, the Swiss Vapeur Parc, during the traditional festival, presents us with a novelty, namely a track extension, a new building, a new locomotive. In June 2000, we inaugurated the new rack and pinion track (150 m) and our colleague Angel Bonvin presented us with his latest steam creation, the model of the HG 3/3 rack locomotive of the Brunig in 7 1/4″. Claude Gachnang made two other wonderful models at the 2001 Festival, the Montreux-Glyon-Naye rack and pinion electric locomotive and the American Amtrak, both in 7 1/4″.