72 I World of Ships I Paddle Steamers
engine in 2001. That, in a nutshell, is the
fascinating mechanical history of Montreux,
the longest-serving member of the Lake
Geneva fleet, which is now running again
after a curtailed 2015 season and missing the
whole of 2016 with boiler and super-heater
problems. First fitted with a 1,100hp diagonal
steam engine by builders Sulzer Brothers,
Montreux had completed a full year before
the arrival of sistership General Dufour in- They had substantial capacity to handle
summer crowds and also offered plenty of
covered space for the off-season, regularly
sailing for much of the year.
As the boilers of pre-World War I
steamers became life-expired, CGN started a
programme of replacing steam engines with
twin Sulzer diesels coupled to electric motors,
with power transmitted to the paddle shaft by
toothed wheel reduction gearing. Although
General Dufour remained a steamer until she
was withdrawn in 1968, lying at Ouchy until
scrapped in1977, Montreux suffered a boiler
failure in 1957 and twin eight-cylinder Sulzer
diesels were fitted for a return to service in
1961, and with a more modern-looking white
funnel. A traditional stack was fitted back in
1986 and painted in CGN buff from 1989,
with the vessel, then licensed to carry 800,
regularly operating a mid-morning sailing
from Geneva to the Upper Lake and back.
Montreux was withdrawn in 1998 for
complete refurbishment and conversion
back to steam power, returning to run from
Lausanne in 2001 powered by a brand-new
double diagonal engine from the Winterthur
plant of her original builders Sulzer Brothers.LA SUISSE
BUILT 1910 by Sulzer Brothers, Winterthur
DIMENSIONS Length 78.5m, width 8.5m (hull),15.9m (over
paddles)
MACHINERY Compound diagonal by builders, 1,400hp
SPEED 30kmh (15.5 knots)
PASSENGERS 1,200Entering service on 25 May 1910, La Suisse has
epitomised the finest qualities of lake cruising for
more than a century. Although Winterthur-based
Sulzer Brothers had turned out a succession of
steamers carrying up to 1,000 passengers, with
this vessel CGN tasked them with providing
one capable of accommodating 1,500. The
builders succeeded spectacularly, and provided
a craft with twin boilers ahead of the compound
diagonal engine, with Gooch link motion and
poppet valves on the high-pressure cylinder and
a large low-pressure valve of the Penn system.
The most eye-catching feature of La Suisse’s
passenger areas is the first class restaurant
seating 100 and finished in neo-classical LouisThe imposing La Suisse, bound
for Lausanne, slowing for a call at
Chateau Chillon. (R. Plummer)ABOVE Throughout her Lake Geneva career,
La Suisse has been powered by this Sulzer-built
compound diagonal engine of 1,400hp. (R. Plummer)ABOVE Looking aft in La Suisse’s elegant main
restaurant, finished in neo-classical Louis XVI style.
(Russell Plummer)12 Paddlers_Switzerland_NL.indd 72 17/04/2018 12:21