Luzern, while always known for its great beauty, is the hub of central Switzerland. It is a terminus for the narrow-gauge Brünig Line, with its chattering cogwheels; historic steamers on lovely Lake Luzern; the Swiss Transport Museum; and the breath-taking cog-wheel ascent of Pilatus, Luzern’s house mountain. Shortly away on Lake Luzern, the landings at Weggis and Vitznau in Canton Luzern present exciting accesses to the storied Rigi Mountain. The Brünig Line begins with a gaily colored locomotive pulling panoramic dome carriages and a restaurant carriage of the headline train, Golden Pass Panoramic, over the Brünig line’s 74 km/46-mi segment from Luzern to Interlaken Ost Station.

Cogwheels underneath slam into place when trains begin to ascend the north slope of the precipitous Brünig Pass that must be negotiated with the safety of the chattering rack invented by Nicholas Riggenbach (1817-99) in 1863.

Luzern’s Swiss Museum of Transport has exhibits of everything that moves people—land, sea, and air—with more than 3,000 displays covering 2,000 sq m (half acre). It contains the definitive collection of Swiss rail transportation, covering Zürich’s Spanisch-Brödli-Bahn up to and including the 2007 Lötschberg Base Tunnel and the Gotthard Base Tunnel under construction as well as three Rail Halls of vintage locomotives and carriages.

The museum’s cogwheel displays include Locomotive No. 7 of the Vitznau-Rigi Railway with its Riggenbach cogwheel system (Europe’s first mountain railway), the Locher cogwheel system of Mount Pilatus (world’s steepest cogwheel railway), and the Strub cogwheel system serving the Jungfraujoch (Europe’s highest-altitude railway station). The museum’s cableway exhibition includes hand-operated funiculars, the first ski lifts and the modern cable cars in use today.

For centuries the towering Pilatus on Lucerne's doorstep, steeped in legend, has bewitched observers and tempted visitors to tackle its summit - including Richard Wagner and the young Queen Victoria. An ascent today is just as thrilling: for example, on the classic "Golden Round Trip", beginning with a boat ride from Lucerne across the lake to Alpnachstad. From here, the world's steepest cogwheel railway (maximum gradient 48 %) climbs to Pilatus Kulm (2,132m /7000 ft) and the romantic Hotel Pilatus-Kulm, built in 1890, with its sun terrace and panoramic views of the Alps. The descent - down the other side of the mountain, to Kriens - is equally spectacular, by cable car and panoramic gondola.. Engineer Eduard Lochers' innovative construction using two horizontally revolving cogwheels was recognized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as a development of clear historical importance. Stages three and four comprise the descent. The aerial cableway (5 min) takes visitors to Fräkmüntegg for a change to the panorama gondolas (30 min) gliding down to Kriens from where public transport (15 min) takes you back to Lucerne.

Europe’s best lake steamer fleet sets out on one of Switzerland’s largest lakes, Lake Luzern, from the well-marked pier directly across from Luzern’s main train station. The original, decorative façade of the station is preserved facing the busy streets in front of the new façade, which was designed by the preeminent railroad architect Santiago Calatrava, who also designed Lyon Airport’s stunning train station and Lisbon’s astonishing Oriente Station.

The new-baroque 224-passenger Uri, Switzerland’s oldest paddle steamer was built by Sulzer Bros., Winterthur, in 1901. Passengers gather to watch the exposed, gleaming workings of the Uri’s steam engine, recognized in 1998 by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) as a “Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.”

The ornate, 200-passenger Unterwalden, built in 1902, was returned to service on May 16, 1985, after having been meticulously restored with US$1.2 million donated by those listed on a scroll aboard the ship as “Friends of the Steamship Association.”

Across Lake Luzern, paddle steamers call at Weggis, where an aerial gondola leads to the crest of Mount Rigi. Adjacent to the ship’s next landing, at Vitznau, the Vitznau-Rigi Railroad opened in May 1871, making it the oldest cogwheel railroad in Europe. Together, the Vitznau-Rigi Riggenbach-cogwheel Railroad and the gondola from Weggis meet in Rigi Kaltbad, 1,003 m/3,290 ft above Lake Luzern.

Farther down Lake Uri, paddle steamers pass the Schiller Stone, the gleaming monolith rising from the lake that is a memorial to the author of Switzerland’s national epic and the Rütli landing, where 33 representatives of the founding cantons (Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden) pledged themselves to freedom to defend themselves against all forms of foreign domination.

The Chapel of William Tell (Tellskapelle) commemorates the point where William Tell, a prisoner, leaped to freedom from Viceroy Gessler’s ship on hurricane-ripped Lake Uri.