cable railway

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Train of the rack railway to the Schafberg in the Salzkammergut

A mountain railway is a track-bound means of transport belonging to the railways for the transport of people or goods, which opens up a mountain peak or another hill . Overcoming large differences in altitude is therefore the typical feature of mountain railways. They are used in particular for tourism , mountain sports and winter sports. They can be ground-based ( rack railway , mixed rack and adhesion railway , inclined lift ), or designed as a cable car and operated by the normal railway network be separated.

A relatively high transport tariff is required for mountain railways , usually well above the tariff for regular public transport , which is seen as part of the basic infrastructure. Mountain railways, on the other hand, serve as an ascent aid for leisure traffic .

Of the lifts which are mountain railways to distinguish that cross a mountain range or pass through the tunnel.

definition

There is no uniform definition of a mountain railway. Most of the definitions to be found in the specialist literature differ in various details, although there are also individual contradictions. What all definitions have in common is that mountain railways can alternatively be designed as a cable car or as a railroad (the latter either with a drive in the vehicle or as a funicular railway ). According to most definitions, they lead from the valley or foot of a mountain to a mountain , a mountaintop , to a ski area , a high-altitude village or to another hill and usually end there. Mountain railways are often used for tourism , but also for local traffic or the transport of goods . Overcoming large gradients , which are overcome as a rack railway , mixed adhesion and rack railway, funicular railway or aerial cableway, is named in all definitions as a typical characteristic of a mountain railway. Pure adhesion railways that meet the above criteria are only classified as mountain railways in a few definitions, for example in the Encyclopedia of Railways by Victor von Röll , in other definitions they are even explicitly excluded, for example in the Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . Mountain railways are usually routes that are operated independently of the normal railway network , and their operation is partially limited to the season . However, the characteristic of independent operation is not mentioned in all definitions.

In contrast to most mountain railways, mountain railways are usually part of the normal railway network. As railway lines located in the mountains, they are used to overcome mountains and mountain ranges by normal tourist traffic and freight traffic. They are mostly built as adhesion railways, but there are also mountain railways as mixed adhesion and cog railways with rack and pinion sections on particularly steep sections, such as the routes of the Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn (MGB).

Although mountain railways even tower above the main railways in terms of the technical complexity in terms of engineering structures and drive systems , they used to be often classified as small railways . The main reason for this was their short length, usually less than two kilometers, and their insignificance for general traffic.

history

Funiculars

Giessbachbahn wagon in the Bernese Oberland in the siding. As usual with the first funiculars, the rack serves as an emergency braking system.

As the first funicular railway for passenger transport, the water ballast railway Prospect Park Incline Railway was opened at Niagara Falls in the United States in 1845 . In Europe, the first funicular railway ran in Lyon on the Rue Terme – Croix Rousse route from 1862 to 1967, followed by the Budavári Sikló in Budapest , which is still in service today, in 1870 . The funicular to the Leopoldsberg was opened in Vienna in 1873 , but was shut down again in 1876. In Switzerland , the Lausanne-Ouchy funicular went into operation in 1877. The Giessbachbahn in the Bernese Oberland , opened in 1879, is the oldest cable car in Europe built solely for tourism purposes. It was designed as a water ballast runway. An electric drive was used for the first time on the Bürgenstock Railway in 1888 .

The period up to the First World War can be described as the heyday of the funicular railways. Then, however, the war and economic crisis led to a severe slump in tourism. After the First World War, the rise of skiing and the construction of hydropower plants led to the construction of further funiculars. In recent times, a number of modern systems have emerged - mostly as underground railways that are independent of the weather .

→ Main article: History section in the Funicular article

Rack railways

The Bavarian Zugspitze railway is one of the few lifts with mixed adhesion and rack-operation .

With the Mount Washington Cog Railway , Sylvester Marsh built the first mountain railway with cogwheel drive and put it into operation in 1869. At the same time, Niklaus Riggenbach developed his rack railway system in Switzerland , which was first used on the Rigibahn , which opened in 1871 . In 1874 the Arth-Rigi-Bahn , the Kahlenbergbahn in Vienna and the Schwabenbergbahn in Budapest were opened to traffic. In 1883, the Drachenfelsbahn in Königswinter, Germany's first tourist mountain railway, followed. Up to the time of the First World War, a number of rack railways were built, but since then only rarely. The Perisher Skitube , which opened in Australia in 1987 to develop a ski area, is an exception .

→ Main article: History section in the cog railway article

Adhesion sheets

While pure adhesion railways were classified as mountain railways at the beginning of the 20th century , they are no longer mentioned in later definitions or are even explicitly excluded.

The oldest adhesion railway leading up a mountain with a steep gradient is the Uetlibergbahn, which starts from Zurich and has a gradient of 79 ‰, which was operated with steam from 1875 to 1923. The 116 ‰ steep Pöstlingbergbahn in Linz has been running electrically since it started operating, while the Innsbruck Mittelgebirgsbahn was also only electrified later. These three railways are now operationally linked to the adjacent tram or, in the case of the Uetlibergbahn, to the neighboring Sihltalbahn . The North German Brocken Railway is also part of a larger network and has a comparatively moderate gradient of 33 ‰ . The Rigi-Scheidegg-Bahn , opened in 1874/75, ceased operations in 1931, the first section of the Mendelbahn in South Tyrol followed in 1963. In contrast, the second section of the Lauterbrunnen – Mürren mountain railway in the Bernese Oberland, operated as an adhesion railway, is still in operation . A still existing specialty is the Snaefell Mountain Railway on the Isle of Man , which is operated as an adhesion railway with gradients of up to 12%. As the last lane, she uses the additional brake rail according to the skin system .

Cable cars

Middle station support 4 of the old Tyrolean Zugspitzbahn

It was only with the invention of the stranded rope in 1834 by Julius Albert that rope transport systems could be built, which in the 19th century were primarily used to transport raw materials such as ores and coal. The Leipzig company Adolf Bleichert exported its cable cars and conveyor systems worldwide. In 1907, Leonardo Torres Quevedo opened the aerial cableway from San Sebastián to Monte Ulia, the first facility for passenger transport alone. However, the railway only had a short lifespan and in 1912 its operation was discontinued. In 1916 his similarly constructed Whirlpool Aero Car was opened, which crosses the Whirlpool Rapids in the Niagara River and still exists. In 1908 the first public aerial cableway in Central Europe, the Kohlerer Bahn , was opened in Zwölfmalgrei near Bozen , which was replaced by a new building in 1912/13 and 1963/64. In the same year the Wetterhorn elevator went into operation near Grindelwald in Switzerland . During the First World War the tourists stayed away and the elevator was shut down and later demolished. The suspension railway in Dresden , constructed in 1901 by Eugen Langen , also works according to the principle of today's aerial cableways with a towing cable driven in the mountain station , but the cabins are attached to a support rail instead of a suspension cable .

In the 1920s, Adolf Bleichert & Co. worked together with the South Tyrolean Luis Zuegg , who built numerous cable cars on the southern front during the First World War to supply soldiers. From 1926 numerous cable cars of the Bleichert-Zuegg system were built, for example the Rax cable car in Lower Austria , the Kreuzeck cable car near Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Tyrolean Zugspitz cable car in 1926 . After the Second World War , numerous new cable cars and ski lifts were built to develop the emerging winter sports areas, especially in the Alps . The highest possible transport performance became increasingly important, which led to the expansion of large gondola lifts and chairlifts with up to eight seats. Material ropeways are used to supply alpine huts , mountain hotels and alpine club huts .

→ Main article: History section in the aerial cableway article

Comparison of the different rail systems

Modern, mostly underground funicular to develop the car-free village of Stoos in the canton of Schwyz, → Schwyz – Stoos funicular

Funiculars are suitable for gradients of up to just over 100%, but their maximum length is limited. If it is exceeded, several sections are used. Funicular railways are cheaper to build than rack railways and require less energy. When planning a cog railway, you are more independent of the length profile, especially when flatter and steep sections alternate. However, the gradient is usually limited to 25%. On the other hand, the operation of a rack railway can be better adapted to changing transport demand.

Cable cars can cover considerable distances with large differences in height with few supports . Although the transport capacities of modern cable cars have risen sharply, they do not achieve the performance of funicular railways or rack and pinion railways, which handle very high numbers of passengers with large vehicles and speeds of 10 m / s and more. When these railways operate underground, they are protected from storms , snowfall and avalanches .

importance

The construction of mountain railways promoted the development of tourism in the mountains and is of great importance for tourism in the Alps and other high and low mountain ranges . An excessive expansion of mountain railways has been criticized by nature conservation organizations .

In freight transport, mountain railways have a certain importance for the development of car-free places such as Wengen , Braunwald or Stoos , which are accessed by the Wengernalpbahn , the Braunwaldbahn or the Schwyz – Stoos funicular .

See also

literature

  • Robert Ganz, Roger Rieker: Construction and operation of Swiss mountain railways, historical cross-section, special exhibition 2012/2013 Schloss Hünegg Hilgerfingen , self-published, Jost Druck Hünibach, 2013
  • Walter Hefti: Zahnradbahnen der Welt , Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 1971, ISBN 3-7643-0550-9
  • Walter Hefti: Unconventional mountain railways , Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel and Stuttgart, 1978, ISBN 3-7643-1005-7
  • Wolfgang König: Railways and Mountains. Transport technology, tourism and nature conservation in the Swiss Alps 1870-1939 . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-593-36500-6 .
  • Werner Latscha (Ed.): Seven mountain railway pioneers (=  Swiss pioneers in business and technology . No. 81 ). Association for Economic History Studies, Zurich 2005, ISBN 978-3-909059-34-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lexicon of the railways. 5th edition. Transpress VEB Verlag, Berlin 1978, p. 104 (keyword mountain railway )
  2. ↑ a b c Duden online dictionary. Bibliographical Institute, Berlin, keyword Bergbahn , accessed on January 21, 2018
  3. ↑ a b c d mountain railway. In: Catalog of the German National Library, accessed on January 13, 2018.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m mountain railways. In: Viktor von Röll (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Railway System . 2nd Edition. Volume 2: Building Design - Brazil . Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin / Vienna 1912, pp  207 -223.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Hans-Peter Bärtschi: Mountain railways. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . February 11, 2015 .
  6. ↑ a b c Erhard Born, Alfred Herold, Walter Trüb, (Ed.): Hobby Lexicon Railway. Rowohlt Taschenbuch, Reinbek near Hamburg, 1980, ISBN 3-499-16262-8 .
  7. ↑ Wolfram Bräumer: Approach to a classification of the transport system> Kleinbahn <In: Die Museums-Eisenbahn 2/1992, pages 11-27
  8. ↑ 1907 Incline Railway Crash. Retrieved September 5, 2009 .
  9. ↑ La ficelle de la rue Terme. Retrieved September 5, 2009 (French).
  10. ^ Budapest - Castle Hill Funicular (Hungary). Retrieved September 5, 2009 .
  11. ↑ Infrastructure service catalog. Published by the Sihltal-Zürich-Uetliberg-Bahn, valid from December 11, 2016, p. 11 (PDF; 0.9 MB)
  12. ↑ The Linz Pöstlingbergbahn - nostalgia and modernity harmoniously combined. Edited by the operator Linz AG, December 2017 (PDF; 8.5 MB)
  13. ^ Image of the Transbordador de Ulia ( Memento from August 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on November 28, 2015
  14. ^ History of the cable car from Monte Ulía according to diariovasco.com
  15. ↑ Steep, steeper, Stoos: the world's steepest funicular goes into operation. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from December 14, 2017
  16. ↑ a b H. H. Peter: Fifty years of Swiss mountain railways. In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . Volume 77 (1921), Issue 21 (E-Periodica.ch, PDF; 2.9 MB).
  17. ↑ Dolezalek: toothed tracks. In: Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens , edited by Victor von Röll , Volume 10. Berlin and Vienna 1923, pp. 451–468. (Zeno.org)
  18. ↑ Pioneering achievement in cable car construction. The longest cable car in Switzerland with the largest span has recently been in operation. In: VST -Revue, 1979
  19. ^ HH Peter: funicular and aerial cableway. In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung. Volume 89 (1927), issue 5 (E-Periodica.ch, PDF; 2.8 MB).
  20. ↑ Claude Gentil: History of the cable cars in Switzerland, section The era of the funiculars. accessed on January 15, 2018
  21. ↑ Ursula Wiegand: In the metro on the slopes. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from December 4, 2008
  22. ↑ Significance of the cable cars for tourism in Switzerland. In: Homepage of Die Volkswirtschaft. 2002. ( Memento of March 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  23. ↑ Vigil at the summit of the Hahneköpfle below the Hohe Ifen. July 7, 2012, accessed January 23, 2018.