Chemin de fer du Mont-Revard

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Aix-les-Bains-Mont Revard
Train with a wagon just before the summit of Mount Revard
Train with a wagon just before the summit of Mount Revard
Route length: 9.350 km
Gauge : 1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Maximum slope : 210  ‰
Rack system : Abbot with two slats
Legend
   
 0.000 Aix-les-Bains 264 m
   
 1.75   Mouxy 421 m
   
 3.1     Pugny Chatenod                       618 m
   
 Viaduc des Fontanelles (111 m)
   
 5.8     Pré-Japert 1045 m
   
 Tunnel de Pré-Farnier (115 m)
   
 9.35   Mont Revard 1496 m

The Chemin de fer du Mont-Revard was a 9.350 kilometer long rack railway , opened in 1892 , which connected Aix-les-Bains with the Mont Revard in Savoy . The railway line was replaced by an aerial cableway in 1935 .

history

Locomotive number 6 and a replica of the Chemin de fer du Mont-Revard in Mouxy

The first owner of the concession for a rack railway between Aix-les-Bains and the Mont Revard was the Société genevoise des chemins de fer à voie étroite (VE, German about Geneva narrow-gauge railway company ). The VE operated several narrow-gauge lines in Geneva since 1889, some of which led to French territory. The Société anonyme des chemins de fer de montagne et régionaux (Berg- und Regionalbahnen AG) acquired the concession and built the railway within one year with the help of 1200 mainly Italian construction workers. She put the railway line into operation on August 15, 1892 and officially inaugurated it on September 5.

Winter operations were started for skiers from the 1908/09 season. In 1923 the Compagnie Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM) acquired the railway line and the associated buildings, took over the operation of the rack railway in 1924 and founded the Compagnie du Revard . PLM made many improvements to the terminus and the neighboring hotel complex.

In view of the success, it was decided to replace the rack railway in need of renovation with an aerial cableway from Mouxy . The passenger traffic of the rack railway was stopped on October 25, 1935, in 1937 the freight traffic ended. In 1969, after an operational incident, the aerial cableway was also stopped. Since then, Mont Revard has only been accessible by road. The Mouxy station has been preserved, where a monument locomotive commemorates the operation of the rack railway.

route

The route, operated as a pure cog railway , led from Aix-les-Bains across meadows and extensive spruce forests to the plateau of Mont Revard, 1266 meters above sea level , and on to the terminus 55 meters below the summit.

The most important engineering structures were the 115 meter long tunnel de Pré-Farnier in a curve of 75 meters radius and the Viaduc des Fontanelles . The stone viaduct, located in an arc of 120 meters radius and at a gradient of 17  per thousand , consists of five arches and has a total length of 111 meters.

  • Starting point of the rack railway in Aix-les-Bains , origine de la ligne.

  • Locomotive number 4 in Pugny-Chatenod

  • Railway line at Pugny-Chatenod

  • Viaduc des Fontanelles on an old postcard

  • The Fontanelles Viaduct in 2014

  • Pré-Japert crossing station

  • Terminus and hotels not far from the summit of Mont Revard

Rolling stock

Locomotive number 8 with superheater
Manufacturer:                         SLM
Year of construction: 1929
Operating weight: 22.3 t
Cylinder diameter: 300 mm
Piston stroke: 400 mm
Boiler pressure: 14.0 atm
Evaporation heating surface: 50.82 m²
An eighth locomotive planned for the opening of operations first came to the Gornergrat Railway in Switzerland and then to Spain to the rack railway on the Montserrat .
  • 7 steam locomotives number 1 to 7, SLM Winterthur, built in 1892, 2zz1 ' wheel arrangement, curb weight 14.2 tons
  • 1 steam locomotive number 8, SLM Winterthur, built in 1929, 3zz1 'wheel arrangement, curb weight 18.1 tons
  • 10 bogie cars (8 "normal" and 2 "luxury") with 60 seats
  • 2 two-axle flat cars
  • 1 snow plow from winter 1909/1910

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Antoine and Laurence Troncy: La Savoie 1900–1920. Savoy 1900–1920. Édition de Borée, page 120 (French)