Guntschnabahn

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Guntschnabahn
Guntschnabahn car above the valley station (around 1912)
length 350.40 m
Maximum slope 673.70 ‰
Height difference 187.77 m
Operating mode electric
Gauge 1000 mm
opening August 12, 1912
Legend
   
 0.000 Valley station in Gries 300.13  m above sea level A.
   
 Viaduct with four openings
   
 Viaduct with two openings
   
 0.175 Alternative point in the middle of the route
   
 Guntschnapromenade
   
   
 0.350 Mountain station at the Streckerhof 485.9  m above sea level A.

The Guntschnabahn ( Italian Funicolare del Guncina ) was a funicular in the city of Bozen in South Tyrol . Between 1912 and 1966, it connected the Gries district of Bolzano with the Reichrieglerhof hotel and restaurant on the Guntschnaberg . Together with the Virglbahn , Kohlerer Bahn , Rittner Bahn and several promenades, it opened up the slopes surrounding Bolzano for tourist use.

history

After Elisa Überbacher-Minatti, owner of the Grand Hotel Toblach and the Pension “Bellevue” in Gries, took over the Reichrieglerhof above the city and converted it into a hotel and excursion restaurant, she took the initiative to improve the connection to the city and the local spa for a funicular. Construction began in the summer of 1911, so that the buildings could be completed in May 1912. After the brake system had been tested separately on July 12, 1912, the final auditing took place between July 29 and 31 . Public transport began on August 12, 1912.

The railway was built by the company Ceretti & Tanfani from Milan in parallel with the cable car to the Vigiljoch , which carried out the iron superstructure and the machinery itself. The electrical equipment came from Siemens-Schuckertwerke from Vienna, the wire rope from the St. Egydyer Eisen- und Stahlindustrie-Gesellschaft . The brick substructure of the route and the two stations were built by the two companies A. Guschelbauer and F. & L. Madile from Bolzano. The plans for the buildings came from the engineering office Dr. W. Conrad from Vienna.

Elisa Überbacher-Minatti took over the costs of a total of 288,700 crowns . Of this sum, 229,500 crowns went to the manufacture and installation of the railway system, 47,700 crowns to the winch, the wire rope and the wagons, and 1,500 crowns to the furniture and other equipment.

After an operating time of almost 51 years, the railway was closed on March 31, 1963 due to competition from the road.

Route description

Height and position profile

The valley station was at 300.13  m above sea level. A. in today's Defreggerstraße and could be reached via its own stop "Guntschnabahn" on the Grieser line of the Bozen tram in today's Fagenstraße. The mountain station was 185.77 meters above sea ​​level at the so-called Streckerhof at 485.9  m above sea level. A. . From there, a promenade that was electrically lit at night led to the actual hotel in about 3 minutes.

The two stations were horizontally 302.56 meters apart, the length of the track was 350.40 meters. The elevation profile was approximately parabolic, so that the gradient at the valley station was 575 ‰, increased to 623.75 ‰ up to the switch in the middle of the route and finally reached its maximum value of 673.70 ‰ at the mountain station. In the ground plan, the route initially followed an arc of a circle, which had a horizontal radius of 700 meters and was 167.33 meters long. Then she headed straight for the mountain station. To achieve this route, two viaducts with four or two openings, each five meters wide, were built in the lower half.

Technical Equipment

General view of the Guntschnabahn (around 1912)
The two wagons meet in the siding

By and large, the Guntschnabahn followed the usual scheme for funicular railways: A winch installed in the mountain station alternately pulled one car upwards over a steel cable, while the other car was left downhill at the same time. The wagons met in the middle of the route in an automatic turnout, while the rest of the route was single-track. There was no opposite rope. A special feature was the use of a braking system patented by Maschinenfabrik Esslingen , which should automatically clamp the wagons to the track using brake calipers in the event of a rope break. Therefore, special “System Esslingen” rail profiles with a weight of 25 kg / m were laid.

dare

Each of the two cars carried 20 passengers in four tiered compartments. The two middle compartments - one of which was open, the other closed - each offered eight seats, the upper end platform four seats or standing room. In contrast, the lower end platform was reserved for the driver.

The two-axle bases of the wagons came from Ceretti & Tanfani , the car bodies from Grazer Maschinen- und Waggonbau-Aktiengesellschaft . The curb weight is given as 5.9 tonnes, with full occupancy the weight increased to 7.6 tonnes assuming 100 kg of luggage.

drive

The electrical energy required to drive the windmill was supplied by the electricity and waterworks Zwölfmalgiegen via a cable to the mountain station , as was the case with the Virgl and Kohlerer Bahn . There the three-phase current of 3.6 kV, 50 Hz, was transformed to an operating voltage of 150 volts. This finally operated an asynchronous motor with 50 HP power.

The winch was fitted with various braking devices. In particular, automatic braking was triggered by stop levers in the stations when the end position was exceeded or by a centrifugal governor when the driving speed was exceeded sufficiently.

The travel time is given as four minutes. This results in a driving speed of just under 1.5 m / s (5.4 km / h). Disregarding transfer times, a maximum of 15 journeys per hour would have been possible, the theoretical transport capacity would be 300 passengers per hour and direction.

business

The following important information is missing from this article or section:
In operation from 1918.
Help Wikipedia by researching and pasting it .

Initially, the operation was supported by the Department of Electrical railway companies of Etschwerke out. At that time, an average of 40 trips were offered all year round at intervals of 15 or 30 minutes between 7:00 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. A simple ascent cost 60 Heller , a simple descent 50 Heller. 80 Heller had to be paid for the return journey, and a combination ticket with use of the tram was available for 1.20 kroner.

Relics

The route on the slope is overgrown, but parts of it are still visible. In particular, the Guntschnapromenade still crosses the former route over a bridge, from which the masonry substructure can be seen. After renovations, the mountain station has been preserved as a private house and is not open to the public.

literature

  • Karl Armbruster: The Tyrolean mountain railways . Buchdruckerei G. Davis & Co., Vienna 1914, Die Guntschnabahn, p. 155–161 ( digitized version from the South Tyrolean Provincial Library [accessed on September 15, 2017]).

Web links

Commons : Funicolare del Guncina  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Armbruster: The Tyrolean mountain railways . S. 155-161 .
  2. ↑ a b c Board of Trustees for Technical Cultural Assets: Bozen / Gries – Guntschna funicular. Retrieved September 15, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Armbruster normally gives 3.6 kV voltage for the hydropower plant, but in the specific case of the Guntschnabahn only gives 3.0 kV. It must be assumed that this is a typographical error.
  4. ↑ a b Documentation Center for European Railway Research : The Guntschnabahn - Former funicular railway serving tourism. Retrieved September 15, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Armbruster mentions the unrealistically high travel time of 14 minutes. Here, too, it must be assumed that there is a misprint.

Coordinates: 46 ° 30 ′ 31 ″  N , 11 ° 20 ′ 9 ″  E