Lasa marble run

Lasa marble run
Valley station of the inclined lift

Route length:	4.0 km of which inclined lift: 1.0 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Maximum slope :	10 ‰, elevator: 500 ‰
Minimum radius :	34 m
Deepest point	Lasa factory premises: 867 m
The highest point	Mountain station: 1350 m

The Laas marble web ( ital. Ferrovia Marmifera di Lasa ) is a narrow-gauge railway with an inclined elevator, also called inclined rail or Bremsberg referred to, which was built in 1929 according to the plans of Ing. Karl Francini to the Laas marble from the mines above Laas into the valley to transport.

history

There are three marble quarries in the vicinity of Laas, all of which are located in the mountain flanks of the Jennwand south-east of Laas and the neighboring Weisswand and are operated underground: the Weißwasserbruch is at an altitude of 1567 m slm , the Göflaner Mitterwandlbruch , which is only operated in summer at a height of 2186 m slm and the Jennwandbruch at a height of 2288 m slm

The marble railway was built to transport the marble quarried in the Weißwasserbruch. For many years until 1999, the marble railway was also used to transport the marble from the Mitterwandlbruch in Göflan to the valley. For this purpose, the marble was driven by truck along the marble path through three tunnels to the exit of the Weißwasserbruch. Since 1999 the Göflaner marble has been transported directly into the valley by truck for cost reasons.

construction

For a long time, simple wooden sleds and hemp ropes were used to transport the marble blocks. After South Tyrol was incorporated into Italy after the First World War , the plant was modernized to guarantee a higher yield. In this context, the Lasa Marble Railway was planned and built in the years 1929–1930 - both were carried out by the Leipzig company Adolf Bleichert & Co. After a construction period of only one year, a meter-gauge railway line consisting of two sections was opened, the most spectacular part of which was the Inclined elevator applies. Originally the railway was battery-powered, in 1937 it was electrified and in 1997 the operation switched to diesel-electric operation.

The entire system has largely been preserved in its original state to this day.

Present and Future

The condition of the track substructure is poor, the vehicles are partly outdated. Relocation of the transport to trucks is not possible for reasons of nature conservation law (Stilfserjoch National Park, dust pollution, noise pollution, necessary salt spreading in winter). To do this, a road in the Stilfserjoch National Park would first have to be built. The variant of a new transport cable car route over the houses of the Lasa settlement also appears to be excluded. The development of a unique technical monument with the historical vehicle fleet, which is now beginning, is expected to have significant tourist side effects for the region in addition to the transport function of the marble railway. In 2007 an association was founded with the aim of maintaining the railway.

Valley station of the new cable crane from Jennwandbruch
Valley station of the new cable crane from Weißwasserbruch
End of the shortened upper marble track (2017)
Back of the upper track (2013)

In spring 2009, the ownership rights to the railway system were transferred from Lasa Marmo AG to the self-administration of the Laas parliamentary group . The discussion, especially with regard to the removal of the Göflaner marble mined by another company, is currently (2013) highly topical; which end it will take is currently not foreseeable. As a first step, a new cable crane was erected at the end of 2012, with which larger blocks of marble can now be lowered from the Weißwasserbruch to well above the middle of the upper marble run. This means that only the front quarter of the upper marble run is needed. The rear part was initially damaged by debris. This part of the route was then converted into a roadway with a leveled split.

Another cable crane, erected around the same time, leads from the exit of the Jennwandbruch into the Lasa Valley . A height difference of 784 m is overcome on a stretch of 1586 m with an incline of 65.8%. The valley station is on the road in the Laas valley, just under a kilometer above the original end point of the upper marble lift.

Route and vehicles

The marble transport route designed by the Bleichert company extends over a total of four parts, namely from top to bottom, first via a cable crane , followed by the upper railway line, then the actual inclined railway and finally the lower railway line.

Rope crane

The rope crane used from 1930 to 2011 transported the marble blocks over a length of 475 m from the Weißwasserbruch down to the end point of the upper marble runway. 175 meters of altitude were overcome.

Upper marble track

The marble blocks were reloaded onto wagons at the end point of the upper 1800 m long marble runway, which was named Aufleg , in the Lasa Valley and ran without any significant gradient. After loading, up to four wagons are usually driven over the route to the mountain station of the inclined railway , known as the Bremsberg . The machine house for the inclined railway is also located there.

Lay-up with rope crane (2005)
Hang-up with an old rope crane in the background (2005)
Upper route
Remise with siding at the mountain station (2005)
Mountain station of the inclined railway

Inclined path

With the inclined railway, one wagon of the meter- gauge railway is transported down 474 meters from a height of 1355 m slm . The inclined railway is a funicular railway , the two opposing carriages of which cross in the middle with the help of an Abt switch . Each of the two cars has two meter-gauge track sections running parallel to the mountain, each about 8 meters long, of which only the one on the mountain side is used today. The track width of the inclined railway is 2.5335 m, the length 950 m.

Inclined run seen from the valley
The mountain station of the inclined elevator
Transport of a meter gauge wagon

Lower marble track

The marble is transported over a distance of around 800 m to the plant, which is at an altitude of 867 m slm . Apart from a sharp curve at the valley station at the foot of the Schafspitz mountain, the tracks run to the plant in a long straight and cross the Adige with a bridge just before the plant . In addition to a gantry crane, there is a shunting track on the factory premises so that the entire premises can be served easily. For lying next to the work station Laas the Vinschgau train once led a no longer existing siding .

Lower marble track
Etsch bridge of the marble railway with inclined railway
Arrival at the factory

The cars come from the former company Carminati e Toselli , the locomotives from Tecnomasio Brown Boveri . Of the three originally delivered locomotives, two still exist, one of which is used at the top and one at the bottom.

meaning

The Lasa Marble Railway is one of the last works by Adolf Bleichert & Co. to have been preserved in its original state. As a technical cultural heritage, which is still in daily routine operation to this day, it represents a cultural, technical-historical and tourist specialty. The construction of the five preserved railway lines (gantry crane, lower marble run, inclined run, upper marble run, cable crane) is unique.

The touristic significance benefits from the fact that both the valley and the mountain station of the inclined railway can be reached via public roads. A sloping platform with five display boards connecting the mountain and valley stations was built in 2010.

In 2015, considerations became known to consider a candidacy of the Lasa Marble Railway for the UNESCO World Heritage List .

literature

Andrea Canale, Fabio Tomaselli: La ferrovia marmifera di Lasa . In: Il treno in val Venosta da Merano a Malles . ETR Editrice Trasporti su Rotaie, 2005.
Hubert Tscholl: The Lasa Marble Railway . A masterpiece of technology. StudienVerlag, Innsbruck 2009, ISBN 978-3-7065-4800-7 .

Web links

Commons : Lasa Marble Railway - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Information on www.sagen.at , accessed on October 11, 2009

↑ Homepage of the Association of Friends of the Inclined Railway ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ There is a spirit of optimism in Lasa , homepage of Lasa Marmor ( Memento from May 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

↑ New course for marble removal , Der Vinschger, issue 20, 2012, 23 May 2012 ( online )

^ The marble heads , Der Vinschgerwind, issue 15, 2013, July 25, 2013, pp. 6–7 ( online )

↑ ^a ^b Transports by rope , product brochure from the manufacturer, Seik ( Memento from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.9 MB)

^ Homepage of the manufacturer, the company Seik ( Memento from May 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

↑ The Jennwandbruch: highest marble quarry in Europe , homepage of Lasa Marmor AG

↑ Mario Mehner: The Lasa Marble Railway

^ H. Seipp: The marble of Laas (Lasa) in Vintschgau (South Tyrol) and the marble works of the "Società Anonima Lasa per l'Industria del Marmo" . In: Geology and Civil Engineering, 8th year (1936), volume 3

↑ Homepage of the tourist association Schlanders-Laas (archive.org) ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Helmut Luther, White Treasures in the Drafty Hole , faz.net, January 18, 2015

↑ Julia Fink, The Lasa Marble Railway on its way to UNESCO World Heritage , in: Education Committee Laas, Kauffolk Laas (ed.), Marble and Apricot 2015

46.603888888889 10.690555555556Coordinates: 46 ° 36 ′ 14 " N , 10 ° 41 ′ 26" E

[1] Information on www.sagen.at , accessed on October 11, 2009