Rax cable car

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Southwest view of the Raxalpen mountain inn and mountain station of the Rax cable car. In the back left the summit of the wax bar on the Schneeberg
Valley station of the Rax cable car in Hirschwang
One of the two cabins (4th generation, manufactured by Carvatech in 2002 , completely overhauled in 2015/16) of the Rax cable car shortly before the arrival of the mountain station or between support 4 and 5
Mountain station, plaque on the occasion of the completion of the railway
Gsolhirn - mountain station of the Rax cable car with inn

The Raxseilbahn is located in Lower Austria and leads from Hirschwang to the Rax . The cabin cable car leads from an altitude of 528  m above sea level. A. at 1,546 meters. It takes between seven and ten minutes to cover the operating length of 2,160 meters. The greatest distance between the gondola and the ground is 60 meters, the greatest span 800 meters.

history

Resistances

Planning in 1908 was based on a railway that was initially to become an adhesion railway and later a cable railway . The construction of a large palace hotel on the Raxalpe (already emerging in 1899) was integrated into the project . This project met with vehement rejection in 1910 by the alpine clubs. The project seemed to be finished in 1924, when the municipality of Vienna , property owner in the surrounding headwaters ( I. Vienna high spring water pipeline ), announced its negative attitude.
Even after the start of construction in July 1925, reports were made that the project was in danger.

After the opening, the objections to the construction of the railway as well as the construction of the mountain station that wanted to meet higher social demands gave way to insight: for many, the love for Rax will flare up all over again. The Rax will soon become an Austrian Davos and St. Moriz .

The construction

The aerial tramway was built between July 1925 and April 1926 as the first tourist cable car in Austria by Adolf Bleichert & Co. (concession announced on August 13, 1925). It operated as a material ropeway for a year , was opened on June 9, 1926, in the presence of Federal President Michael Hainisch , as a passenger ropeway, a cross between airplane and bus , and opened to the public the next day. The regular operating times provided for hourly trips between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. the normal price was five  shillings for the ascent and four for the descent; Children's tickets cost two shillings and 50 groschen . A bus service was set up between the Payerbach train station and the valley station of the Raxseilbahn; Two years later, the Höllentalbahn was able to offer rail-bound feeder traffic.

Since the Raxseilbahn is located in the immediate excursion area of ​​the Viennese population, it has always been very successful. It had a peculiarity that seems unusual today: the summer cabin had a railing instead of the outer walls ; the open roof could be closed by a canvas. It was also in operation during the Second World War and carried up to 240,000 passengers a year up the mountain. With the exception of brief maintenance interruptions, it runs all year round. It has been rebuilt and modernized several times since it opened, most recently in winter 2015/2016.

Incidents

  • On 20 July 1926 took Marie Bonaparte , princess of Greece and Denmark, and their children Raxseilbahn to the mountain restaurant to lunch to take.
  • About three weeks after the cable car opened, its former operations manager was brought to the district court of Wiener Neustadt on suspicion of murdering the guard of the Rax cable car in January 1926 .
  • On August 10, 2007 the cable car came to a standstill due to a rope rollover. 14 people had to be roped out of the gondolas by the mountain rescue service and around 70 people had to be transported from the mountain station to the valley by helicopter. The next day, after a technical check, normal operation could be resumed.

technical realization

One of the portal supports in front of the stations. Aside from the station buildings, the supports are the only parts that have been preserved in their original form.

The Raxseilbahn is designed as a two-lane aerial tramway and per lane with a support rope, a pull rope and an auxiliary rope. The drive is located in the mountain station and, for safety reasons, consists of two separate electric asynchronous motors, each with an output of 132  kW , which are fed by a frequency converter and act together on the revolving traction cable via a gear unit. The tension weights for the suspension and pulling cables are located in the valley station. There are a total of five supports along the route, with the supports at the two stations being designed as portal supports due to the comparatively small track width.

Since the drive on aerial tramways is usually located in the mountain station, as is the case with the Rax cable car, the power supply for the drive must also be provided via the mountain station. Up until 1990 the Rax plateau was not connected to the public power grid and diesel generators with an annual consumption of 19,000 liters of diesel per year were used to operate the railway and to supply the surrounding mountain huts with electricity . Since 1990, Hirschwang has had an underground cable operated with 20  kV medium voltage line which, in addition to the mountain station, also supplies the Reichenau Raxalpe transmitter and neighboring mountain huts such as the Otto refuge with electrical energy. Only the self-sufficient drive intended for emergencies requires a diesel unit.

literature

  • The cable car to the Raxalpe . Reisser, Vienna 1925, OBV .
  • The cable car to the Raxalpe. With 8 pictures, 72 autotypes and 2 maps . Scholle-Verlag, Vienna 1926, OBV .
  • Felix Horschitz: Raxbahn. The electrical equipment of the cable car on the Raxalpe . Scholle-Verlag, Vienna 1927, OBV .
  • Günter Juterschnig: Station building for the cable car to the Raxalpe . Thesis. Vienna University of Technology, Vienna 1994, OBV .

various historical articles:

Web links

Commons : Raxseilbahn  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A mountain railway to the Raxalpe (…) In: Mitteilungen des Deutschen und Österreichischen Alpenverein , year 1899, (Volume XXV), p. 189, top left. (Online at ALO ).
  2. ↑ Transport and accommodation. (...) A ride on the Raxalpe. In: Communications from the German and Austrian Alpine Club , born in 1908, (Volume XXXIV), p. 50, center left. (Online at ALO ).
  3. ↑ J (osef) V (iktor) Kastner:  On the tourist impact of the planned Raxbahn. In:  Der Naturfreund , year 1910, No. 12/1910, December 15, 1910 (XIV. Year), p. 292 f. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / dna.
  4. ↑ A cable car to the Raxalpe. In:  The Gau-Bote. Supplement to “Naturfreund”, issue 9/10, 1924 , year 1924, no. 13/1924 (XXVIII. Year), p. 153, bottom left. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / dna.
  5. ↑ All sorts of things. Austria. (...) The Rax mountain railway construction. In:  Badener Zeitung , (No. 75/1925), September 19, 1925, p. 5, bottom center. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / bzt.
  6. ^ Veidl: With the cable car to the Rax .
  7. ↑ Federal Law Gazette 1925/319. In:  Federal Law Gazette for the Republic of Austria , year 1925, p. 1092 ff. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / bgb.
  8. ↑ The cable car to the Rax. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt (No. 22169/1926), June 4, 1926, p. 10. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.
  9. ↑ The opening of the Raxbahn. In:  Badener Zeitung , (No. 46/1926), June 9, 1926, p. 4, left column. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / bzt.
  10. ↑ Three schillings in: Veidl: With the cable car to the Rax .
  11. ↑ a b The opening of the Raxbahn. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt (No. 22169/1926), June 4, 1926, p. 10, center. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.
  12. ↑ Rax cable car starts the season on Saturday after delays . In: derStandard.at . July 8, 2016 ( derstandard.at [accessed on March 21, 2017]).
  13. ↑ Important visitors on the Rax. In:  Badener Zeitung , (No. 61/1926), July 31, 1926, p. 3, top left. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / bzt.
  14. ↑ All sorts of things. Austria. (...) Under serious suspicion. In:  Badener Zeitung , (No. 61/1926), July 31, 1926, p. 5, top right. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / bzt.
  15. ↑ Technical defect . In: noe.orf.at , August 10, 2007, accessed on June 16, 2010.
  16. ↑ a b 90 years of the Raxseilbahn - facelift of the "old lady". Retrieved October 7, 2018 .

Coordinates: 47 ° 42 ′ 55.6 ″  N , 15 ° 48 ′ 14 ″  E