Mürren horse tram
| Mürren horse tram | |||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 0.455 km | ||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 500 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 12 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 15 m | ||||||||||||||||
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The Mürren horse-drawn tram , also known as Rösslitram Mürren or Rollbahn Mürren (RM), was a horse-drawn tram in Mürren in the Swiss canton of Bern . It was in operation from 1894 to 1937, from 1930 only in freight traffic. In the car-free spa town of Mürren in the Bernese Oberland , which can only be reached via the Lauterbrunnen – Mürren (BLM) cable car , it was used to transport spa guests and holidaymakers as well as goods to the “Grandhotel und Kurhaus” hotel.
history
After Mürren was connected to the railway network via the mountain railway that went into operation in 1891 via Grütschalp to Lauterbrunnen, tourism, which had already started in the village high above the Lauterbrunnen valley in the 1850s , picked up again considerably. The BLM train station, however, is located on the northern outskirts of Mürren, which involved sometimes quite long distances from the train station to the local hotels. Johann Sterchi-Wettach, the owner of the “Grandhotel und Kurhaus”, had the Oehler company from Wildegg build a 455 meter long horse-drawn tram between the train station and his hotel in 1893 for his guests and for the transport of goods delivered by BLM . However, he was initially forbidden to start operating because he had failed to apply for a license from the Federal Council . After he had made up for it, this was granted to him on April 13, 1894. On July 10, 1894, the horse-drawn tram officially started operating. With a track width of just 500 millimeters , the Mürrener Rösslitram had the smallest track width of all railways licensed for passenger transport in Switzerland.
The train was only operated in the summer season, three to five pairs of journeys drove daily at a maximum of 6 km / h between the train station and the hotel in Sterchi-Wettach. During the season, an average of around 1,000 passengers took the train. The fare of 30 cents for the seven-minute journey was about the hourly wage of a worker. In addition, goods were transported for supply. The First World War led to a drop in visitor numbers and the Rösslitram ceased operations. After the end of the war, the situation only gradually returned to normal, and from 1923 onwards the railroad began operating again for hotel guests and freight traffic. The global economic crisis that broke out in 1929 resulted in another significant drop in tourist numbers. In 1930 passenger traffic was therefore stopped. Until 1937 the railway was still used for freight traffic. After the cessation of traffic, the rails initially remained in the street. In 1945 the now outdated “Grand Hotel und Kurhaus”, which was in need of renovation, closed its doors, and in that year the concession for the horse-drawn tram also expired. The hotel facilities were demolished in the 1950s, but the rails remained in Mürrener Strassen until about 1965 when they were removed during road construction work.
route
The line had a total of three points, one at the Mürren station and two at the Kurhaus. The main track ended at the Kurhaus in front of the main entrance, two freight tracks led to the service wing of the extensive hotel complex. In addition, shortly before the hotel another turnout branched off in the direction of Dorfstrasse, but it was never used. Sterchi-Wettach had hoped that other hoteliers would be interested in connecting other Mürren hotels from there, but that never happened. Seen from the station, the route ran on the right-hand edge of the lane. At first the route was designed more like a field railway . After the road had been paved, the route was comparable to a tram .
vehicles
During its existence, the Mürrener Rösslitram owned a total of three vehicles. A horse-drawn tram, built in Paris, with a total of eight seats on two longitudinal benches placed back-to-back and pulled by a horse , was available for passenger transport . In view of the seasonal operation, the car was designed as a summer car , as weather protection it had a roof and curtains on both sides. The goods traffic with two freight lorries built by Oehler, however, was carried out by the hotel staff, who pushed them like a handcart . The whereabouts of the lorries after the end of operations is not known.
After the cessation of passenger traffic, the passenger car came to a farmer, where it was rediscovered in 1941. Between 1962 and 1983 he was in the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne . It was restored in 1993 and has since stood on a preserved piece of the original track in the Mürren station building.
Web links
- Pferdebahn Mürren In: discontinued-bahnen.ch by Jürg Ehrbar
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Ueli Flück: Grand Hotel und Kurhaus , Berner Zeitung, February 3, 2011 , accessed on January 20, 2020
- ↑ a b c Hans Heimann: Beginning and end of the Rössli-Tram Thuner Tagblatt, April 13, 2019 , accessed on January 20, 2020
- ↑ a b Mürren horse tram on discontinued-bahnen.ch
