St. Moritz tram

St. Moritz tram
Picture postcard with tram around 1920
Route length:	1.63 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Power system :	500 volts  =
Maximum slope :	55  ‰
Minimum radius :	30 m
Top speed:	20 km / h
Legend (-0.07) depot 0.00 St. Moritz Bad 1775 m Steel bath 0.40 St. Moritz Post 1775 m Inn You Lac 0.80 English church 1790 m Central Bellevue Belvedere Badrutt 1.63 St. Moritz Postplatz 1823 m

The St. Moritz tram was a tram company in the health resort of St. Moritz in the Upper Engadin in the canton of Graubünden . It was opened on July 5, 1896, operated electrically from the start and discontinued on September 18, 1932. The only line was then replaced by a bus line. The transport company responsible was the Strassenbahn St. Moritz company of the same name , or Str.St.M.

history

The railway connected the two districts of St. Moritz-Dorf and St. Moritz-Bad with one another and was primarily used to transport spa guests. The route was about 1.6 km long and had a turnout of 200 m length at the English Church. The smallest radius of the route was 30 m.

As a special feature, the tram was only operated in the summer season. It was designed with a gauge of 1000 millimeters ( meter gauge ) and electrified with 500 volts direct current . The entire route ran on grooved rails in the street. The travel time was eight minutes. A trip cost 20 cents one way and 30 cents back, for locals the tariff was later reduced by half.

The depot building was in St. Moritz-Bad, around 70 meters behind the actual terminus. The route between the terminus in St. Moritz-Bad and the St. Moritz Post stop was flat and from there rose continuously, with a maximum gradient of 55 per thousand, to the terminus at St. Moritz Postplatz. It was laid out on a single track throughout, with a turnout in the middle of the route by the English Church . The terminus St. Moritz-Bad was also double-track.

The tram had no connection to the St. Moritz train station, which opened in 1904 . It was intended to develop this with a kind of ring route, for which the concession was granted in 1902. The route would have led from Postplatz via today's Via Serlas to the train station and from there along the lake roughly following today's main road 27 until it would have met the existing route at today's roundabout on the west side of the lake. Due to tight finances, an extension was not possible, which is why the tram was shut down . The tracks were demolished in 1940.

vehicles

The company owned four two-axle railcars with the designation Ce 2/2, with a maximum speed of 20 kilometers per hour. The manufacturer was MAN , the electrical equipment came from Siemens-Schuckertwerke . These vehicles weighed seven tons, were six meters long and fitted with a pantograph . The blue and white railcars had ten seats and a power of 40 horsepower. The railcars originally had open driver's cabs, which were closed on the occasion of the general overhaul of the railcars in 1920.

The only trailer was a small, open freight car without a company number, which could be attached to the railcars using a trumpet coupling . It was used to transport luggage , but could also be converted into a tower car .

literature

• Markus Keller, St. Moritz Electric Tram , Prellbock-Verlag 1996 ISBN 3-907579-00-3
• The electric tram in St. Moritz . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 25 , no. 25 , June 22, 1895, pp. 178 , doi : 10.5169 / SEALS-19277 .

Web links

• St. Moritz tram (StrStM). In: discontinued tracks. Retrieved May 27, 2020 . 
• Hans Rudi Lüthy-Pavan: The St. Moritz tram. In: strassenbahn-europa.at. Retrieved May 27, 2020 . 
• St. Moritz tram. In: bahndaten.ch. Via Storia, accessed on May 27, 2020 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ The electric tram in St. Moritz . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 25 , no. 25 , June 22, 1895, pp. 178 , doi : 10.5169 / SEALS-19277 .
2. ^ The St. Moritz tram. In: polier.ch. Retrieved May 27, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Luminti, Cristiano ,: The white coal of St. Moritz and Celerina 100 years since the integration of the power station into the municipality of St. Moritz 135 years of electric light in St. Moritz . 1st edition Montabella, St. Moritz 2014, ISBN 978-3-907067-42-0 , p. 31 ( stmoritz-energie.ch [PDF; accessed on May 27, 2020]).
4. ↑ Extension of the concession for an electric tram from St. Moritz-Dorf to St. Moritz-Bad to include the St. Moritz-Dorf-St. Moritz station of the Rhaetian Railway and from here along the lake to St. Moritz-Bad . In: Federal Gazette . Born in 1902, no. 50 , December 8, 1902, pp. 713-720 ( admin.ch ).