Sassi – Superga rack railway

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Sassi-Superga cog railway (valley station)

The cog railway of Superga ( Italian : Tranvia a dentiera Superga - or - Cremagliera Superga ) in Germany as Superga cog railway or earlier Supergabahn known is a cog railway in Turin , originally as a funicular to the system Agudio operated has been. It leads from the Sassi district of Turin to the Superga mountain to the Basilica di Superga pilgrimage church . Due to the tram-like appearance of the vehicles, the train is often counted among the trams and officially also referred to as Tranvia .

route

Percorso to superga

The 3.135 km long route has a track width of 1445 millimeters. On its journey it overcomes a difference in altitude of 419 meters and has an incline of up to 20 percent. The route has two shorter tunnels . The mountain station is located 672 meters above sea level. It's a popular vantage point overlooking Turin, the Po River and the Alps .

The Raddoppio station in the middle of the route is the crossing point. The double-lane section is only used when there is a large crowd on Sundays and public holidays, when the train runs every half hour. Although the railway was rebuilt into a rack and pinion railway with considerable effort in the 1930s, you can still see the rope guidance facilities of the former "Agudio" system in some places along the route.

history

Funicular system Agudio

Sassi-Superga funicular according to the Agudio system (with completely open drive car)

The Sassi-Superga-Bahn was opened on April 27, 1884 as a funicular according to the Tommaso Agudio system - the third installation of its kind in Italy. The Agudio system was a cogwheel train driven by a rotating steel cable . With this system, the cars were pushed up the mountain by a drive car, the agudio locomotive , which was always standing on the valley side . The drive car was provided with toothed wheels that meshed with a rack mounted in the center of the track . The gears were driven by the steel cable that was arranged on the side of the rails and that ran over pulleys on the drive car. The rope only had to be driven for the ascent, the descent took place with the rope stationary, whereby the speed of the train was controlled with the brakes of the drive car.

At the Sassi-Superga-Bahn the stationary steam engine for driving the rope was in the mountain station. The agudio locomotive had two large pulleys that drove four gear wheels located under the vehicle. The gear wheels meshed horizontally in pairs in the herringbone rack , which was similar to the Locher system . A drive car could push one to three passenger cars uphill. Due to the complex drive system, the drive car itself did not transport any passengers , but was only manned by the driver and a brakeman . According to historical images, it either had no structure or was provided with a windowless box. On the whole, at least two drive cars were in use on the single-track system with a passing point, which could also run in double traction for heavy trains if required .

First World War

During the First World War , operations were temporarily suspended due to the sharp decline in passenger numbers, but resumed in early 1919. In 1922 the stationary steam engine was replaced by an electric motor that drove the rope for the Agudio locomotives until 1934.

Rack railway

After the rupture of one of the two ropes, which had no consequences due to the effective emergency braking system , the railway was converted from October 24, 1934 to April 16, 1935 into a conventional, electrically operated rack railway according to the Strub system. Compared to older systems such as B. Riggenbach system cheaper rack system Strub was first used in Italy on the Sassi-Superga-Bahn. After it had proven itself here, most of the rack railways in Italy were also equipped with Strub rack.

Railcar D.2

The vehicles were replaced by new railcars from Officine Meccaniche della Stanga (OM Stanga). The drive cars that were no longer needed were scrapped, the presentation cars converted or sold to other railways. The three new railcars can carry a maximum of two sidecars . Such a train can take 220 passengers up the mountain in around twenty minutes. The railcars are also used solo, especially in weaker traffic times.

The energy is supplied via a third rail with 600 volts direct current . The depot has no rack or busbar, so the vehicles have to be moved with the help of small electric shunting locomotives that are powered by their own overhead line .

Although the train does not operate in the streets of the city of Turin , the vehicles have both the appearance and some characteristics of tram cars . Therefore, the train is often counted among the trams and is officially referred to as Tranvia a dentiera Sassi-Superga (German: cogwheel tram Sassi-Superga ). The railway has a rail connection to the Turin urban tram network of the Gruppo Torinese Trasporti (GTT), which is not used operationally and is only used to transfer the vehicles to the main workshop for repairs.

Web links

Commons : Sassi-Superga cog railway  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Hefti: Rail cable cars all over the world. Inclined cable levels, funiculars, cable cars. Birkhäuser, Basel 1975, ISBN 3-7643-0726-9 , pp. 113-114
  2. ↑ Leaflet available in the valley station