Wengernalp Railway

Wengernalp Railway
BDhe 4/8 on the Wengernalp
logo
Timetable field :	311/312
Route length:	19.11 km
Gauge :	800 mm ( narrow gauge )
Power system :	1500  =
Maximum slope :	250  ‰
Minimum radius :	60 m
Rack system :	Riggenbach-Pauli / von Roll
Lauterbrunnen – Grindelwald
Legend 0.00 Lauterbrunnen 797  m above sea level M. Connection to the BOB in Interlaken and to the BLM in Mürren 0.75 Witimatte 827  m above sea level M. old route until 1910 Wormhead 136 m 1.79 Rohrfluh 994  m above sea level M. Rohrfluh (27 m) Tunnel No. 3 (34 m) Tunnel No. 4 (77 m) Spiral tunnel (248 m) 3.03 Wengwald 1182  m above sea level M. 3.82 Wengen 1275  m above sea level M. Converter 5.72 Commons 1509  m above sea level M. 7.10 Spell forest 1698  m above sea level M. 8.31 Wengernalp 1874  m above sea level M. to the Kleine Scheidegg tunnel (110 m) 10.47 Kleine Scheidegg 2061  m above sea level M. Connection to JB to Jungfraujoch 11.79 Salzegg 1995  m above sea level M. gallery 13.00 Strättli 1840  m above sea level M. gallery 14.49 Alpiglen 1616  m above sea level M. 16.02 Brandegg 1333  m above sea level M. 16.74 pipe 1153  m above sea level M. 18.13 Grindelwald reason 944  m above sea level M. November 19 Grindelwald 1034  m above sea level M. Connection to the BOB in Interlaken

The Wengernalpbahn ( WAB ) is a narrow-gauge rack railway opened in 1893 in the canton of Bern . It leads from Lauterbrunnen via Wengen and the Kleine Scheidegg to Grindelwald . It was named after the scenic stretch from Wengen to Wengernalp .

history

Founder share for CHF 500 in the Wengernalp-Bahn-Gesellschaft from February 18, 1892

In 1890 Leo Heer-Bétrix was granted the concession to build a railway on the Kleine Scheidegg . The first test drive took place on April 18, 1892. In July of the same year, the line was already completed and on August 10th the first train reached Kleine Scheidegg. Official timetable traffic began on June 20, 1893. The unexpected rush of passengers made it necessary to buy several new vehicles for the WAB. The original route , known as the old route , was very steep with up to 250 ‰ between Lauterbrunnen and Wengen and a great burden for the locomotives. Due to its course, it was at risk of ice fall and was therefore blocked in winter. Winter operations were opened for the first time in 1909.

In 1910 a new route went into operation, which is led through numerous tunnels and only has gradients of 180 ‰. This new route was then operated electrically. The old route remained in operation until the end of 2007 and was used for freight traffic and empty trains. Every September during the Jungfrau Marathon, nostalgic trains ran regularly on the old route, which could be used with normal tickets. In 2009 the line was dismantled, leaving the gravel bed for long stretches. In addition to high operating costs, one reason for this was that the route below Wengen runs through a slide that does not come to rest despite ongoing stabilization measures. In 1916 enough electric vehicles were available to do without steam altogether. After the Second World War , the vehicle fleet was fundamentally modernized. Some of the old electric locomotives are still in use for today's freight transport.

In 1946 the Wengernalpbahn / Jungfraubahn (JB) operating group merged its directors with the Berner-Oberland-Bahnen (BOB); the railways in the Jungfrau region have since been jointly managed and operated. In 2000, the administrative community acquired its own legal personality as Jungfraubahn Management AG as a joint subsidiary of Jungfraubahn Holding (whose 100% subsidiary is WAB) and BOB.

On February 18, 1985, an artificially triggered avalanche buried two trains on the Wengernalp Railway between Alpiglen and Salzegg. Two employees of the railway were killed.

On November 11, 1996, a tipped hair dryer storm with wind speeds up to 150 km / h from traveling to Grindelwald in the Salzegg two-car BDhe 4/8 134 about. Several people were injured, some seriously. The trip served to evacuate people trapped on the Jungfraujoch .

In Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald you can change to the Bernese Oberland Railway (BOB) to Interlaken . In Lauterbrunnen there is also a connection to the Lauterbrunnen – Mürren (BLM) mountain railway and the bus routes to Stechelberg and Isenfluh. The Jungfrau Railway (JB) also begins on Kleine Scheidegg .

technology

The route length is 19,201 kilometers with racks along the entire length. The track width is 800 millimeters, the smallest curve radius is 60 meters. The racks belong to the Riggenbach system , modified by Arnold Pauli. The latest railcars reach 28 km / h on the mountain route.

business

Thanks to the operational possibility of the actual scheduled train being followed by other trains at short intervals, the capacity can be optimally adapted to the needs in times of heavy traffic. On the Grindelwaldner side, the trains run every half hour with connections to and from Interlaken Ost. The trains between Lauterbrunnen and Kleine Scheidegg also run every half hour and provide good connections to the BOB trains.

At WAB, the locomotive is always on the valley side. As with most rack railways with steep inclines, the drives are asymmetrical, the drive gears are located on the valley side of each bogie. The interior of the vehicles, especially the inclination of the seats, is designed so that there is always a mountain side and a valley side . This also makes it possible to assign the braking equipment for the descent to a direction of travel and thus to simplify it considerably. Driving over the pass at Kleine Scheidegg is not easily possible; the trains run from Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald to Kleine Scheidegg, where the train has to be changed for the onward journey. There was originally a turntable for exchanging vehicles between the two lines. This was replaced in 1947 by a track triangle , the extension track of which was built into the mountain as a 110-meter-long Kleine Scheidegg tunnel . It allows entire train compositions to be rearranged, but is not used in timetable traffic.

Vehicle fleet

Locomotives

• He 2/2 31-32 (1995)
• He 2/2 51-54 (1909)
• He 2/2 55–63 (1910–1912) sold to BOB for SPB , there No. 15–20 and 61–63
• He 2/2 64–65 (1926/1929), 65 brought to Wilderswil in 2016

Railcar

• BDhe 4/4 101–118 (1947–1964, ABDhe until 1982), 101, 102, 103 and 105 retired, 104 converted in 2005 with three-phase equipment
• BDhe 4/4 119-124 ; 120–123 rebuilt between 2009 and 2012 with three-phase equipment, interior refreshment, installation of a passenger information system
  119, 124 discarded and demolished
• BDhe 4/8 131-134 (1988), 2010 Installation of train destination displays
• Bhe 4/8 141–150 (2004, 2014–2015)

Passenger cars and control cars

The Wengernalp Railway had only one single two-axle passenger car, which had already been scrapped in 1907 and the undercarriage used to build a freight car. All other passenger cars had and still have bogies. In 1961/62 all passenger cars were given new numbers; only these are listed here.

• B 11–12, 21–39, 61–76, 78–79, 86–88 (1893–1929) four-axle wooden box wagons (A, AB and B until 1982, a total of 42 wagons), all of which were discarded or sold by 2008
• B 89-90 (1959) discarded in 2010
• Bt 211–214, 221–226, 261–278 (1961 to 1968) four-axle control cars (Up to 1982 At, ABt and Bt) expanded to the multiple units 101 to 124, B 221 and 223 controllers, Bt 225 2005 and Bt 276 1985 discarded
• Bt 231 (1988) four-axle control car for 131-134, discarded in 2003
• Bt 241–244 (1998, six-axle articulated control car for railcars 119–124)
• Bt 251-253 (2003, six-axle articulated control car for railcars 131-134)
• BDt 254 (2017, six-axle articulated control car for railcars 141–150)

Service vehicles

• Xrote 11 (1928)
• Xrote 12 (1945)
• Xrote 21 (2008)

Freight wagons

• K 51 (1912) 1961 K ° 301, 1998–2004 conversion to Hik 301 sliding wall wagon
• K 52 (1912) 1944 box rebuilding, 1961 K ° 302
• K 53 (1926) 1961 K ° 303
• K 54 (1926) 1961 K ° 304, 2000 break off
• K 55 (1960) 1961 K ° 305, 2006 new box
• K ° 306 (1962)
• K ° 307 (1963) 1993 folding wall control car Hikt 307
• K ° 308 (1963)
• K ° 309 (1964)
• M 1 (1891) 1898 M 25, 1961 M ° 401, 1979 extension extension
• M 2 (1891) 1898 M 26, 1961 M ° 402, 1979 extension extension
• M 3 (1892) 1898 M 27, 1961 M ° 403, 1979 extension extension
• M 28 (1898) 1953 conversion of stool wagon, 1961 M ° 404, demolition in 2004
• M 29 (1898) 1953 conversion of stool wagon, 1961 M ° 405, remitted in 2004
• M 30 (1898) 1961 M ° 406, 1979 extension extension

Picture gallery

• 

  Kleine Scheidegg train station in summer

• 

  A cogwheel train shuttle train that has been typical of the railways for decades

• 

  Brake gear of a Wengernalpbahn wagon

• 

  Rack switch in Lauterbrunnen train station

• 

  Above Grindelwald-Grund in winter

• 

  On the way from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen

• 

  Two panorama trains Bhe 4/8 below the Kleine Scheidegg with a view of Grindelwald

literature

• Florian Inäbnit: Wengernalp Railway. Volume 314, Prellbock Druck & Verlag, Leissigen 2006, ISBN 3-907579-25-9 .
• Ralf Roman Rossberg : The Jungfrau region and its railways. Hallwag, Bern / Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-444-06064-5 .
• New signal boxes on the Grindelwald - Kleine Scheidegg route of the Wengernalp Railway (WAB) In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . ISSN  1421-2811 , issue 2/2004, pp. 73-77.
• Wolfgang Finke: The vehicles of the Jungfrau Railways 2 . A book on DVD, tram-tv publisher, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-9813669-3-8 .

Web links

Commons : Wengernalpbahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the «Jungfrau Railways» - «Wengernalpbahn»
• Rail-Info.ch via the WAB
• Swissrails.ch via the WAB ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Discontinued Swiss railways: WAB Witimatte – Wengen
• Photo album about the Wengernalpbahn

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Route graphic according to Hans G. Wägli: Railway Profile Switzerland 2005 . Diplory Verlag, Grafenried 2004.
2. ^ History
3. ↑ Florian Inäbnit: Dismantling the old line to Wengen . In: buffer stop . No. 6/2008, Prellbock Druck & Verlag, Leissigen 2008, ISSN  1660-2986 , p. 8.
4. ↑ Guido Lauper: Nature as a bridge between work and everyday life. In: Berner Zeitung. November 14, 2011, accessed March 24, 2014 . 
5. ↑ WAB train blown over . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 12/1996 . Minirex, ISSN  1022-7113 , p. 510 .