2023-07-22 11:54:00
150 years ago, pioneers began to open up the mountains with a new means of transport: the cog railway. In the 1860s, Swiss engineer Niklaus Riggenbach discovered that trains could negotiate even extreme gradients if a toothed wheel under the locomotive engaged with a rack in the center of the track bed between the rails. His Vitznau-Rigi Railway, which opened on May 21, 1871, is considered the first cogwheel mountain railway in Europe.
This train gave wings to tourism in Central Switzerland high above Lake Lucerne. As early as 1874, the cog railway transported 50,000 guests in one year. The region around the mountain massif has become one of the most popular travel destinations in the Alps.
The racks that Riggenbach’s engineers laid back then are still in use today. For the 150th anniversary, even the legendary No. 7 locomotive was taken from the Transport Museum in Lucerne, the largest technology museum in Switzerland, and put back on the road.
The vintage car built in 1873 by the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works SLM in Winterthur steamed up the Rigi again this year at a maximum speed of 7.5 km/h.
In the age of high-speed trains, mountain railways have a very special appeal today: there is no other means of transport that combines slowness and landscape in such a harmonious way.
Also read:
– The oldest mountain railway in the Alps: Full steam ahead to the Rigi like 150 years ago
– Fichtelbergbahn in the Ore Mountains: Full steam ahead through the winter wonderland
– Swiss railway adventure trail Albula: hiking along the world heritage route
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