Exploring ‘world's steepest cogwheel railway’, an engineering marvel

Priya SrivastavaPriya Srivastava/Times Travel Editor/TRAVEL TRENDS, SWITZERLAND/ Created : Jun 21, 2019, 11:12 IST

Exploring ‘world's steepest cogwheel railway’, an engineering marvel

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Synopsis

God gifted humans with brains and, using the same, we have done some miraculous wonders! One such man-made marvel is the cogway railway at Mount Pilatus in Switzerland. This masterpiece also holds the record of being the ‘steepest … Read more

Exploring ‘world's steepest cogwheel railway’, an engineering marvel

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The staggering Pilatus railway, with a gradient of 48% and length of 4618 m, connects Alpnachstad on Lake Lucerne with one terminus close to the summit of Mount Pilatus located at an elevation of 2073 m above sea level!

As far as history goes, in the year 1873, a project to build the railway line in the region was proposed but, later, it was thought to be not economically feasible. However, an engineer called Eduard Locher, having some amazing practical experience, prepared one unique system that raised the maximal grade to 48% to shorten the length of the route in half.

Using his experience and brain, he managed to work on the mechanical part of the cogwheel rail and his experiment succeeded; the railway line was inaugurated with steam traction on 4 June 1889. The same started running on electricity from 15 May, 1937, with the use of an overhead electric supply of 1550 V DC.

The original steam rails, which had the capacity of 32-passengers averaged 3 to 4 km/hr. It used to take it more than an hour to reach the summit. But, at present, the electric train having a seating capacity for 40-passenger runs at 9 km/hr. Moreover, it just takes half an hour to reach the summit terminus.

Original rack rails, which are now more than a century old, are still being used on the line. Though the track is a little damaged, it was later discovered that the problem can be easily fixed by simply turning the rails over.

When to visit for the steepest experience?

Those, who wish to experience this exceptional and unique journey, should plan their visit between May and November as this is the only time when the route is operational. Rest of the month, the tracks get buried under heavy snow.