The Bernina Express in Switzerland turns 50. However, the history of the Alpine railways began much earlier: More than 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.
The Rigi Railway is just one example of the pioneering work in railway construction in the mountains. The special thing about many routes is the routing, which has to adapt to the geographical conditions in order to overcome the differences in altitude.
Alpine Hidden Objects
The photographer Berthold Steinhilber from Stuttgart has dealt intensively with this means of transport. “I deliberately did not take close-up photos of locomotives and trains,” he says. Instead, he photographed dramatic mountain landscapes, through which, on closer inspection, the trains run.
In his now in Frederking & Thaler Publishers published photo book “Alpine Railways” he has put together a selection together with texts by the Alpine expert Eugen E. Hüsler.
In the large-format and heavy work there are alpine hidden object pictures in which we as viewers go in search of the trains in the mountain panoramas and at the same time go on countless journeys of discovery between the Eastern and Maritime Alps – a visually opulent homage to all Alpine railways.
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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