150 years ago, pioneers began to open up the mountains with a new means of transport: the cog railway. The Swiss engineer Niklaus Riggenbach discovered in the 1860s that trains can negotiate even extreme gradients if a toothed wheel under the locomotive engages in a rack in the middle of the track between the rails. His Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn, which opened on May 21, 1871, is considered to be the first cogwheel mountain railway in Europe.
This move boosted tourism in Central Switzerland high above Lake Lucerne. As early as 1874, the rack railway carried 50,000 guests in one year. The region around the mountain range became one of the most popular travel destinations in the Alps.
The racks that Riggenbach’s engineers laid back then are still in operation today. For the 150th anniversary even the legendary locomotive No. 7 was fetched from the Verkehrshaus in Lucerne, the largest technical museum in Switzerland, and made afloat again.
The vintage car, built in 1873 by the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Factory SLM in Winterthur, steamed back onto the Rigi that year at a top speed of 7.5 km / h.
In times of high-speed trains, mountain railways today have a very special charm: In no other means of transport do slowness and landscape come together so harmoniously.
Also read:
– The oldest mountain railway in the Alps: full steam ahead to the Rigi as it was 150 years ago
– Fichtelbergbahn in the Ore Mountains: full steam through the winter wonderland
-Swiss Railway Adventure Trail Albula: hiking along the World Heritage route