The world's steepest railroad
Located on Mount Pilatus in Switzerland, the Swiss Pilatus Railway is the steepest railroad in the world. The total length of the track is about 3 miles, with a vertical height of about 6,800 feet (about 2,073 meters) and a maximum gradient of 48°. Because it is also one of the most famous tourist attractions in Switzerland, the snow on the mountain does not melt all year round, so there are many tourists visiting the mountain. There are two hotels at the top of the mountain, but it is a long way up the mountain, so many tourists suggest that a railroad can be built so that they can stop climbing the mountain so hard.
In 1860, two alpine hotels were built on the top of the snowy mountain. When the tourists climbing up the mountain tasted the delicious food under the blue sky and white clouds, and appreciated the magic work of nature, they could not help but have a trace of regret: if there was a railroad from the bottom to the top of the mountain, they could avoid the pain of climbing the mountain.
It takes half an hour to ascend and 40 minutes to get back up the mountain, at a speed of between 5 and 7 km. But its story began more than a century ago.
Built in 1898 and still running on its original tracks, the railroad, shown here, transports about 300,000 passengers a year from Alpnachstad station on Lake Lucerne in Obwalden to its terminal near the top of Mount Pilatus.
The rail rack system is a track configuration in which the train's mounted pinion (left) engages with a rack (right) - invented in the early 1800s, Zurich engineer Eduard Locher was the first to suggest building a railroad on the mountain in 1873, but his plan was largely considered insane.
The total length of the railroad is 4.27 kilometers, and the altitude of the starting point is 441 meters, the ending point is 2070 meters, and the climbing height is 1629 meters. The railroad's greatest difficulty is the steepness of the route, with a maximum gradient of 48 degrees throughout and an average gradient of about 42 degrees. It runs 6,800 feet to passengers near the summit in about half an hour and operates between May and November each year with 10 railcars and a maximum capacity of 340 passengers per hour.
The construction of this railroad has gone through a lot of hardships and overcome all kinds of unimaginable difficulties. The rails and tooth rails were all firmly fixed on granite slabs, and the roadbed was paved with granite rubble. At that time there was no more advanced means of transportation, only by horse-drawn people carrying. After 16 years, the world's steepest rack railroad was finally built successfully, becoming another miracle in the history of the world's railroads.
The electric locomotives operating on this railroad are orange in color, with better and more comfortable facilities, and can carry 40 passengers at the same time. As the train moves, it looks like a red dragon swimming among the peaks, which is a spectacular sight. When the passengers climbed from the green meadow at the bottom of the mountain to the top of the snow-capped peak, they were all impressed by the beauty of the snow-capped mountains and the alpine rack railroad.
