A photo from open sources
Today, there are a lot of mountain railways in the world. Alpine and complex Qinghai-Tibetan in China, under construction almost Fourty years. But about this miracle of railway construction we we’ll talk in our next publication on this topic, and today let’s remember the world’s first railway built in mountains.
A photo from open sources
This is the Semmering Railway of Austria, built in the middle of the XIX century, which still functions properly. More in addition, in 1998 it was included in the list of World UNESCO heritage. The road strikes first of all with achievements civil engineering of the time and the genius of architect Carl von Gega who created this unique project.
A photo from open sources
Its section is 42 kilometers between the cities of Glognitz and Mürtsuschlag is a highland and very complex Semmering pass, “climbing” onto which, the railway line climbed 985 meters above sea level.
A photo from open sources
The Semmering Railway includes 16 viaducts, some of which are bunk, 11 iron and more than 100 stone bridges, as well as 14 tunnels. Altitude drop over the entire section is 460 meters, and the steepness is an average of 20-25 percent wound. It’s not surprising that having built such excellence, railroad workers faced one more problem – at that time there were no locomotives able to drag trains on such a steep and difficult cornering the road. An urgent tender was announced for the creation of mountain locomotives, three of those proposed by the then passed machine builders.
A photo from open sources
The road opened in a festive atmosphere on April 18, 1854. Soon this real miracle attracted not only a lot of tourists, but also numerous developers: the fact is that the Semmering the railway ran in a picturesque area, and therefore quickly became overgrown with mansions, villas and garden plots.
A photo from open sources
Today, there are many ski resorts in the vicinity of Semmering, various sports competitions are held. There is even popular balneological sanatorium. But the highlight of this land the railway itself remains through the Semmering Pass, ride along which and admire the picturesque paintings from the window tourists from all over the world come here.
Time
