The Jungfrau Railway : a Technical Achievement
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The Jungfrau railway : a technical achievement Autor(en): [s.n.] Objekttyp: Article Zeitschrift: The Swiss observer : the journal of the Federation of Swiss Societies in the UK Band (Jahr): - (1931) Heft 517 PDF erstellt am: 02.10.2021 Persistenter Link: http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-695129 Nutzungsbedingungen Die ETH-Bibliothek ist Anbieterin der digitalisierten Zeitschriften. Sie besitzt keine Urheberrechte an den Inhalten der Zeitschriften. Die Rechte liegen in der Regel bei den Herausgebern. Die auf der Plattform e-periodica veröffentlichten Dokumente stehen für nicht-kommerzielle Zwecke in Lehre und Forschung sowie für die private Nutzung frei zur Verfügung. Einzelne Dateien oder Ausdrucke aus diesem Angebot können zusammen mit diesen Nutzungsbedingungen und den korrekten Herkunftsbezeichnungen weitergegeben werden. Das Veröffentlichen von Bildern in Print- und Online-Publikationen ist nur mit vorheriger Genehmigung der Rechteinhaber erlaubt. Die systematische Speicherung von Teilen des elektronischen Angebots auf anderen Servern bedarf ebenfalls des schriftlichen Einverständnisses der Rechteinhaber. Haftungsausschluss Alle Angaben erfolgen ohne Gewähr für Vollständigkeit oder Richtigkeit. Es wird keine Haftung übernommen für Schäden durch die Verwendung von Informationen aus diesem Online-Angebot oder durch das Fehlen von Informationen. Dies gilt auch für Inhalte Dritter, die über dieses Angebot zugänglich sind. Ein Dienst der ETH-Bibliothek ETH Zürich, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich, Schweiz, www.library.ethz.ch http://www.e-periodica.ch 2377 THE SWISS OBSERVER. September 19, 1931. HOLIDAY REMEMBRANCES. THE JUNGFRAU RAILWAY. Mönchjoch down to the frozen surfaces of the and which 1st of August the Riitli. Jungfrau, remains, even throughout on A TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT. the summer months, an ideal practise ground for ski amateurs. A lateral branch of this Sphinx "Tom /erne sei Aerrfie/t (/eyrtissef gallery leads to the International Jungfraujoch Dm siii/es G'eiÖMcie am S'ee, The Jungfrau railway owes its world reputa- Research Institute, still under construction. In tion not the there exists other U'o s/heZe/uZ cite TFeZZen cer/ZtesseM only to fact that no the Bergbaus Hotel a life takes tourists up to a railway which can the tourist in the fDna/ircf comi ewif/ea NcAnee..." transport gallery, about 100 m. long, situated under the midst of magnificent alpine and glacier scenery, out on to the A modest honour roof, leading Jungfrau plateau. but impressive monument in but also because of the uniqueness and audacity Here the successively viewed from the of the author and of the panoramas composer "Riitli" of its conception. Commonly referred to as an Eigerwand and Eismeer form an imposing con- Lied has been erected on the historical birth place engineering and technical marvel, this is not a trast. To the North, the eye travels from the of beloved How of us have our country. many mere figure of speech, but a recognised fact. green pre-Alps and plains of Central Switzerland, in our past youth, on patriotic festivals, in Shortly after the opening of the Bernese Ober- over lakes, cities, and villages, to the distant Jura school those or in the sanctuary of our homes, sang land railway connecting Interlaken with Lauter- to the and Beleben, the where chain, Feldberg highest verses, glorifying that unforgettable spot, brunnen and Grindelwald in 1890, three plans summits of the Black Forest and Vosges. South- the from the three forest cantons met ; envoys were simultaneously elaborated for the creation wards, one perceives, the endless expanse of the where they banded themselves in a league " that of a Jungfrau railway line. According to these Aletsch glaciers with its affluents and the innu- better defend themselves and they might their plans, a tunnel starting from the Lauterbrunnen merable snow capped peaks of the Alps of Berne own." valley was to continue to a little below the sum- and Valais. But I had to wait over 40 years before the mit of the Jungfrau in order to put through a Rock conditions greatly favoured the con- significance, the beauty and the spirit of this railway to be operated by steam, cable or com- struction of the tunnel. After the first 7.1 km. popular folk song came like a glorious revelation pressed air. None of these plans, however, were the hard marble-like mountain lime was replaced to me. filling my inner-self with an ardent and executed. In the meantime, the Wengernalp line by a still harder gneiss. With the exception of a never to be forgotten love for the land of my was completed whereby the Small Scheidegg, sit- few dislocations, it did not prove necessary to ancestors, and it dawned on me, that the proper uated at the foot of the three giants, the Eiger, wall the interior of the tunnel. The mountain means of increasing the love we bear our native Mönch and Jungfrau, could be easily reached from lime was drilled by means of electric drilling country is to reside for some time in a foreign Grindelwald as well as from Lauterbrunnen. machines, and for the gneiss special boring ma- land. Adolf Guyer-Zeller, a manufacturer of Zurich, chines, operated by highly compressed air were A feeling of unaccountable excitement,— was the first to recognise clearly that the Small employed. In order to expedite the evacuation which reminded me of those golden, alas, long Scheidegg was the only practicable starting point of the loose material and facilitate ventilation, past (lays of my youth when a school treat, or a for the Jungfrau railway, and his creative mind a gallery was drilled between the Eismeer and family event was iminent,—made me rise as early rapidly conceived the audacious plan in its minu- Jungfraujoch (Mönch gallery) in the southern as 3 o'clock a.m. on the last 1st of August, which test details. In 1894, the Swiss Federal Assembly wall of the Mönch. In this gallery a search-light, I spent at Seelisberg ; and richly was I rewarded granted the concession and two years later, con- of 96,000,000 candles lias been placed and on clear for curtailing my " beauty sleep " of which I struction was started. nights its brilliant rays sweep the dark sky, illu- am somewhat badly in need of,—not having been The line measures a total length of 9.3 kilo- minating the surrounding mountain sides as in blessed with a " radiant countenance."— metres. From »S'maZZ S'Ten/epr/ (2064 m. above bright day light. There stood silhouetted in the flush of the sea), the line stretches in the open along the The Jungfrau railway is a mountain line dawn, the two Mythen, in whose shadows watershed of the Black and White Liitscliine val- operating on a mixed system, that is, by cog-wheel lay the still slumbering town of Schwyz. leys up to the Eû/eiv/ZetscAer station (2000 m. from and adhesion. On the cog-wheel stretches (7 to The tops of the mountains around were now Small Scheidegg, 2323 in. above sea level, opened 25% grade) the cog-rail employed is that of the bathed in the light of the rising sun. Vast and in 1898). This first stretch offers a magnificent Swiss engineer Strub, who superintended person- deep the mountain shadows grew, and over the panorama extending from the glacier covered ally a part of the operations. The train's average silent lake grey clouds slowly mounted to the sun flanks of the Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau, Schwarze speed is 9 km. per hour, on the stretches operated kissed heights. Peace,—an almost uncanny still- Mönch, to the Trümmieten valley and the snow by adhesion (6.6% grade), between the Eismeer ness reigned supremely, only interrupted by the capped mountains of the Lauterbrunnen valley and Jungfraujoch stations, it attains a speed of inurmering noise of a slender waterfall leaping and still farther to the Männliche, Faulhorn, 18 km. In accordance with the combination of from a neighbouring hill. Overpowered by Great Scheidegg and Wetterhorn summits above these two systems on the so-called upper stretch, the beauty of this spectacle, I exclaimed Grindelwald. The Eigergletscher station is situ- of the twelve locomotives, five of the newest are in the fullness of my heart : " Oh Heimat ated in extremely wild and romantic surround- equipped for both systems, whereas the older ones wie bist Du so schön !" ings at the foot of the Eiger and Mönch on the are only adapted to the cog-wheel system and can, Shortly after breakfast a happy family party, border of the imposing Eiger glacier. Here are, therefore, only be employed on the stretch of which some of the members, like the writer, in addition to a hotel and restaurant, the techni- Scheidegg-Eismeer. This difference in locomotive came from different parts of the globe, wended cal operating basis of the Jungfrau railway, the equipment is due to the successive phases which their way down through a winding pathway administration premises, lodgings of officiais and the construction of the line underwent in the buried in lovely pine woods, to the historical spot staff, workshops, sheds, store houses, post office, course of a number of years. whose name has been kept sacred since our child- etc... In the course of time the station developed The Jungfrau railway was electrified from hood days. into a small village. the start. Its locomotives rank among the first mountain locomotives of the world. The nearer we came to our destination, the Two hundred metres above the Eigergletscher They are equipped with contrivance more we lost ourselves in meditation, and when station, the train enters a tunnel, 7.1 km. in every safety imagin- stood the actual where those length, passing through the colossal ramparts of able. The slightest speed variation, while descen- we on spot sturdy automatic sons of the cantons Schwyz and Unterwal- Eiger and Mönch and does not regain the open ding, operates an brake, bringing the Uri, to a of den, vowed to stand steadfast together in distress before reaching the terminus station, ./«n(//raM- train instantaneously stop.