Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1894 — ROAD TO THE CLOUDS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ROAD TO THE CLOUDS.

‘ PROJECTED ELECTRIC RAILWAY TO THE JUNGFRAU. 9k* Magnificent Peak of the Bernese Alps, 13,671 Feet Above the Level of the Sea, Soon Can Be Beached by the the Back System of Railroading. Plan of Ascent. The Jungfrau, the magnificent •now-covered peak of the Bernese Alps, is soon to be reached by ralL The European bourses are selling the stock of a projected Jungfrau railway, for which M. Guyer-Zeller, of Zurich, the principal owner of the great Northeast Railway, has Justreeeived a “concession” by the Swiss Federal Council. The Jungfrau is situated on the boundary line of the Cantons Berne and Valois. Its height is 13,671 feet, 200 feet less than that of Mont Blanc, the giant among the mountains of Europe. In 1890 a project to reach the summit by rail was launched, but the plans were not feasible. The present4>lan is to start the road on the Scheideck Mountain (Wengern Alp), some six thousand feet above the sea. The rack system of railroading, which is employed by the Mont Oenis, Righi and Zermatt Railways most successfully, will be used in pulling up the cars to the Jungfrau, being re-enforced by electricity. The

rack engine, as the Illustration ■hows, has a boiler of the vertical erder, and four cylinders, the outer pair of which are connected with wheels running on ordinary rails, while the inner pair operate a cen-tral-toothed wheel, running on a •ingle-racked rail. The two sets of cylinders can be worked separately or together. The route of the Jungfrau Railway will be as follows: From its starting point, the line ascends to the foot of the Eiger Glacier, which is to be tunneled, the trains entering on the east side and coming out in the south at Station Eiger, which is 9,500 feet above the level of the sea. The tunnel is to be open on the outer side. From Station Eiger the line moves, again by tunnel, in the direction of the “Monk” Mountain, until it reaches the Jungfrau-Joch, and, leaving the tunnel there, the railroad ascends to the so-called small plateau, winding itself around the mountain in spiral form like the thread on a screw. The small plateau is 12,500 feet above the level of the sea, and in midsummer clear of snow. There a gigantic elevator will be constructed, powerful enough to hoist fifty people

to the mountain summit on each trip. The railroad will ba 50,000 feet long, and for power and lighting purposes electricity will be employed throughout The falls of the Luetschine River and the Truemmel stream are to furnish the power for electrical engines. Work will be started in the spring. The engineers hope to finish the railroad to Station Eiger within two years. In the summer of 1898 American tourists will be able to reach the summit of the Jungfrau, as M. GuyerZeller says, in true United States fashion, by elevator. The cost of the undertaking is estimated at about <2,000,000. The first great mountain railroad constructed in the Alps was that to Mont Cents, 6,775 feet above the sea, finished in 1865. Then followed the Right Culm Railroad, finished six years later, and finally the Zermatt railway, which was thrown open to travel in the summer of 1891. The latter is twenty-two miles in length. The locomotives on these railways, which are fed by coal, are of 105 horse-power, and travel at ’the rate of 16,000 feet per’hour. These roads are also constructed on the rack system.

LOCOMOTIVE FOR JUNGFRAU RAILWAY.

COGWHEEL TRUCK OF LOCOMOTIVE.