Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 205, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1912 — HAS GRADE OF 49 PER CENT [ARTICLE]

HAS GRADE OF 49 PER CENT

Railroad That Scales Peeke of the Bernese Alps In Switzerland Steepest In World. rThe rack road up Mount Pilatus, one of the loftiest peaks of the Bernese Alps. In Switzerland, Is said to have the steepest grade of any road in the world not operated by cable#. Rising from the western shore of Lake Lucerne the rails ascend the preclpitoue side of the mountain, 04108 feet to lie summit When the road was being constructed It was necessary to fasten spike* Into the rock, says Railroad Men’s Magazine, against which the construction gang could brace their feet while laying the roadbed. - . • .. Starting from an elevation of 1,450 feet above the" sea level, -this line climbs 5,400 feet in a distance of 16,150 feet to the summit. The grade at the station of Alpnachstad is 36 per cent. At no place is it less than lit per cent. In several places it Is 48 per cent. In order to climb the grades an entirely new system was devised by Col. E. Locber. The roadbed is built throughout of solid masonry, capped with’ granite flagstone. The ties are steel channel bars, anchored to tbe masonry with U-shaped bolts at every three feet. The gauge la 2.52 feet. The rails, as in other rack railroads, merely support the weight of the train. The track bars are set on edge, so that the cogs are vertical. This arrangement Is necessary because on the steepest grades cog wheels would have a tendency to climb out of any horizontal rack. Engine and car are built on a single frame. Tbe hortlontal boiler, six feet long, is placed crosswise of the track, so that the water level In It will not be disturbed on the grades. Tbe speed is a little more than three feet a second, or about two miles an hour. Thirty-two passengers are carried. Parts of this road, particularly on the Eselwand, an Immense, rocky wall nearly vertical, are the most sensational bits of road building to he found anywhere The railroad creeps along the face of this wall of rock on a shelf tilted up at an angle of 58 per cent. Men had to be suspended over the precipice with ropes to start the work. There are four short tunnels on this precipice. This remarkable line was built lu 400 days.