RAILWAYS OF SWITZERLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 273, 8 April 1911, Page 9

RAILWAYS OF SWITZERLAND.

DARING ENGINEERS. If one desires to experience, the peculiar excitement and feeling of reverential iiwe at the daring of the engineers, then do not hesitate to ascend by one of the cable railways—the Beatenberg or the Lauterbrimnen-Gi'utschalp, for instance. It is not travelling by railway here—it is rather like being hauled up the side of a house. On some of these cable railways .the sensation of descent is very peculiar. Looking down the track the lower station cannot be seen, because the line bends over a brow, the lower section bein» of steeper grade. As the ear drops oveAhis brow the second stretch appears steeper than it really is, and the first impression is that the car must inevitably leave the track and swing at the end of 'the cable, like a pendulum. In the course of a few feet, however, the illusion disappears; but at first it is certainly somewhat disconcerting.

* As may be supposed, in order to ensure absolute safety, no risks are taken with the cables; they have been designed to withstand a strain many times in excess of that to which they are tested to withstand, a weight of no less than 02 tons. Some of these cable railways are practically no more than lifts, elevating the traveller to an eminence on which is situated some centre of interest or what merely serves as a point of view. Some, however, attain quite imposing lengths, and raise the visitor to a considerable height. On the Burgenstock you have to overcome a difference in level between two stations of 1445 feet, while oh the Muottas-Muraigl, in the Engadine, the elevation is through a matter of 2315 feet. The most important of these lines, however, from the point of altitude, and one which will be greatly appreciated by tourists, is the Niesen, to be opened this year. By its aid you are lifted 5389 feet above the sea-level, and the maximum gradient will be among the heaviest on any of these peculiar lines, for in places it runs to 'O6 feet in 100.

But the mountain railway engineering feat which eclipses all others, remarkable though many undoubtedly are, is the Jungfrau. The summit of this lofty peak is the objective of all mountaineers, and the panorama that is unfolded from its crest over a field of eternal snow and ice is unrivalled in the Alps. The starting point for this line is the terminus of an older mountain railway in the Bernese Oberland-Schiedegg. Detraining from the main line at Interlaken, one is whirled through the valley to Lauterbrunnen over a narrow-guage line, where stiff humps are climbed by rack and pinion. Before he Ims proceed ed for on his run through the rift between the towering peaks, he runs into the Wilderswil station, and can there entrain on the Schynige Platte cog-wheel-ed line, winding round sharp curves and darting in and out among jagged prominences for some four miles and a-half, will lift him on to an open alp right in front of the Jungfrau and its white-capped companions. A little farther on and the narrow-guage line bifurcates, one arm running to Grindewald, whence Sehiedegg can be gained by an alternate mountain route, and the other running to Lauterbrunnen. At the lastnamed station there rises up the ladderlike incline of the Murren railway to one side, while directly opposite is the cog-wheel Wengernalp railway, stretching up the mountain side to Sehiedegg. From the last point one can traverse the first section of the Jungfrau railway as far as Eismeer station, on the Eiger peak. The line is operated upon the cogwheel principle, the motive power being supplied by electricity generated by the harnessing of a mountain torrent. The work of construction upon this railway was beset with such dangers and difficulties as seldom present themselves to the engineer. When it was found impossible to run the thin thread of steel among the slopes of the mountain the engineers plunged boldly into the rock, hewing and Wasting a cavernous tunnel to take them to their objective. In this way they at last gained Eismeer, which is a mere peep-hole in the heart of the mountain.