The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-10-18
MOUNTAIN RAILROADS.
FIRST SUCCESSFUL ONES BUILT
 IN SWITZERLAND.

-Electricity Employed as Motive
 Power.
 Switzerland is the home of mountain railways, which originated thirty odd years ago, and to Swiss engineers we must look for everything essentially novel and essentially enterprising in connection with this branch of engineering. Mount Rigi, says the London Globe, was the first to submit to the iron girdle, and everybody is ac- quainted with the astonishing success achieved by the railway from Vitznau to the summit. Strictly speaking, how ever, this was not the first mountain railway to be built.
 The pioneer attempt to carry a rail- way up the side of mountain was the old High Peak line, in Derbyshire, which was constructed on Fells system in 1863. The theoretical limit beyond which an adhesion locomotive cannot pull more than it's own weight is per cent, but the practical limit is con- siderably greater, although where the gradients are long and sustained it is bad policy to go beyond 1 in 40, or 1-2 per cent. Fell endeayored to overcome the difficulty of lack of adhesion, that is, the amount of friction between tire and rail necessary for propulsion by using smooth central rail and provid- ing the engine and cars with horizontal wheels that rolled along it's side. The High Peak railway proving fairly successful for the transport of minerals the inventor next built, and opened in 1S67 a line on the same principle to convey passengers to the summit of Mont Cenis, but on its steep grades the extra adhesion proved totaly insuffi- cient
 To change the smooth central rail for 8 race the idea of Riggenbach, was only small step, and when once this step had been taken, as in the case of the Rigi railway the first section of which was opened May 22, 1871, a finely practical solution of the problem has been found. The Rigl railway there- fore enjoys the distinction of being the first mountain rack railway, and it has admirably fulfilled it's purpose, which was to afford large numbers an easy and time saving opportunity of enjoy ing first class panoramic view of the lower ranges of the Alps.
 The large batch of mountain rack lines which followed after the Rigi en- terprise, except in minior details, formed no new idea. It was the same l song, with merely variations of the 1 tune, and till the advent of the Corner grat project none ventured beyond the lower ranges of the Alps. Riggenbach's s rack is formed by V shaped bars; fixed l to the sleepers and turned back to back, while between the bars are rivet- ed circular to the rings at four inch | intervals. However, since the time when it began it's victorious career on the Rigi this rack itself has been i'm l proved upon and has found several ri vals. The principal railways equipped | with the original Riggenbach rack are the Vitznau and Arth-Rigi, Pruning EngeIberg, Schynige Platte and Trait i aux Planches, while the Bernese Ober. land and the Wengern Alp have the l improved pattern, which substitutes 1 small bars for the circular rungs.
 The Apt rack, which for long time was the serious rival of the Kisgen. bach, Is found on the Cornergrat, Rot. horn, Zermatt. Generoso, Aigle Leysin 1 Bex WiIlars and Saleve railways. This rack is not built in ladder form, bu 1 consists of two or more steel plates set on edge, with spaces cut out ot them, in which the cog wheels or pin ions of the locomotive engage. The cog wheels are therefore, in constant actior with the rack, an arrangement thai 1 conduces toward smooth motion. Fur. | ther, the Apt rack possesses the unique advantage that on the sleeper gradients several rack plates can be placed parallel, which naturally renders tht working stronger and safer. Wher more than two plates are used the teeth are Staggered" or set so as tC break joint, the tooth of each plate being opposite the space of another.
 A third form of rack is the Locher introduced by Col, Locher and em. ployed only on the Mont Pilatus Rail. way where the gradients attain the ex. traordinary steepness of AS per cent. Il lS pNNuAlcIl III lltlN HE Ilo tCCLl pltiNtN horizontally on both sides of the rail IA new form of rack rail, known as the Strub, has been adopted by the Jung frau Railway, and is the pattern select ed for the projected railway up Mon Blanc. A rail of the ordinary run. ming type is employed, the teeth being cut in it's head which Is made cores pondingly higher than usual. It is be lieved that all future rack railways vii be equipped with the strub rack, as i forms the strongest, cheapest ant most simple yet devised.
 The American tourist has discovered a new way of descending rack lines il his own country namely by means O a slide board, which is a plank jus
 big enough to sit upon with flange that hold 1t to the rack rail. The thicl grease on the latter allays all friction and the force of gravity does the rest The story is told of a telegraph opera tor who was wont to descend tn
 Mount Washington Railway in thi manner, accomplishing the three mill run in three minutes. However, on night when travelling at full speed h. collided with a porcupine which Wa eating the fat of the cograil The slid CT kept his seat, but he will never for get the taste of porcupine spikes.
 A few of the Swiss lines, notably tn, Pruning and Zermatt, are mixed racl and adhesion and the locomotives hav a separate mechanical arrangement fo each, 8 pair of outside cylinders actuat l r1 IL.