The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-10-18

The Jungfrau railway is, however, to be carried LID to a height of 13,420 feet above the sea, or more than S,00OO feet beyond the line of perpetual snow, and amid glacial surroundings Of 9 most magnificent character. The Jungfrau line has now reached the station of Eismeer. 1O,O42 feet, wherefore it has the distinction of being the most ele- vated railway in Europe. The highest railway in the world is, however, the Central Peruvian the eliminating point of which occurs in a tunnel at an ele- vation of 15574 feet above sea level. The Peruvian line, though. is adresion throughout, despite the fact that for 1SS miles the gradients vary beWeen 5 and 6 per cent.
 Till the Jungfau railway was planned it was the fashion to avoid tunnels, as far as possible, on Swiss mountain railways. The air line, of course en- sures the better views; but when it was decided to carry tourists to that once inaccessible summit, the dread of disfiguring the mountain and, above all, the insuperable difficulties that would have attended the work in the open on a wild waste of snow and ice, constantly swept by avalanches, con- pelled the engineers to go back on tun- nelling, which begin at Eigergletscher, 11-4 miles from the. starting place, and continues to the terminus of the rail way proper, six miles distant, Whither passengers will complete the accent by means of an elevator
 The first mountain railway to employ electricity as the motive power was the Mont Saleve, near Geneva, the suc- cess of which established a firm ! foundation for future efforts in that direction. The advantages of electric traction comprise a better relation be- tween paving and dead weight and ab- sence of disfiguring smokeclods, while the rack gearing works more safely. The smoke of steam locomotives on heavy grades often becomes a serious l nuisance to passengers and in the | longer tunnels 1t may be positively 1 dangerous. On the Schynige Platte | railway curtains are drawn across the entrance to the tunnells as soon as a train has entered, which refinement lessons the draught and so prevents the smoke from we'll nigh suffocating the occupants of the carriages. Other l electrically worked lines are the Cor nergrat and the Engelberg.
 Beyond the gradient of 25 per cent. the rack system is impracticable, part l ly because the locomotive has to be lconstructed disproportionately htavy and partly because of the danger that the pinlons will mount the rack Cable or funicular railways are necessary to negotiate gradients varying between | 25 and 65 per cent, the first of which the Lausanne4Duchy, was opened in 1877. There are now about forty of these lines, which are commonly oper- ated by twin cables, as follows; Each end of the drawing cable is attached to the cars, one set of which dcscends, while the second cable is used as bal last for regulating the weight
 The carriages are set in motion by l the overweight given to the descend- ing train which when occupied by pas sengers or ballasted with a sufficient l quantity of water makes the train at the bolton ascend. Funicular railways are almost invaribly furnished with a central rack for braking purposes alone but on the Stanserhorn line which is
 the steepest yet built, the maximnm grade being 62 per cent, the running rails automatically grip the wheel Han-
 ges if speed limit be exceeded, while
 should the cable break, there are jaws
 on the car which automatically screw
 themselves down on the tapered head
 of the rail.
 Lastly an entirely novel form of
 mountain railway is in course of con-
 struction up the Wetterhorn, starting
 from the foot of the upper glacier at
 Crindewald This is an electrically
 worked elevated monorall, from which
 the car bodies are suspended by means
 of running gear. The cable is station
 ary, the tractive effort being exerted
 by motors on the moving vehicles. The
 alignment approximates the perpende-
 ular When completed this extraordi-
 nary railway will convey tourists
 through midair up to the Gleckstein
 Club huts situated 7,G95 feet above sea level.