page_title: Luzern–Stans–Engelberg railway line
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Luzern–Stans–Engelberg railway line / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Schifflände (Schiffsanlegestelle) in Stansstad am Vierwaldstättersee, Schweiz. Das Gebäude diente bis 1964 als Bahnhof der Stansstad—Engelberg-Bahn, das Gleisfeld befand sich links neben dem Bahnhof. English: Ship landing place at Lake Lucerne in Stansstad, Switzerland. Until 1964 the building served as railway station of Stansstad—Engelberg-Bahn, tracks were at left.
context_page_description: The Luzern–Stans–Engelberg railway line is a Swiss narrow gauge rack railway that connects Luzern, via Hergiswil and Stans, to the resort of Engelberg. The line was built by the Stansstad–Engelberg Railway, which became the Luzern–Stans–Engelberg Railway when the line was extended to Luzern.
  Today the line is owned by the Zentralbahn railway company, which also owns the Brünig line. Trains on the Luzern–Stans–Engelberg line use Brünig line tracks to access Luzern from Hergiswil.
context_section_description: In 1890 the concession to build a line was given from Stansstad to Engelberg. The opening of the Stansstad-Engelberg-Bahn (StEB) followed in 1898. The opening of the railway resulted in the early demise of the Stansstad–Stans tramway, which connected Stansstad and Stans between 1893 and 1903.
  The line was electrified from its beginning, making it the longest electrically operated railway line of Switzerland at that time. Because of the maximum gradient of 25% on the rack section between Grafenort, Engelberg and Engelberg, it was decided to use three-phase alternating current.
  Brown Boveri delivered seven 52 kW motorcoaches, with wooden bodies and side doors to each compartment, between 1898 and 1900, numbered 1 to 7. They also delivered, between 1898 and 1913, five 4-wheeled 110 kW rack bankers which were used beyond Grafenort on the steep uphill section, to assist the motorcoaches up the hill. These were also numbered 1 to 5. All these vehicles survived until 1964.
  The railway ended at that time in Stansstad at the Lake of Lucerne. Passengers had to continue by lake steamer or bus. To connect the railway with the national rail network in Hergiswil, where the metre gauge Brünigbahn of SBB had a station, a concession was passed in 1956. However, it took some time to find the money to build the line to Hergiswil. To resolve the problems of old loans, a new company was incorporated in 1959, still named Elektrische Bahn Stansstad-Engelberg. In 1960 work on the Lopper tunnel started and on 27 August 1964, the last three-phase train reached Engelberg. The rack line was rebuilt to Brünigbahn standards and a new overhead line for 15 kV 16⅔ Hz was built. On 19 December 1964, the line went back into business as the Luzern-Stans-Engelberg-Bahn (LSE). The new motor coaches were built for the same maximum speed as the contemporary Brünigbahn motive power (75 km/h or 47 mph).
  In 2005 the LSE merged with the Swiss Federal Railway's Brünig line to form the Zentralbahn railway company. Formally, the Swiss Federal Railway sold the Brünig line to the LSE which paid for it with its own shares. LSE was subsequently renamed Zentralbahn and 2/3 of its shares are now owned by SBB.
  In December 2010, the Grafenort to Engelberg Tunnel opened between Grafenort and Engelberg, bypassing the very steep 25% incline. The bypass resulted in the closure of the former stations of Obermatt ZB and Grünenwald. In late 2012, a new tunnel route was opened between Kriens Mattenhof station and the approaches to Luzern station. The tunnel replaces a less direct surface alignment, allowing the abolition of several congested level crossings and the provision of double track. A new station, Luzern Allmend/Messe, built within the tunnel, serves the Swissporarena.
caption: The former terminus of the Stansstad-Engelberg-Bahn at Stansstad, now devoid of rails but still used by lake shipping.
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