page_title: Horseshoe curve
section_title: Europe
hierarchical_section_title: Horseshoe curve / Examples / Europe
caption_attribution_description: Norsk bokmål: Storegjeltunnelen på riksvei 7
context_page_description: A horseshoe curve is a class of climbing curve in a roadbed which reverses turn direction twice on either side of a single tight curve that varies through an angle of about 180 degrees or more.
  Such curves are more commonly found in a railway line of travel but are also used in roads. The characteristic U shape, or even slight balloon shape, of such a curve resembles a horseshoe, hence the name. On roadways such curves, if the hard curve is tight enough, are typically called hairpin turns.
context_section_description: The Dovre Line, the main line of the Norwegian railway network, has a horseshoe within Grønbogen tunnel from Dombås at the steep hills to the Dovre plateau, standard gauge, single track.
  The Flåm Line, Norway, has a double horseshoe, one inside a tunnel, one in the open, few kilometres below top station, standard gauge, single track.
  The Rauma Line, Norway, has a double horseshoe through the steep and narrow valley at Verma, one inside a tunnel and one that includes the Kylling Bridge, standard gauge, single track.
  Grybów, Poland has a horseshoe curve 2,5 km west of the town.
  Kalisz, Poland has a double horseshoe curve leading the tracks from a flat plateau down to the valley of the Prosna river.
  Between Jelenia Góra and Szklarska Poręba in Poland there is a five-times, elongated horseshoe curve (50°51′19"N, 15°34′17"E). Map
  Newcastle Quayside branch, a goods-only railway from the main line to the river quayside, through a steeply descending horseshoe tunnel.
  The Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn in Germany has a horseshoe curve in Neviges, Velbert on the route between Essen and Wuppertal, known as the Prince William railway.
  The horseshoe curve on the West Highland Line in Scotland between Upper Tyndrum and Bridge of Orchy was built because the engineers of the railway couldn't afford to build a viaduct crossing the remote valley.
  In Slovakia there is a significant number of horseshoe curves on the Banská Bystrica to Turčianske Teplice railway track and on the railway from Zvolen to Turčianske Teplice. More than 20 tunnels and couple of horseshoe curves were built to overcome rough terrain and elevation differences.
caption: Map of Storegjeltunnelen and Dalbergtunnelen in Måbødalen gorge, a complex system of horseshoe curves and tunnels on Norwegian National Road 7.
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