X-Nico

unusual facts about rack railway



Bavarian PtzL 3/4

The Bavarian Class PtzL 3/4 engines with the Royal Bavarian State Railways (Königlich Bayerische Staats-Eisenbahnen) were rack railway locomotives whose cogwheel drive was designed for working on tracks with a Strub rack.

Counter-pressure brake

Counter-pressure brakes were found especially on steam engines that worked long inclines and on rack railway locomotives (e.g. on the Vienna Kahlenberg Railway (Kahlenbergbahn), relieving brake blocks and tyres from high levels of wear and tear that they would otherwise be subjected to.

Rail transport in Monaco

A rack railway from La Turbie to Monte Carlo through Beausoleil operated from 1894 to 1932, with a station (Monte Carlo) serving the Prinicpality.

São Paulo Railway

An electrified Rack-and-adhesion railway built on the right of way of the abandoned Serra Velha opened in 1974, called Systema Cremalheira-Aderência, transl.: System Rack-and-adhesion

Štrbské Pleso

With extensive parking facilities and a stop on the Tatra trolley and rack railway, it is a starting point for a host of popular hikes including to Kriváň and Rysy.


see also

Bavarian PtzL 3/4

The locomotives remained on their regular route between Erlau and Wegscheid until the closure of this rack railway in 1963.

Class 97

DRG Class 97, a class of German rack railway steam locomotive operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn

ČSD Class EMU 29.0

The rack railway was opened in 1896, closed in 1932, and reopened in 1970 in time for that year's FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, which were held in the area.

Culdee Fell Railway

According to "research" by the Rev. W Awdry, the railway was the brainchild of the tourist-minded Mid Sodor Railway, who had hopes to extend their line beyond Peel Godred to Kirk Machan at the foot of Culdee Fell, where passengers could board a rack railway to the summit.

Passau–Hauzenberg railway

These were Class PtzL 3/4 locomotives, passenger tank engines with a rack railway system, three of the four axles being driven, with the works numbers 4101–4003, 8033.

Timeline of steam power

1812: Blenkinsop develops rack railway system in collaboration with Matthew Murray of Leeds Round Foundry - single-flue boiler; vertical cylinders sunk into boiler.

Württemberg Hz

They were employed on the 1-in-10 Honau-Lichtenstein rack railway, 2.2 km long, which employed a Riggenbach-Klose rack system.