The Semmering railway,
Austria, which starts at
Gloggnitz and leads over the Semmering to Mürzzuschlag was the first mountain railway in
Europe built with a standard gauge track. It is commonly referred to as the
World's first true mountain railway, given the very difficult terrain and the considerable altitude difference that was mastered during its construction. It is still fully functional as a part of the South railway which is operated by the Austrian Federal Railways.
History
The Semmering railway was constructed between 1848 and 1854 by some 20,000 workers under the project's designer and director Carl von Ghega. The construction features 14 tunnels (among them the 1,431 m vertex tunnel), 16 viaducts (several two-story) and over 100 curved stone bridges as well as 11 small iron bridges. The stations and the buildings for the supervisors were often built directly from the waste material produced in the course of tunnel construction.
Across an overall track length of 41 km the Semmering railway overcomes an altitude difference of 460 m; on 60% of its length the gradient is 20-25‰ (2-2.5%, equivalent to a 1-meter difference in altitude on a 40 m route distance), and 16% exhibit a curvature radius of only 190 m. This enormous upswing to the turn of the century and the revaluation of the region as a winter sports area in the first third of the 20th Century were interrupted first by World War I and then by the changed recreational needs of the population.
Therefore this unique culture landscape could be preserved with little change. A trip on the Semmering railway, which is in full use 150 years after its building, still impresses the traveller as a special experience by its varied landscape, the typical style of its mansions and the characteristic sequence of viaducts and tunnel constructions. In 1998 the Semmering railway was added to the list of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Semmering Base Tunnel
On April 25, 2012 ground was broken for the construction of the 27.3km Semmering base tunnel. This tunnel will bypass 41km of the Semmeringbahn. The tunnel is expected to open in 2024, with a total cost of €3.1b.
The Railway in Numismatics
The Semmering alpine railway has been the main motive for many collector coins and medals. One of the most famous and recent ones is the 150 Years Semmering Alpine Railway Coin. The obverse shows two locomotives: a historical and a modern one. The reverse of the coin shows a typical Semmering view. An Engerth steam locomotive just emerged from a tunnel crossing one of the distinctive viaducts.
