Virtual Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Sunday - Pilatus - The Steepest Railway in the World


While waiting for our ride to the summit Paul is enjoying the daily Magnum ice cream on a stick

The Pilatus railway is the steepest in the world with a maximum gradient of 48% and an average of 35%.
The line runs from Alpnachstad, on Lake Alpnach, to a terminus near the Esel summit of Pilatus at an elevation of 2,073 m (6,801 ft). The railway uses the Locher rack system consisting of a double sided horizontal rack rail, the railcars having two pinions, one on either side of the rack.  This system prevents the car from lifting on the steep gradients.  The cars, which were built in 1937 (8), 1962 (1) and 1968(1), are now being replaced with new.

At Alpnachstad, the Pilatus Railway connects with steamers on Lake Lucerne and with trains on the Brünigbahn line of Zentralbahn. On our first attempt to visit we found the Brunig line train in the Luzern terminus and got into an empty compartment - and waited and waited.  A little after train time we realized that we were in the wrong part of the train and only the front part had left.  Rather than wait half an hour we decided to go train watching at Goschenen instead - such is the flexibility of train watching in Switzerland.

This short video gives an excellent idea of the ride to the summit mostly from the drivers cab.





Arriving at the summit


The views are staggering




To get back to Luzern it is possible to take a cable car then a couple of buses but we choose to take another ride on this amazing line.

The drop off is fearsome

Ready for the off



On the way down we have a meet with upbound trains.  It is common for one train to follow another. With low speeds involved the risk of collision is very low indeed.
As our train comes into the Alpnachstadt terminus the connecting boat is getting ready to tie up. It takes a short walk under a major highway for us to comfortable make the boat which was right on time for its one minute stop

There are many available videos of the Pilatusbahn. Here are a couple:

Good cab ride


Good views


Excellent short showing how the switches are changed by revolving and how the rack works

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