Niklaus Riggenbach
Niklaus Riggenbach ( born May 21, 1817 in Gebweiler (now Guebwiller ) in Alsace; citizens of Rünenberg; † July 25, 1899 in Olten, Switzerland ) was a Swiss engineer, locomotive manufacturer and inventor of the rack railway system Riggenbach (Head rack ) and the counter-pressure brake.
Biography
Niklaus Riggenbach, whose family originally from the Swiss Rünenberg ( canton of Basel-Land ) is derived was born in 1817 in Gebweiler in Alsace. After the early death of his father, his mother moved with her eight minor children back to Switzerland to Basel. With 16 years Niklaus Riggenbach started a apprenticeship as a mechanic and moved to the final apprenticeship in a foreign land. From Lyon 1837 his path led him to Paris, where he took a job. By visiting evening classes, he acquired great proficiency in mathematics and physics. In 1839 he was at the opening of the railway line Paris-St. Germain it and realized his new life goal: He wanted to henceforth devote the construction of locomotives.
In June 1840 he moved to Karlsruhe and found employment in the Keßler'schen Maschinenfabrik. Here he soon rose to the work leader and Leader. In this position he was involved in the construction of not less than 150 locomotives. One of these steam engines was the " Limmat ", one of the first four locomotives, which opened on August 9, 1847 Swiss Northern Railway, the so-called Spanish - Brötli train. This locomotive he had to run to Switzerland and test on the line Zurich -Baden.
In November 1847 the Basle Riggenbach married Emma Socin (* 1824) in the Baden Binzen, as he had completed recruit school in the artillery and risked on Swiss territory was called up for special covenant campaign. 1848 Riggenbach only son was born, but did not occur in father's footsteps, but pastor and university teacher.
When in 1853 the construction of the railway line Basel- Olten began, the Board of the Swiss Central Railway Society elected him head of the machine shop. He undertook missions to England and Austria and examined many steam locomotives. Various improvements in the rail sector bear his name. In 1856 he was master machinist and head of the new main workshop of the Central Railway in Olten, where he now lived with his family. Under his leadership, this workshop has developed into one of the great engineering works of the country. It was here, among other locomotives, railroad cars and bridge elements.
The weak adhesion of the first locomotives on the steep Hauenstein line worried him. As a possible solution for mountain railways Niklaus Riggenbach invented a rack railway. After many experiments, he found that very steep routes can be safely used if you einbaute a rack between the rails of a track into which a toothed wheel of the locomotive. On August 12, 1863 France granted him the patent number 59625th 1869-1871 he built together with the engineers Ferdinand Adolf Naeff and Olivier Zschokke the Vitznau- Rigi -Bahn with its system Riggenbach first mountain railway in Europe. A similar rack railway system used the built shortly before Rigi cable car up Mount Washington.
On the initiative of the Riggenbach Sälischlössli bei Olten was rebuilt in 1870. In 1871 he left the post of workshops conductor to conduct a new factory for the construction of mountain railways in Aarau. In 1882 he created the Elevador do Bom Jesus in Portugal, which is still in operation. From 1883 he worked as a freelance engineer. From his office in Olten, he planned several mountain railways in several continents.
On July 25, 1899 Niklaus Riggenbach died 82 years old. He had received from the municipalities of Olten, Aarau and Trimbach honorary citizenship.
Autobiography
- Niklaus Riggenbach: Memories of an old mechanic.. Olten 1886 5th edition: Rigibahn Society, Vitznau, 1967 edition. Birkenhalde, Winterthur 2009, ISBN 978-3-905172-55-3.