Štrbské Pleso – Štrba rack railway
The cog railway Štrba - Štrbské Pleso (Slovak Ozubnicová železnica Štrba - Štrbské Pleso ) is a narrow gauge rack railway line in Slovakia's High Tatras. This tourist train starts in Štrba railway station on the former Košice- Berger track and into the spa Štrbské Pleso on the same lake. In Štrbské Pleso the track ends in a joint station with the Tatra Electric Railway.
- 2.1 history
- 2.2 Vehicles
The old rack railway
History
With the commissioning of the Košice- Berger railway in 1871 and the High Tatras received a first rail link. With the tourism then incipient emerged ( German: Czech Pleso ) on Štrbské Pleso first hotel and the place was appointed spa. Later, hiking trails and mountain huts created.
The Košice- Berger train developed under the direction of Emil Várnai the project of a meter-gauge cog railway, which Štrbské Pleso to the Csorba station (now Štrba ) should connect. On July 30, 1895, the track was licensed by the Hungarian Ministry of Commerce. The construction was done fairly quickly, so that the line was already opened on 30 July 1896. The operating company founded the Košice- Berger train the Csorbatoi Fogaskerekü Vasut ( slowak. Ozubnicová železnica Štrbského plesa, German Csorbasee - train). Companies was the route only during the spa season from June to September and the skiing season in the winter. For more than six months in the year rested traffic.
From the 1920s emerged with the motor vehicle traffic and an intense competition the railway was unprofitable. In 1924 the route along with the Košice- Berger web then become the property of the Czechoslovak State Railways ČSD. The Tatranská founded in 1927 elektrická vicinálna dráha ( TEVD ) took over the operation of the electrical Tatra train, but rejected the takeover of inefficient and obsolete gear train.
During the Great Depression of the traffic was stopped definitively on the cog railway on 14 September 1932. On 11 December 1936, the concession went out for operation. In the 1940s, the line was then dismantled.
Rolling stock
The Vienna Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf delivered in 1896 two wheel steam locomotives with factory numbers 1012 and 1013, showing the numbers 1 and 2 received. The ČSD ordered the locomotives later than U 29.001 and 29.002 U. Largely identical locomotives were manufactured for the Achensee Railway in Austria, where they are still in use today.
In addition, there were four cars and two freight cars, which were built of all- in Budapest.
Specifications
- Track width: 1000 mm
- Rack system: Riggenbach
- Distance: 4.75 km
- Length of the rack section: 4.05 km
- Largest slope: 127 ‰
- Difference in altitude: 444 m
The new cog railway
History
Began in 1968 in conjunction with the Nordic World Ski Championships 1970 in Štrbské Pleso plans for a reconstruction of the Zubačka. Two-thirds of the old route could be used for new construction again, the rest of the route was realigned. In Štrbské Pleso a new joint station with the Tatra electric railway was built. A crossover is used for overpasses of the vehicles off the cog. At the train station Štrba a new departure hall for the cog railway trains was built, which still today after 30 years service life exudes a quiet elegance. Was electrified track with 1500 V DC, as it is also used in the Tatra Electric Railway. On 12 February 1970, the company was opened on the new rack railway to Štrbské Pleso.
Rolling stock
The three new cog railway trainsets were delivered by the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works SLM in Winterthur. The trains consist of a control car R-series 29.0 (now BR 905.95 ), which is uphill queued, and the railcar of the EM series 29.0 (now BR 405.95 ). The cars have three doors providing a faster boarding and alighting is possible to only one side each.