In 1885, he founded his own civil engineering company. Abt worked for Riggenbach at his works in Olten and later at his IGB rack locomotive company. The Abt system was devised by Carl Roman Abt, a Swiss locomotive engineer. įunicular wheelset with Abt rack and pinion brake The Riggenbach system suffers from the problem that its fixed ladder rack is more complex and expensive to build than the other systems.įollowing the success of the Vitznau–Rigi Railway, Riggenbach established the Maschinenfabrik der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Bergbahnen (IGB) – a company that produced rack locomotives to his design. It uses a ladder rack, formed of steel plates or channels connected by round or square rods at regular intervals. The Riggenbach system is similar in design to the Marsh system. Following the construction of a prototype locomotive and test track in a quarry near Bern, the Vitznau–Rigi Railway opened on. Eager to boost tourism in Switzerland, the government commissioned Riggenbach to build a rack railway up Mount Rigi. During this time, the Swiss Consul to the United States visited Marsh's Mount Washington Cog Railway and reported back with enthusiasm to the Swiss government. Riggenbach was granted a French patent in 1863 based on a working model which he used to interest potential Swiss backers. The Riggenbach rack system was invented by Niklaus Riggenbach working at about the same time as, but independently from Marsh. The first mountain rack railway in continental Europe was the Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn on Mount Rigi in Switzerland, which opened in 1871. The track was completed to reach the summit of Mount Washington in 1869. state of New Hampshire, which carried its first fare-paying passengers in 1868. The first mountain cog railway was the Mount Washington Cog Railway in the U.S. This used a rack and pinion system designed and patented in 1811 by John Blenkinsop. The first cog railway was the Middleton Railway between Middleton and Leeds in West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, where the first commercially successful steam locomotive, Salamanca, ran in 1812. Most rack railways are mountain railways, although a few are transit railways or tramways built to overcome a steep gradient in an urban environment.

This allows the trains to operate on steep grades above 10%, which is the maximum for friction-based rail. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with this rack rail. Functioning of the rack and pinion on the Strub systemĪ rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails.

10 ft e track rails