The Mittenwald Railway, popularly also known as the Karwendel Railway, is without doubt one of the most spectacular railway lines in the Alps. It runs from Tyrol to neighbouring Bavaria, or to be more precise from Innsbruck to Garmisch- Partenkirchen via Seefeld. On the occasion of the 100 anniversary of the Mittenwald Railway, the Post Office sends its own congratulations in the form of a commemorative stamp. Taken from an old postcard, the motif shows a train in front of one of the most impressive sections of the entire line, the Martinswand and the tunnel of the same name.
At the end of the 1880s, the engineer and building entrepreneur Josef Riehl submitted a project to the Imperial and Royal Ministry for Trade and the Economy to build a line from Innsbruck, initially to Hall and then, after a loop-line and mainly in tunnels, to Seefeld. In order to obtain the contract for the project, he risked both years of disputes concerning the financing of the project and huge sums of money without any guarantee of ever getting anything back. In the State Treaty of Austria Hungary with Bavaria of 22 November 1904, account was also taken of the Mittenwald Railway. The plans for the section between Innsbruck and Reith were finished in 1907, but disputes still continued with the supporters of a Fern line over the Fern Pass. When Riehl finally obtained the authorities’ consent to the construction of the Mittenwald Railway on the Austro-Hungarian side of the border, he set up a joint venture with the builder Wilhelm Carl von Doderer to carry out the works. The contract covered all the facilities necessary for the operation of the railway – not only the construction of the line but also the acquisition of the land, the rolling stock, the electrical equipment and a power station on the Ruetzbach.
In contrast, the Bavarian section between Garmisch and Mittenwald was based on a contract awarded in 1896 by the Mittenwald District Council to the “Localbahnactien-Gesellschaft in Munich to prepare a railway project concerning the further continuation of the Murnau–Garmisch–Partenkirchen local railway as far as Mittenwald. This section commenced operations on 1 July 1912, initially only with steam locomotives, since neither the power station nor the electric locomotives were ready. On the Austrian side, in contrast, electric traction was immediately used from 28 October 1912. The Mittenwald Railway as one of the first railways to be operated with high-voltage single phase alternating current had a huge influence on the standards for electrical railways in central Europe. Today, the section through this delightful countryside is above all of significance for local and tourist traffic, while international long-distance trains between Munich and Innsbruck mostly use the route via Rosenheim and Kufstein.
the attachments to this post:
Mittenwaldbahn
Pentru a putea adăuga comentarii trebuie să fii membru al altmarius !
Alătură-te reţelei altmarius