New world record set on Swiss heritage line
A NEW world record for the longestever passenger train has been set on a UNESCO World Heritage line in the Swiss Alps.
Following eight months of preparation, on October 29 the record was set on Switzerland’s metre-gauge Rhaetian Railway’s (RhB) Albula Line. The 2085-yard long (about 1.2-mile) train comprised 25 four-car Stadler Capricorn EMUs, making 100 vehicles and weighing 2990 tonnes in total.
It set off from the Albula Tunnel in Preda at 2.20pm and reached its destination, crossing the 213ft-high and 446ft-long Landwasser Viaduct just outside Filisur, at 3.30pm.
The event was held to mark the 175th anniversary of the first domestic railway opening in Switzerland and the engineering achievements and multiple scenic beauties of the route.
It was staged as a festival in the mountain valley, and about 3000 spectators watched the train wind its way round the line’s many sharp curves, spiral tunnels, and viaducts at a speed of between 18-21mph on a giant screen at Bergün, about halfway along the route. Crowds also hiked and cycled to vantage points to watch the record-breaking train pass by.
Requiring seven drivers and 21 technicians, it crossed 48 bridges and 22 tunnels, completing the 151/2 miles in less than 45 minutes. A Guinness World Records official was on hand to verify the attempt, which was broadcast during a two-hour programme on Blick TV, and was also featured by numerous TV stations around the globe.
RhB director Renato Fasciati said: “After intensive preparation, we are overjoyed to have achieved this world record. Not only did we have a wonderful railway festival here in Bergün, but we were also able to present ourselves around the world as a fascinating and innovative mountain railway thanks to our partners, sponsors, and an incredibly dedicated team.”
On the festival site, model manufacturer Märklin staged the world record train in G scale, using 25 Capricorn LGB trains and a length of 262 feet on a scale of 1:22.5.
Meanwhile, as the record was being set in Switzerland, Derek and Julia
Boswell, the British owners of the HOm gauge Andeer Line, which is modelled on a section of this route, came up with the idea of emulating the attempt using model maker PECO’s British-made HOm track at the Pecorama attraction at Beer, in East Devon.
Aided by other RhB modellers, a comparable-length train more than 65 feet long and using 107 vehicles was assembled, with ‘distributed power’ in the form of two Bemo ‘Allegra’ units, one at the head of the train and one halfway along, and controlled separately. Before invited guests and members of the public, and also broadcast live on social media, it was successfully run for more than two full 92ft circuits of the layout at scale speed. It is believed to be the longest train in HOm run on an existing layout rather than a specially prepared test track.
The Boswells said: “The whole idea of doing this was just as a bit of fun to support the highly impressive feat that the Swiss were trying to achieve to mark their anniversary. It ended up being a bigger event than we thought, but on a smaller scale…”
The Rhaetian Railway in Albula and Bernina links two historic rail lines that cross the Swiss Alps through two spectacular passes. UNESCO has described the route as representing “an exemplary railway development for the disenclavement of the Central Alps at the beginning of the 20th century” which “constitutes an outstanding ensemble.”
The previous record was set in Belgium in 1991. A one-off National Belgian Railway Company train more than a mile long was hauled 38.9 miles from Ghent to Ostend by an electric locomotive, in support of a Belgian cancer research charity.