Re: Steepest train/tram line

["Roderick Smith" <rodsmith@werple.net.au>]

Ingliston (Victoria) is neither steep uphill nor absurdly fast downhill by
world standards; just by local ones.

I have found some of my items from an earlier thread on steep lines, from
mid 1996:

IG: I need to know if there is any standard gauge railway in the world
currently running on a gradient equal to or steeper than 1 in 18 (55
promille) over a distance of more than 16 km.

HS: One line which possibly is steeper, is the Vordernberg - Eisenerz line
in Austria which was converted from a rack railway to friction only when
steam traction ended in the early 1970s.  I do not know the gradient. 
Another line where the grade was steeper was Dillenburg - Herrnberg -
Hirzenhain in Germany, with 1 in 17.  That line was steam traction (class
94) with pressure brakes system Riggenbach until about 1973.  Its service
was maybe abandoned just a few years ago.

HE: There is steeper line somewhere in the north-east of the Tchechian
republic.  It is a converted rack line and there was an article about it in
the german "Eisenbahn Magazin" recently.  But I don't know the length. 
Former rack railways might tend to be shorter than Norwegian Flam line?

BF: Are you trying to see if anything beats the Myrdal - Flam line?  If any
of you in the group go to Norway, don't miss it.  It's about 45 degrees
[wrong - about 1 in 18 or 1 in 20] right down the side of a fiord.

RS:
* Close, but not quite, is the Hakone-Tozan tram from Odawara to Gora (15
km), serving Hakone national park (80 km south-west of Tokyo).  It is sg. 
The lower section is no more than 1 in 25 (4%); the upper 9 km climbs
steadily at 1 in 12.5 (8%), all by adhesion.  The line is covered in July
79 Modern Tramway, in part five of an article on steep adhesion lines.
* Also mentioned is Pöstlingbergbahn (Linz, Austria).  It is sg, but is
only 3 km; it averages 8.7%.
* Another steep line is Uetlibergbahn (near Zürich, Switzerland); it is sg.
* The MOB climb from Montreux to Les Cases is 17 km at about 6.5%, but is
only metre gauge.
* Another Japanese example is the Karuizawa line, formerly rack (and I
believe about to be bypassed), 11 km at 6.7%.  It is only 1067 mm gauge.

-- 
Regards
Roderick Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor