Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi-Bahnen on Mount Rigi.
Rigi Railways (German: Rigi Bahnen) is a railway company that operates a group of railways on the mountain Rigi, located between two of the arms of Lake Lucerne, in Switzerland. They include two standard gauge rack railways, the VitznauRigi Bahn (VRB) and the ArthRigi Bahn (ARB), along with the Luftseilbahn WeggisRigi Kaltbad (LWRK) cable car.
Reaching a height of 1,752 metres (5,748 ft) above sea level, the Rigi Railways are the highest standard gauge railway in Europe. They are also the highest railway in both cantons of Lucerne and Schwyz. The VitznauRigi Bahn is also notable as the first mountain rack railway in Europe, and even the second in the world, after the Mount Washington Cog Railway in the United States.
A 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. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with this rack rail. This allows the trains to operate on steep grades above 10%, which is the maximum for friction-based rail. Most rack railways are mountain railways, although a few are transit railways or tramways built to overcome a steep gradient in an urban environment.
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. This used a rack and pinion system designed and patented in 1811 by John Blenkinsop.The first mountain cog railway was the Mount Washington Cog Railway in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, which carried its first fare-paying passengers in 1868. The track was completed to reach the summit of Mount Washington in 1869. The first mountain rack railway in continental Europe was the Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn on Mount Rigi in Switzerland, which opened in 1871. Both lines are still running.