The Pilatus Railway climbs to Pilatus Kulm using the world’s steepest cogwheel railway track.
The line opened in 1889 and rises from Alpnachstad to the summit area of Mount Pilatus in central Switzerland. Its maximum gradient is about 48 percent, or 480 per mille, an exceptionally steep incline for a railway.
To prevent the train from slipping, the railway uses a special horizontal-toothed rack system developed by Eduard Locher. The locomotive’s gears engage with the rack between the rails rather than using the more common rack arrangement.
Pilatus Railway is often compared with Switzerland’s Rigi and Gornergrat railways, but those lines are different mountain railways with less extreme gradients and different routes.