Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

TWO REMARKABLE ALPINE MOUNTAIN RAILWAYS. 305 jury. Among the passengers was our pres- ent King, who wrote of the line that it seemed to be the safest that he had ever travelled upon. Naturally, at such an eleva- vented the tunnel scheme maturing. Had the summit line become a permanent one (which could have been done at a further cost of about £500,000), and improved in the matter of widening the gauge, reducing curves, using more powerful locomotives, and modernizing the working, there is little doubt that the summit line would have been capable of maintaining as good and efficient a means of communication as is afforded by the existing tunnel. The cost of working the line would naturally have been greater, but if this cost were capitalized, the total REPRODUCTION OF A COMIC SKETCH ISSUED WHILE THE FELL RAILWAY WAS IN OPERA- TION. Underneath are the words, “ The Fell Railway (train) arrives at the summit of the Mont Cenis without spilling any of its passengers.” tion provision had to be made against interruption by snow, and this was effected by means of covered ways of wood and corrugated iron, or, where there was danger of avalanches, by artificial masonry tunnels built against the side of the moun- tain. Altogether the line was thus protected for a distance of about nine miles. The line ceased running, in accordance with a stipulation in the concessions, when the great tunnel was Economy of , . « the System. °Pened m SeP’ tember 1871 ; but not until it had so fully justified itself as to make many people in Italy think that, had Fell’s system been developed sooner, it would, on account of its far smaller constructional and working costs, have pre- (1,408) VIEW OF THE MÖNCH FROM THE ENTRANCE OF THE SHORT TUNNEL BETWEEN SCHEIDEGG AND EIGERGLETSCHER STATION, JUNGFRAU RAILWAY. 20 VOL. III.