MOST REMARKABLE RAILWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 172, 23 July 1898, Page 3 (Supplement)

MOST REMARKABLE RAILWAY.

IT CLIMBS THE AUSTRIAN ALPS

AND ITS MOTIVE POWER IS

A BALLOON,

The most remarkable railway in the world has for its motive power not steam or electricity, but a balloon.

Stranger still, the official stamp of approval has just been put upon this most marvellous railroad, which goes to and from the summit of Hochstauffen Mountain at Bad-Reichen-hall, the well-known watering-place in the Austrian Alps. The Aerostatic railway—to give it its correct desig-nation-—owes its inception to the wellknown inventor, Herr Volderauer, who had long ago convinced the experts that his scheme was perfectly feasible and safe. A. single rail guides the cars and keeps the balloon with its load

captive, the cars gripping the rail at the sides and underneath the flange. At about every fifteen feet the line is firmly anchored. In descending the mountain, of course, gravity is the propelling force, water-ballast being taken aboard at the tipper end to counter-balance the buoyancy of the balloon. The cock on the water tank of the car can be opened by the operator at any time. The tank carries about 800 pounds of water, and tank and car together weigh about 600 pounds. The balloon is sixty-seven feet in diameter, and exerts a liftingcapacity of something over 11,000 pounds. Weights, also, can be taken aboard and discharged at the various stations along the line. At the foot of the track are the gas tank and generator. The summit of the Hoehstauffen offers a sublimely beautiful view; but before the advent of the Aerostatic railway the climb was both long and tedious. It was only attempted by experienced mountaineers.