REMARKABLE RAILWAY.

Colonist, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11737, 20 September 1906, Page 4

REMARKABLE RAILWAY.

The remarkable Jungfrau railway, which will carry passengers practically to t.he summit of the Jungfratij is described by Mr H. G. Archer in the "Pall Mall Magazine." Its projector, Herr Gujcr-Zeiler, of Zurich, was not an engineer, but a financier. The story goes that he was strolling down the mountain path that leads from the Shilthorn to Murren, and in course of it, with. the Jungfrau steadily in front of him, the inspiration ,came to scale it with a railway; All sorts of objections and scruples were raised. Herr Zeller had first to satisfy the Swiss authorities that no evil consequences would ensue to passengers by being carried 6000 ft upwards in a couple of hours. Then there was the aesthetic objection that the monutain scenery would be disfigured • but this was set at rest by the prorilise to run the railway in tunnel all the way, and hide even the stations away inside the mountains. At last Herr Zeller secured his concession, on December 21st, 1804. The work was begun in 1897. From the fifth sta- ! tion, 31, 142 ft above sea level, the i line will enter the rocky mass formiDg the Jungfrau summit, wind spirally round the uppermost block of f.he mountain, and emerge in the I rocks on a plateau well-known to the guides at 13,000 ft above sea level. This platform of a thousand square feet will be 239 ft below the snowcovered summit, and is free from snow during the summer months. From this level, a perpendicular lift will convey passengers to the highest pinnacle of the Jungfrau, 13,668 ft above the level of the sea. The view to be obtained embraces, it is gaid, the whole Alpine region of Switzerland. Tbe mountain was ascended for the first time in 1811, and only four times in the next halfcentury. By 1911 it is estimated that passengers will be carried to its summit for about £2 a head. The fourth section was opened for traffic last year, and the fifth is abont completed, but beyond that progress will be much slower, bci'ise the rock to be tunnelled is e-\c •;• Mngly hard.