2-995-841 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Semmering Railway - the Weinzettelwand Tunnel, 1860. 'This is a great engineering work constructed through a mountain range to Styria, mainly by means of a series of viaducts and tunnels, and forming one of the links of the line between Vienna and Trieste. The distance over which this portion of the work runs is about seventy-three English miles, and is provided with seven stations. The gradients of the line are exceedingly steep...Crossing the viaduct of Karntnerkogel, the line plunges into a subterranean passage of the same name, and passing along the declivities of the Mörtengraben hills, opposite to which runs the old post-road of Semmering, behind which rise the Schneeberg and Raxalpe hills, the station at Semmering is reached...So peculiar are the gradients of the line that locomotives of a special description have been constructed with a power of 1000 cwt. Austrian. The line has been constructed under the superintendence of Karl von Ghega, Inspector of Public Works'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.