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| Jungfraujoch from our patio and our destination today. |
After breakfast today we walked across the street from our hotel and found the platform for the first of a series of cog wheel trains that make the slow and steep journey to the top of Junfraujoch. Jungfraujoch is the highest beak in the Alps and has a train station at the top inside the mountain. I have always wondered about how the cog wheel railway worked. Basically the coaches each have an electric motor with a gear that meshes with a geared track between the normal two railroad rails. This allows the cars to propel themselves up very steep climbs such as the one we are doing today to the top of the Alps.
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| Cog rail detail |
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| The cog rail runs between two rails |
As the cog train climbs and climbs the scenery becomes more spectacular and varied. Eventually we reach our first station, the town of Wengen at 4,300 feet altitude.
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| Wengen, elevation 4100 ft on the way to 12,000 ft |
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| The countryside from the train |
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| The cog rail passes pver many small streams |
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| Still climbing |
As we get above the snow line it's interesting to see farns up here with Swiss cows and the clanging bells secured around their necks, The rails also enters under quite a few concrete and steel avalanche sheds which serve to shelter the rails from the severe snows of winter.
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| An approaching snow shed as seen from the train |
Up near the top of Jungfraujoch there is a station built into the inside of the mountain. I had a chance to get off the train and grab a few pics both of the train inside the mountain and out an observation porthole built into the train station.
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| Train Station inside the mountain |
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| View out one of the port holes in the enclosed station |
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| We Have Arrived |
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| A reward once the top is reached |
All this was built 100 years ago, It's hard to imagine any proposal today to hollow out the inside of one of Europe's highest mountains getting anywhere with the environmental crowd. In addition to the granite mountain getting bored and drilled out, the section of the mountain which is a permanent glacier was also bored out with a sequence of tunnels and ice rooms. It's a lot of fun walking on ice with walls and ceilings of ice.
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| Inside the Glacier |
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| Inside the Glacier |
