Montserrat Rack Railway
The Montserrat Rack Railway or Cremallera de Montserrat is a mountain railway line north of Barcelona in the Catalonia region of Spain. The line runs from Monistrol to the mountain-top monastery of Montserrat.
A line on this route was originally opened in 1892. After poor financial results and an accident in 1953, this line was closed on May 12, 1957. An aerial cable car was constructed to carry passengers to the monastery in its place, however this became unable to handle the increasing number of visitors to the monastery.
After many years of planning, a program began to rebuild the rack railway in 2001, and the line re-opened in its modern form on June 6, 2003. The line is 5 km (3.1 mi) long and has a rail gauge of 1 m (3 ft 33⁄8 in). The first 1 km (0.6 mi) of the line, between Monistrol and the only intermediate station at Monistrol Vila, is operated by conventional adhesion. The remainder of the line is operated as a rack railway using the Abt system, overcoming a height difference of 550 m (1804 ft) with a maximum gradient of 15.6%. The line is electrified with an overhead supply at 1500 volts dc.
The line is operated by five low-floor electric motor coaches of type Stadler GTW, built by Stadler Rail in Switzerland, and numbered AM1-AM5. These cars are equipped for adhesion and rack propulsion and can each carry up to 200 passengers. They are air-conditioned and have panorama windows offering a good view over the environment. Trains run at up to 30 km/h on the rack section and 45 km/h on the adhesion section. The line also has a 1930 built electric locomotive, E4, transferred from the Vall de Núria Rack Railway for use on works trains.
The line's most significant engineering work is the Pont del Centenari bridge, which is 480 m (1574 ft) long and 5 m (16 ft) wide, crossing the River Llobregat. Its nine sections are between 35 m (114 ft) and 55 m (180 ft) long and it was designed as a lattice of steel tubes to give it a light appearance and minimise its visual impact. It is supported by eight pillars with maximum height of 37 m (121 ft).
The line is operated by the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC), who also operate the railway from Barcelona Plaça d'Espanya station to Manresa, and with which the rack line connects at Monistrol. An hourly service is operated between Monistrol-Enllaç (junction) and the summit, connecting with FGC trains to and from Barcelona and Manresa. Slightly confusingly, the station's building in the valley has a great 'Monistrol Central' sign, whereas the trains display 'Monistrol-Enllaç' on their return from Montserrat. Additional trains operate from Monistrol Vila, where the line has a car park with 1000 spaces, and the summit. A track connection is also provided at Monistrol to allow rack railway cars to run to and from their depot, which is in nearby Martorell.
The FGC also operates two funicular railways from the summit station of the rack railway. One of these ascends to the mountain top, the other descends to a shrine lower down the mountain.
In its first 12 months of operation, the Montserrat Rack Railway carried 462,964 passengers. The heaviest traffic was in August 2003 with 63,692 passengers, and the lightest in February 2004 with 22,996 passengers.
References
- Wikipedia article Cremallera de Montserrat (in German), last updated on 24 February 2005.
- Web page http://www.cremallerademontserrat.com/ and descendants, retrieved 11 March 2005.
