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20-753: Even before the Vitznau–Rigi rack railway was opened in 1871, the Rigi Massif was a major tourist attraction, with a number of grand hotels occupying various locations on the massif. One of these was at the summit of the Scheidegg peak, which was not served by either the Vitznau–Rigi line or the Arth–Rigi rack railway that followed it. In order to provide easier access for its guests, the Rigi–Scheidegg railway

40-428: A direct connection to the standard gauge Vitznau–Rigi line. Instead, the two lines met at right angles, and provision was made for the transfer of passengers and goods. Although three steam locomotives were built by Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM) for the opening of the line, two were found sufficient to operate it, so the third sold to an unknown purchaser in 1884. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914,

60-534: A lot of traversers, as its rack railway system does not allow switches. Sydney Tramway Museum , Sydney, Australia has a traverser between depot roads 4 to 8 and to allow access to their workshop facilities (roads 9 and 10). Transfer tables are extensively used in the Mechelen workshops of the Belgian Railways NMBS/SNCB. Traversers are common on ridable miniature railways to access

80-521: A single track, without the need for points that could take up a much larger area. In Europe, there were traversers at the terminal platforms at Birmingham Moor Street station , at Rossio railway station in Lisbon and at the former Gare de la Bastille terminus in Paris . These were installed to release locomotives from arriving passenger trains to the adjoining track. They had three parallel tracks on

100-696: A track that ran parallel with the track of the ARB to the common terminus in Rigi Kulm. Both railways were once strictly separated and competitors. The only connection was a transfer table in front of the joint depot building on Rigi Kulm. It was not until 1990 that a connecting track was built between the ARB and the VRB in Rigi Staffel. This was the beginning of the merger, which was completed in 1992. The VRB switched to electric traction in 1937 and an overhead line

120-400: A traverser, consists of a single length of track that can be moved from side to side, in a direction perpendicular to the track. There are often multiple tracks on one side of the table and a single or multiple track(s) on the other. They are often found in yards with locomotive maintenance facilities. The table allows a shed with multiple stalls for locomotives or carriages to be served by

140-705: The Arth–Rigi railway line , which runs on the other side of the mountain, and the Weggis–Rigi Kaltbad cable car ( Luftseilbahn Weggis–Rigi Kaltbad , LWRK). The Vitznau–Rigi railway (VRB) was opened on 21 May 1871 as the Rigibahn and the first mountain railway in Europe. The first rack railway of Europe had already been opened in the quarry of Ostermundigen in 1870. The quarry was officially opened for marketing reasons only in October 1871. The Vitznau–Rigi Railway

160-531: The Locher rack system do not allow normal switches and transfer tables or rotary switches are used instead, as on the Pilatus Railway . A transfer table contains two tracks with different configurations. The table is moved sideways or rotated to choose the configuration that connects the track that the incoming train will be traveling from and to. Using transfer table as a switch or a rotary switch allows

180-415: The ARB and was leased by the VRB. The line is mostly single track, but the line has been double-track since 1874 from the request stop of Freibergen to Rigi Kaltbad-First. The Rigibahn was only open in the summer in the early years. Winter sports gradually developed and operations in the winter commenced. The narrow-gauge Rigi–Scheidegg railway ( Rigi-Kaltbad-Scheidegg-Bahn , RSB) to Rigi Scheidegg, which

200-415: The center rack rail to be aligned for the cog wheels to continually drive the train forward while crossing the switch. Smaller traversers are frequently used on roller coasters to switch out trains. Traversers are used on monorails and maglevs . The Sydney Monorail had a traverser connected to about 6 storage roads. When the track in the main line moved to a stabling road, another track moved into

220-429: The line's passenger cars survive alongside the trackbed, converted into holiday homes, but all the buildings of the line have been demolished. Vitznau%E2%80%93Rigi railway line The Vitznau–Rigi railway line is a Swiss standard gauge rack railway that runs from Vitznau on the shore of Lake Lucerne to Rigi . It was built in 1871 by the Rigibahn , and is now owned by Rigi Railways , along with

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240-548: The main line position. Maintaining grass in stadiums can be a problem if the stadium keeps the grass in the shade. A solution is to mount the playing field on a single huge traverser, which can be rolled out under one of the grandstands onto the sunny side of that grandstand. In rare instances, the turning features of a turntable have been combined with the lateral motion of a transfer table. Examples of such installations are in Asia and Europe. An example of both pieces of equipment

260-513: The new building started in May 2014 and was finished in September 2014. The new Kaltbad station building was inaugurated on 1 March 2015. The railway has the following technical data: Transfer table A transfer table or traverser is a piece of railway equipment. It functions similarly to a turntable , although it cannot be used to turn vehicles around. A transfer table, also known as

280-562: The table so that whichever positions the traverser was in an incoming passenger train would not be faced with a void. Traversers were used at metropolitan termini located in confined sites, such as Kew and St Kilda in suburban Melbourne , Victoria, Australia , which worked only two tracks. In 2013, the Port of Felixstowe installed a traverser across nine tracks at its new North Terminal as ordinary points could not be fitted while allowing 35-wagon trains of shipping containers. Systems like

300-416: The tourist industry collapsed and never recovered in the same form. When tourists did return to the mountains, they came as day trippers, meaning that the mountain-top hotels were no longer needed. That hit the Rigi–Scheidegg railway particularly hard, and the line closed on the 21 September 1931, never to reopen. The track was removed in 1942, and the line's two remaining steam locomotives were scrapped. Two of

320-402: Was built by the engineers Niklaus Riggenbach , Ferdinand Adolf Naeff and Olivier Zschokke. At first it ran only from Vitznau (439 metres above sea level) via Kaltbad (1453 m.a.s.l.) to Rigi Staffelhöhe (1550 m.a.s.l.). On 27 June 1873, the railway was extended to Rigi Kulm (1752 m.a.s.l.). This section is located in the canton of Schwyz, for which the VRB had no concession. The track belonged to

340-509: Was built to provide a link to Rigi Kaltbad on the Vitznau–Rigi line. The line opened in two stages, with the stage from Kaltbad to First opening on the 14 July 1874, and the section from First to Scheiddegg on the 1 June 1875. Unlike the Vitznau–Rigi line, the Rigi–Scheidegg railway followed the contours near the top of the mountain, rather than climbing it, and was not a rack railway. It was built to 1,000 mm ( 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in ) metre gauge , and so never made

360-676: Was completed in 1875, began in Kaltbad. This railway was closed in 1931 and finally abandoned in 1942. The Weggis–Rigi Kaltbad cable car ( Luftseilbahn Weggis–Rigi Kaltbad , LWRK) from Weggis, also operated by the Rigi Railways, has ended in Kaltbad since 1968. The Vitznau–Rigi Railway (officially called the Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn since 1 January 1970) connects in Rigi Staffel with the tracks of the Arth–Rigi railway line , which has operated from Arth-Goldau since 1875. The VRB used

380-521: Was erected on the Vitznau–Rigi Kulm line. The traverser in Freibergen was replaced by a rack railway set of points in 1959; the same occurred in Kaltbad in 1961. These sets of points were replaced by new systems in 2000 and 2012. In 2012, the station complex in Kaltbad was completely renewed and a second platform track was installed. The station building in Kaltbad was demolished; construction of

400-581: Was in use up until the 1970s at the Collinwood Yards in Cleveland, Ohio . It allowed a single turntable to serve a linear train shed. Didcot Railway Centre , UK, has a traverser for transferring coaching stock between the roads of the carriage maintenance sheds. The National Tramway Museum at Crich, in Derbyshire, England has a traverser between the depot roads. Pilatus Railway has

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