High Spur Railway is a fictional railway and this is a design portfolio piece. No trains, tickets, or places are real, and the forms send nothing. Read more
HSHigh Spur RailwaySonnenberg rack, est. 1912

Line 1

The Panorama Line

Falzgrund to Sattelhorn, 6.9 kilometres, 1,420 metres of climb, 42 minutes. This is the line the railway was built for, and the one the timetable protects when the weather closes in.

6.9 km Route length
1,420 m Vertical climb
25% Max gradient
42 min Journey time
Treeline Crossing loop
Daily, year round Season
R1

The ride, in thirds

Section 01

Falzgrund to Treeline

The gentle third. Two kilometres of vineyard-edge track out of the trainshed, past the sawmill road crossing, climbing through open larch country to the crossing loop at 1,690 metres. Trains pass here on the hour, driver to driver, hat raised.

Section 02

Treeline to the Saddle Gallery

The hard third. The rack steepens to 25 percent as the track turns into the mountainside and enters the 340-metre gallery cut in 1926. Inside the gallery the sound changes: cog against rack, all echo and metal, then daylight again.

Section 03

The Gallery to Sattelhorn

The high third. Out of the rock onto the wooden viaduct over the high meadow, then the last rise to the summit station at 2,540 metres. On clear days the driver stops the car for thirty seconds at the meadow curve. Nobody has ever asked why.