Episode 1 of 1
Official Opening of the Vitznau–Rigi Railway
- When
- 21 May 1871
- Where
- Vitznau
The Vitznau–Rigi Railway officially opened on 21 May 1871, becoming Europe's first rack railway.
The line, engineered by Niklaus Riggenbach, ascends from Vitznau on Lake Lucerne to near Mount Rigi's summit. It was the second rack railway globally, following the Mount Washington Cog Railway. The opening occurred exactly one year after the first trial run of locomotive No. 1.
Sources
- Rigi Railways Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-13
- Vitznau Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-15
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.