The Old Gotthard Tunnel Route - Driver's Eye View

The Old Gotthard Tunnel Route - Driver's Eye View

  • Overview
  • Cast
  • Crew

Status

Released

Release Date

Oct 1, 2018

Runtime

1h 52m

Genres

Documentary

Original Title

The Old Gotthard Tunnel Route - Driver's Eye View

Production Companies

Video 125

Description

The original Gotthard railway tunnel through the Swiss Alps, took ten years to build and cost 147 lives. It was a mammoth undertaking and required the construction of long ramps on either side totalling 85 miles. Dozens of tunnels, viaducts and bridges were necessary. The ruling gradient of 1 in 37 was deemed to be just about the maximum that the original steam locomotives could handle, even then, trains were usually double-headed and even had banking engines attached at the rear! In order even to keep to this severe gradient, the engineers had to construct a number of additional spiral tunnels to gain height, hewn out of solid rock…