Rigi Bahnen , the first ever mountain rack railway in Europe, the second in the world after Mt. Washington in US, opens in 1871, on Mt. Rigi, located between two arms of Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, reaching a height of 5,748 ft above sea level. The highest standard gaugae railway in Europe to date.

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  2. Actually, the first rack railway was in the suburb of Bern. The Steinbruchbahn Ostermundigen was completed in 1870.

    But, this small 1.5 km long line (0.5 km with rack rail) wasn’t a highlight as it carried just rocks. Riggenbach who built both line decided the Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn should be the first to be officially opened.

    The Steinbruchbahn Ostermundigen despite its 1.5 km and being unknown was the first rack and adhesion railway in the world. In the middle of the town of Ostermundigen, a former steam loco and flat car of the Steinbruchbahn are displayed. Here is[ a map](https://map.geo.admin.ch/?lang=en&topic=ech&bgLayer=ch.swisstopo.swissimage&layers=ch.swisstopo.zeitreihen,ch.bfs.gebaeude_wohnungs_register,ch.bav.haltestellen-oev,ch.swisstopo.swisstlm3d-wanderwege,ch.astra.wanderland-sperrungen_umleitungen,KML%7C%7Chttps:%2F%2Fpublic.geo.admin.ch%2Fapi%2Fkml%2Ffiles%2Fw70GZfEwQFuRfyEo-ODulw&layers_opacity=1,1,1,0.8,0.8,1&layers_visibility=true,false,false,false,false,true&layers_timestamp=18751231,,,,,&E=2604097.42&N=1200380.96&zoom=9) with this small line and where the loco is.

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