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Semmering Railway  The Semmering Railway, built over 41 km of high mountains between 1848 and 1854, by roughly 20,000 workers, is one of the greatest feats of civil engineering from this pioneering phase of railway building. Karl Ritter von Ghega was the designer of the Semmering Railway. The Semmering Railway construction features 14 tunnels, 16 viaducts (several two-story), and over 100 curved stone bridges, as well as 11 small iron bridges. It was given the very difficult terrain and the considerable altitude difference that was mastered during its construction. It is still fully functional as a part of the Southern Railway which is operated by the Austrian Federal Railways. The Semmering Railway was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. Steam locomotives worked the route for a century, but electrification took place between 1956 and 1959. Currently, the Semmering railway uses the well-known Siemens ES64U2 locomotives for this route. In 2012, a base tunnel through the valley began construction, and it is expected to open in 2026, over 170 years after the line first opened. |