Mont Cenis Railway Tunnel Construction, 1860s
Engineers building a railway tunnel under Mount Cenis in the Alps. They had a "special apparatus for using the force of compressed air in boring" introduced in 1861. The Mont Cenis Pass Railway operated from 1868 to 1871 during the construction of the Fr̩jus Rail Tunnel. It was the first mountain railway in the world. It was designed by John Barraclough Fell. The railway was 48 miles long, with a gauge of 3 ft 7 5/16 in and a maximum inclination of 9%. A British company was established in 1864 by a number of British contractors, engineers and investors to obtain permission from the two governments to build the railway. These included: Thomas Brassey, Fell, James Brunlees and Alexander Brogden. In 1866 they established the Mont Cenis Railway Company to build and run the railway. Although it would eventually be superseded by the tunnel, they believed that, during its life the cost of the pass railway would be repaid with a profit to them. The company used British engine-drivers and workmen. From The Illustrated London News, February 13, 1869.
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