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Carl Roman Abt (16 July 1850 – 1 May 1933Herring, Peter (2000).) was a Swiss mechanical engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He made groundbreaking innovations in rack-and-pinion railways, giving his name to one of the most widely used systems developed for mountain railways, the
Abt switch is a railroad switch system invented by Carl Roman Abt. It is widely used in funicular railways. Railway vehicles used in the Abt switch don't have wheels with one flange as in ordinary railways, but instead use wheels with two flanges and wide wheels without flanges. Normally, two cars are used in a funicular, and it is a single track except for the passing loop. Each vehicle always passes the track on the same side at the passing loop, using wheels with two flanges on the outer side and wheels without flanges on the opposite side. The rail on the outside of the passing loop is sandwiched by the two flanges same as the rail in the single track section, and there is no break. The inner rails have cuts where the cable and flanges of the outer wheels pass. Wide wheels pass the cuts without hindrance. Unlike an ordinary railway switch, an Abt switch has no moving parts.
SMR Axle on display at Llanberis 05-07-24 20.jpeg, Abt rack system
West Coast Wilderness Railway Mount Lyell No. 3.JPG, Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company No. 3, an Abt type locomotive
Works about Carl Roman Abt
in the catalogue of the Swiss National Library
World Rack Railways
Deutsche Biographie {{DEFAULTSORT:Abt, Carl Roman 1850 births 1933 deaths People from Muri District 19th-century Swiss inventors Swiss mechanical engineers Swiss railway mechanical engineers Swiss railway pioneers Rack railways 20th-century Swiss engineers 19th-century Swiss engineers Swiss expatriates in France
Abt rack system
A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with th ...
.
Biography
Abt was born on 16 July 1850 in Bünzen. In 1882, while working in Paris, he designed and patented his rack-railway system that enabled at least one tooth of the rack to be permanently engaged. It was first used at theRübeland Railway
The Rübeland Railway (german: Rübelandbahn) is a railway link from Blankenburg via Rübeland and Königshütte to Tanne in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It was built by the Halberstadt-Blankenburg railway (HBE) between 1880 and 188 ...
in the Harz mountains (Germany).
Abt also developed the self-regulating Abt Switch for funicular railways
and led the construction of 72 mountain railway
A mountain railway is a railway that operates in a mountainous region. It may operate through the mountains by following mountain valleys and tunneling beneath mountain passes, or it may climb a mountain to provide transport to and from the su ...
s worldwide including the Visp-Zermatt, Gornergrat
The Gornergrat ( en, Gorner Ridge; ) is a rocky ridge of the Pennine Alps, overlooking the Gorner Glacier south-east of Zermatt in Switzerland. It can be reached from Zermatt by the Gornergrat rack railway (GGB), the highest open-air railway i ...
, Furka Oberalp and Ferrovia Monte Generoso railways. The most famous railway built with the Abt system is the Arica–La Paz railway in Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
.
In 1903, as president of the Gotthardbahn company, Abt led buy-back negotiations with the German Confederation
The German Confederation (german: Deutscher Bund, ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, w ...
during the nationalisation
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
of private railway companies. He received many honours, including an honorary doctorate (Doctor honoris causa) from the Technical University of Hannover
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (german: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität), also known as the University of Hannover, is a public research university located in Hanover, Germany. Founded on 2 May 1831 as Higher Vocational Sc ...
and the John Scott Medal in 1889. He was also a patron and connoisseur of the arts, a member of the Swiss Federal Art Commission from 1904-1907 and the President of the Swiss Art Association from 1905-1911.
Pastimes
Abt was a keen collector of hammered gold artwork; he would not let go of any coin or medal whose special beauty aroused his artistic interest. His coin and art collection was auctioned off after his death.Abt switch
Abt switch is a railroad switch system invented by Carl Roman Abt. It is widely used in funicular railways. Railway vehicles used in the Abt switch don't have wheels with one flange as in ordinary railways, but instead use wheels with two flanges and wide wheels without flanges. Normally, two cars are used in a funicular, and it is a single track except for the passing loop. Each vehicle always passes the track on the same side at the passing loop, using wheels with two flanges on the outer side and wheels without flanges on the opposite side. The rail on the outside of the passing loop is sandwiched by the two flanges same as the rail in the single track section, and there is no break. The inner rails have cuts where the cable and flanges of the outer wheels pass. Wide wheels pass the cuts without hindrance. Unlike an ordinary railway switch, an Abt switch has no moving parts.Gallery
References
Sources
*Herring, Peter (2000). ''Ultimate Train'', Dorling Kindersley Limited, London, 2000, p. 144. *Wägli, Hans G. (2005). ''Carl Roman Abt.'' In: ''Sieben Bergbahnpioniere.'' Zürich 2005. S. 23--34. Schweizer Pioniere der Wirtschaft und Technik. Bd. 81.External links
*Works about Carl Roman Abt
in the catalogue of the Swiss National Library
World Rack Railways
Deutsche Biographie {{DEFAULTSORT:Abt, Carl Roman 1850 births 1933 deaths People from Muri District 19th-century Swiss inventors Swiss mechanical engineers Swiss railway mechanical engineers Swiss railway pioneers Rack railways 20th-century Swiss engineers 19th-century Swiss engineers Swiss expatriates in France