The Montserrat Rack Railway ( ca, Cremallera de Montserrat, ) is a mountain railway line north-west of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

. The line runs from Monistrol de Montserrat to the mountain-top monastery of Montserrat. The line is long and has a rail gauge of . The first of the line, between Monistrol and the only intermediate station at Monistrol Vila, is operated by conventional

adhesion Adhesion is the tendency of dissimilar particles or surfaces to cling to one another ( cohesion refers to the tendency of similar or identical particles/surfaces to cling to one another). The forces that cause adhesion and cohesion can b ...

. The remainder of the line is operated as a

rack railway 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 ...

using the Abt system, overcoming a height difference of with a maximum

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gr ...

of 15.6%. The line is electrified with an overhead supply at 1500 V DC. The line is operated by the

Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (, "Catalan Government Railways"), or FGC, is a railway company which operates several unconnected lines in Catalonia, Spain. The lines operated include metro and commuter lines in and around the city o ...

(FGC).

History

A line on this route was originally opened in 1892. Competition arrived in 1930, in the form of the

Aeri de Montserrat The Aeri de Montserrat () is an aerial cable car which provides one of the means of access to the Montserrat mountain and abbey. It can be found 1 hour from the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Travelers using the cable car should take note ...

, an aerial cable car that also carries passengers to the monastery. A narrow road also reaches the monastery. After poor financial results and an accident in 1953, the rack railway line was closed on 12 May 1957. However over time the Aeri and road became unable to handle the increasing number of visitors to the monastery. After many years of planning, a program began to rebuild the rack railway in 2001, and the line re-opened in its modern form on 6 June 2003. In its first 12 months of operation, the Montserrat Rack Railway carried 462,964 passengers. The heaviest traffic was in August 2003 with 63,692 passengers, and the lightest in February 2004 with 22,996 passengers.

Equipment

The line's most significant engineering work is the Pont del Centenari bridge, which is long and wide, crossing the River Llobregat. Its nine sections are between and long and it was designed as a lattice of steel tubes to give it a light appearance and minimise its visual impact. It is supported by eight pillars with maximum height of . The line is operated by six low-floor electric motor coaches of type

Stadler GTW The Stadler GTW is an articulated railcar for local transport made by Stadler Rail of Switzerland. GTW stands for Gelenktriebwagen (articulated railcar). History The Biel–Täuffelen–Ins-Bahn near Bern, Switzerland was looking for a light ...

, built by Stadler Rail in Switzerland. The cars are numbered AM1-AM5 (Originally built for Montserrat) and A10 (Originally built for Núria Rack Railway. Transferred to Montserrat in June 2020) and named after local peaks. These cars are equipped for adhesion and rack propulsion and can each carry up to 200 passengers. They are air-conditioned and have panorama windows offering a good view over the environment. Trains run at up to on the rack section and on the adhesion section. The line also has a 1930 built

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or g ...

, E4, transferred from the Vall de Núria Rack Railway for use on works trains.

Operation

Both the rack railway and the Aeri connect with the FGC's

Llobregat–Anoia line The Llobregat–Anoia Line ( ca, Línia Llobregat-Anoia) is an unconnected metre gauge railway line linking Barcelona with the Baix Llobregat, Bages and Anoia regions, in Catalonia, Spain. Its name refers to the fact that it follows the course ...

railway from Barcelona Plaça d'Espanya station to Manresa. The rack railway connects at Monistrol de Montserrat, also known as Monistrol Central. A track connection is provided at Monistrol to allow rack railway cars to run to and from their depot, which is in nearby

Martorell Martorell () is a municipality that forms part of the Baix Llobregat comarca, in Catalonia, Spain, primarily known for its medieval Devil's bridge. It lies at the confluence of the Llobregat and Anoia rivers. It has three railway stations - on ...

. An hourly service is operated between Monistrol-Enllaç and the summit, connecting with FGC trains to and from Barcelona and Manresa. Additional trains operate between Monistrol Vila, where the line has a

car park A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

with 1000 spaces, and the summit. The FGC also operates two funicular railways from near the summit station of the rack railway. The Funicular de Sant Joan ascends to the mountain top, whilst the Funicular de Santa Cova descends to a shrine lower down the mountain.

References

External links

Official website of the Montserrat Rack Railway and associated funicular railways
{{Authority control Mountain railways Metre gauge railways in Spain Rack railways in Catalonia Transport in Bages