Corcovado Rack Railway
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| Technical | |
|---|---|
| Line length | 3.8 km (2.36 mi) |
| Track gauge | 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) |
| Highest elevation | 710 m (2,329 ft) |
| Rack system | Riggenbach |
The Corcovado Train (Portuguese: Trem do Corcovado) is a mountain railway in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, from Cosme Velho to the summit of the Corcovado Mountain at an altitude of 710 m (2,329 ft). The summit is known for its statue of Christ the Redeemer and its views over the city and beaches of Rio.
The line is 3.8 km (2.4 mi) long. It is a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) gauge rack railway using the Riggenbach rack system. The line was opened by Emperor Dom Pedro II on the 9th October 1884. Initially steam hauled, the line was the first railway to be electrified in Brazil in 1910, and was re-equipped in 1980 with trains built by SLM of Winterthur in Switzerland.
It is one of the few remaining railways using three-phase electric power with two overhead wires, at 800 V 60 Hz.
There are four trains, each of two cars. The trip takes approximately 20 minutes and departs every half hour, giving a capacity of 360 passengers per hour. Due to this limited capacity the wait at the entry station can be several hours. The line operates from 08:30 to 18:30.
The line has been ridden by many famous people, including Pope Pius XII, Pope John Paul II, Alberto Santos-Dumont, Albert Einstein and Diana, Princess of Wales.
[edit] Infamy
In February 1998, a train ride through Rio's green hills returning from the famed Christ statue ended in terror for dozens of foreign exchange students, robbed at gunpoint in a brazen crime that struck the city's number one tourist attraction. Nearly all the riders were teenagers in the Rotary Club's exchange programme. The students, from such places as Scandinavia, Germany, Japan and the Philippines, were in Brazil for a year of study. They had been in Rio on a mid-term "vacation" for exactly 24 hours.
The ride up was smooth, the view at the top breathtaking, but on the way back, the driver found the track blocked with rocks and the lid of a water tank. "The engineer got off the train to remove the obstacle and was overpowered," said Paulo Viana, the assistant station master. "That's when they came on."
They were six or seven men (accounts vary) and each carried a gun or a knife. They announced the stickup, first in Brazil's native Portuguese, then in Spanish. The gang began to go methodically through the two cars, taking cash, credit cards, jewellery, cameras, watches, passports and airline tickets. As quickly as it started, the first robbery in the railroad's 113-year history was over. The thieves vanished into the woods, and the victims were taken to the Special Police Station for Tourists to file complaints and list their losses. Rio Mayor Luiz Paulo Conde invited the victims to the City Palace the following day where he personally apologised. Then he invited everyone to lunch at a barbecue restaurant.
[edit] References
- Article "Rio de Janeiro: City of contrasts, quality metro" by C.J.Wansbeck, in Tramways & Urban Transit magazine, March 2005, published by the Light Rail Transit Association.
- Web page http://www.pell.portland.or.us/~efbrazil/efcorc.html and descendants, retrieved 2 March 2005, 2100 GMT.
- Web page http://web.archive.org/web/20061008210035/http://www.corcovado.com.br/principal.asp?lingua=English and descendants, retrieved 2 March 2005, 2100 GMT.
