New Pilatus Railway car cabins from Calag

It is the steepest rack railway in the world. Commissioned in 1889, with a gradient of up to 48 per cent and a journey time of around 30 minutes: that’s the Pilatus Railway in figures. It climbs the path from Alpnachstad to Pilatus Kulm metre by metre. Now the unique heritage is being transferred into a new era and will receive a modernisation of the platforms as well as eight completely new railcars. The cabins, as the superstructure of the new carriages, come from Calag.

The cabin construction experts at Calag-Gangloff specialise in the construction of light metal structures for the worldwide use of gondolas, aerial tramway cabins and funicular cars. It is precisely these skills that are in demand at Pilatus, because the total weight of the railcars must be as low as possible due to the extreme gradient and the load-bearing capacity of the existing bridges.

The Pilatus project includes a total of eight new railcars, each with space for 48 passengers. The first carriage is currently being built in the Calag workshops, before it is sent to the Stadler works in Bussnang for the installation of the drive system on the substructure. By 2023, all the new carriages should be in service on the steep route up to Pilatus Kulm.

The carriages are the flagship of every railway and, thanks to customised projects, are always unique. The Pilatus project is no exception. Since a rack railway, such as the one at Pilatus, has capacity for several carriages, the Calag team is for once building not just the usual two for a funicular railway, but eight carriages of the same type.

“Of course we are proud to be involved in this project and to be able to prove our skills in cabin construction for such a prestigious project. The Pilatus Railway is internationally renowned and we are very pleased that superstructures from our company will be transporting tourists to the summit in the future,” says Urs Friedli, project manager for the Pilatus project at Calag.

Car bodies like those of the Pilatus Railways are always one-of-a-kind at Calag. There are not many components that can be bought off the shelf. The construction of these carriages therefore demands a great deal of craftsmanship from the cabin builder. The Calag team builds the new carriages from scratch. The shapely, curved profiles that make up the track in the end are brought into the right shape by hand with a great deal of care and skill. Once the frame of the track is in place, you can immediately see what is to be made of it. Just as quickly, you can see how much work has gone into each of the individual carriages.

The Calag cabin construction team has many years of experience in the construction of superstructures for funicular and rack railways. The majority of the current team was already working in cabin construction at Gangloff before the takeover in 2018 and was involved in projects all over the world. This expertise and Calag’s resources in light metal construction enable the lightweight construction of the Pilatus Railway superstructures. The Calag cabin construction team knows the immense demands of such projects in terms of quality and safety; after all, in this case it is even the steepest line in the world over which the passengers have to be transported safely. And the requirements are also high in terms of aesthetics. The cars are the flagship for every mountain railway company as well as for Swiss craftsmanship. They are ridden on and viewed by thousands of tourists from all over the world during their operating time. The demands on the finish as well as the longevity of each individual component are therefore very high.

The Calag team is proud to be able to build the superstructures for the new train horses on Pilatus and is already looking forward to a first ride in one of the new railcars.