Spessart ramp

The Spessart Ramp (German: Spessartrampe) is a 5.4 km long incline on the Main-Spessart Railway in southern Germany between Laufach at one end and the Schwarzkopf tunnel and Heigenbrücken at the other, with an average incline of 20 ‰. The ramp is part of Ludwig's Western Railway and the section from Würzburg via Aschaffenburg to the state border at Kahl am Main was opened on 1 October 1854 by the Royal Bavarian State Railways. The ramp enabled the difference in height between the Laufach valley and the Lohr valley to be overcome as it crossed the Spessart between Kahl am Main and Aschaffenburg on the one side and Würzburg/Bamberg on the other.

In keeping with the philosophy for railway construction at that time it was decided that the way to cope with large differences in height was the construction of a relatively short, steep section of line and to haul trains up the incline with the aid of banking locomotives, whilst the remaining section of the route could be made relatively level. A structure using the same concept is the Schiefe Ebene between Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg and Marktschorgast, which was built between 1844 and 1848 as part of the Ludwig South-North Railway. The Spessart Ramp, together with the adjoining Schwarzkopf tunnel had been double-tracked in 1854, whilst the remaining parts of the line between Kahl am Main and Würzburg were not doubled until the 1890s. The Spessart Ramp was electrified in 1957. During the steam locomotive era, heavy goods trains were frequently hauled up the ramp at just 6 km/h.

...
Wikipedia