Sunday, August 16, 2015

View from Schafberg mountain, Austria

A mountain railway is a railway that operates in a mountain region. It may operate through the mountains, for example by following mountain valleys and tunneling beneath mountain passes. Or it may climb mountains, in order to provide transport to and from their summits.Mountain railways often, but by no means always, use narrow gauge to allow for tight curves in the track and reduce tunnel size and structure gauge, and hence construction cost and effort. Where a mountain railway needs to climb steep gradients, it may use steep grade railway technology, or even operate as a funicular railway.The name Lechquellengebirge (literally "Lech source mountains") is certainly accurate, for the greater part of the mountain range surrounds the upper reaches of the River Lech with its two spring-fed streams, the Formarinbach and the Spullerbach. Nevertheless, it is in fact an artificial name made up by Walther Flaig at a time when the development of mountaineering in the Alps had been largely completed. Previously, the mountain range had been called either the Klostertal Alps or counted as part of the Lechtal Alps east of the Flexen Pass.Artificial names often find it hard to establish themselves in everyday language. By contrast, there are Alpine groups named after placenames that go back centuries or even millennia, such as the Raetikon or the neighbouring Verwall. Others are named after valleys that have been referred to by the same name from time immemorial, such as the Ötztal Alps. It will take decades to determine whether the name of the Lechquellen Mountains has prevailed as naturally as the name of other Alpine groups. It is also unclear whether the UIAA or even the European Union will work out and lay down an internationally recognized classification of the Alps. If they do, then the Lechquellen Mountains will either be officially recoginsed or absorbed into other groups.

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