Montserrat Rack Railway

The Montserrat Rack Railway is a mountain railway line north of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. The line runs from Monistrol de Montserrat to the mountain-top monastery of Montserrat.The line is 5km long and has a rail gauge of. The first 1km of the line, between Monistrol and the only intermediate station at Monistrol Vila, is operated by conventional adhesion. The remainder of the line is operated as a rack railway using the Abt system, overcoming a height difference of 550m with a maximum gradient 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 (FGC).HistoryA line on this route was originally opened in 1892. Competition arrived in 1930, in the form of the Aeri de Montserrat, 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.