Early European rail line depicted in artful map

[CHamilton]

This blog generally talks about maps, but veers into an interesting history of European rail building.

Gotthard Girl's Pioneering Intestine

An angelic lady from the pre-raphaelite school of femmes fatales is stretched across a map of Europe. Her raised hands clutch a sketch of the late-19th-century European rail network at two of its budding nodes: Paris and Dresden. The lady’s feet and dress are spilling into Italy. The clue to the significance of the allegorical woman’s position is in her Swiss torso - to be more precise, in the black line that meanders across her body, north to south.That curly intestine represents the Gotthardbahn, the railway that was the first to connect the rail networks of Germany and Italy. This connection, established in the last quarter of the 19th century, overcame an age-old physical barrier.

 

[como]

An interesting map, somewhat similar to the mural on the wall of Manchester's Victoria Station.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/VictoriaMural.jpg/800px-VictoriaMural.jpg

 

[jis]

One of those circles near the lower end represents three spirals one on top of the other at Giornico (Ticino Canton). Here is what it looks like looking up from the lowest level (from Wikimedia):

You can clearly see the middle and the upper spiral above the lowest level where the train is. The concrete structure is the newer highway. The even newer Gotthard Base Tunnel will bypass all this underground.

Here is a series of pictures showing a train traversing the spirals. As I recalled the two tunnels are named Travi and Pianotondo. The line climbs northbound here from the base of Ticino valley having departed Bellinzona and passing through Giornico at the base, and the next station at the top is Lavorgo. It then climbs some more to the southern entry into the classic Gotthard Tunnel, to leave Italian Switzerland, to emerge into German Switzerland at Goeschenen.

Here is a diagram of the Biaschina spirals

Direction north is right to left on this diagram.

Don't miss the

, exit Pianotondo and entrance into the next tunnel.
This brings back memories of one of the more memorable day trips we took on a weekend (Saturday) while we were at a standards meeting in Stresa. It was a circle trip Stresa - Domodossola - Simplon Tunnel - Brig - Local train with open windows on Glacier Express route - Andermatt - Goeschenen - Gotthard Tunnel - Bellinzona - Locarno - Domodossola - Stresa