Gilgen on Bern's local mountain
Taking the panoramic railway up Bern's Gurten and marvelling at the view of the city?
Well, there's a break for now, because the funicular railway is being renovated. Gilgen Door Systems is involved in the project and has been on site since last week carrying out the installation work. Project manager René Fankhauser is not on board for the first time: "When the new Gurten funicular railway was put into operation in 1999, I was already there as installation manager."
However, the Gurtenbahn itself has been around for 100 years. It has been taking people from the capital and everywhere else up Bern's 858 metre-high local mountain since 1899.
Slanted doors
This year, Gilgen is once again installing products at all three stations - and even in the railway carriages themselves. While some classic sliding doors are being installed at the station entrances, the door drives for the funicular railway carriages themselves, as well as the new platform endings, come from Gilgen.
The largest and most challenging aspect of the order is the platform end caps. These are the doors at the bottom and top stations, which open and close in harmony with the railway doors. One carriage body of the Gurtenbahn has an incline of around 26%, which means that the entire railway is built at an angle. The unusual angles require precisely planned and calculated special solutions - and Gilgen's design engineers have the necessary expertise for this. The fitters are currently demonstrating their speedy skills at the mountain station: the project is due to be completed by Whitsun.
