Long-term study of a good 3 1/2 minutes (218 seconds exposure) with the light traces on the cantonal road, the train 4645 on the Bernina line of the Rhaetian Railway from St. Moritz to Tirano and the red taillight of a car on the secondary road on the left. The view reaches from the small hamlet of Scala on the right slope of Val Poschiavo at 940 metres above sea level to Brusio with the world-famous circular viaduct at approx. 700 metres above sea level, the distance to the viaduct is approx. 2 kilometres. The train 4645 crossed the oncoming train at 6 pm at Brusio station (at the top of the picture, behind the illuminated church tower of the Catholic Church) and then travels at the foot of the valley slope with a continuous incline of 7.0 % to the spiral below the village, crossed by one of the 9 arches with 10 meters span each, under the viaduct and then further down the line towards the stop on request of Campascio , the border station Campocologno and finally Tirano in Italy. When the line of the Bernina Railway (which was at that time an independent railway company and was only taken over by the Rhaetian Railway in 1943) was planned around 1905, it was clear that the maximum gradient of 7.0 %, which could be managed by adhesion, could only be maintained by artificially extending the line in the Brusio area. Therefore, a large loop was planned above the village. Below the village, the valley is narrower, and in addition, the aim was to use the valuable cultivated land as little as possible, so that in 1906 the idea of an open roundabout was brought into play for the first time. The viaduct, with a radius of 70 metres and 9 arches, was built between March 1907 and July 1908, and the line between Tirano and Poschiavo was inaugurated on 1 July 1908. On 14 December 2008, a heavy rockfall occurred above the circular viaduct, causing the railway line to be closed for 111 days due to massive destruction (overhead lines, rails, track bed, railway embankment). Due to the unstable geology, a protective embankment was built to prevent rock fall in such a way that no material can reach the railway facilities. In this section, the track was laid from the foot of the slope to this dam. This can be seen very well on the photo, where the light traces makes a bulge to the left. Since 2008 the world famous roundabout of Brusio belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina landscapes. The viaduct was extensively renovated in 2011 and is in good condition for the coming decades.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
