Pilatus Railway, Switzerland

Call us chicken, but “steepest cogwheel railway” doesn’t really make us want to rush out and hop aboard. Switzerland’s Pilatus Railway (what is it with Switzerland and super steep trains?!) was commissioned in 1889, and has been running ever since. First things first: What in the world is a cogwheel railway? It’s a steep-grade railway with a toothed rack rail; its trains are fitted with cogwheels that mesh with the rail. Named after a mountain in Central Switzerland, the Pilatus Railway is more than 15,000 feet long and has a gradient of 48 percent. The railway was privately funded and despite being quite old, it’s remained financially viable, operational, and technologically relevant for all this time.