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About the Cave The only cave with a double track railway

The only cave with a double track

railway

Gallery: 1/5

The railway system in the cave

has been taking visitors
through magnificent halls and
natural passages for 140
years.

For 140 years, the Postojna Cave, as the only cave in the world, offers
a unique and adventurous ride with a special train, which will take
you into the cave, under spectacular underground arches, which are
embellished with chandellier look-alike stalactites, through a
beautiful subterranean world full of playful limestone sculptures.
From 300 metres of accessible routes in 1818, a visitor today can enjoy the tour of 5 km
through tunnels and passages which takes about an hour and a half. The tour begins at the
entrance platform of this unique cave railway, where particularly in the summer you can
feel a lively bustle otherwise typical of the biggest train stations in the world. This is where
3.7 km long railway tracks begin.

From footpaths...
For many years visitors could only explore the cave on foot. In 1857, when the Emperor
and Empress visited the cave, special sedan chairs were made for Empress Elisabeth and
her ladies-in-waiting for this occasion. The sedan chairs were not used at the time, however
it was from then on possible for other wealthy visitors to rent them.
That was also the time when the region around Postojna rapidly modernised. In 1857 the
railway connected Postojna with Vienna and Trieste and the world around. The following
year a number of visitors almost doubled and a year later it rose dramatically. A large
number of visitors which increased every year prompted the cave management to start
thinking about changes and other solutions which would make it possible to reach the most
beautiful parts of the cave. For instance, a geographer, karstologist and a pioneer of
modern speleology, Anton Schmidl, proposed riding donkeys be used.

The adventure begins as the electric trains

takes you into the depth of the cave.

The man who is to a great extent responsible for such rise of tourism in Postojna is a man
from Selka dolina valley, a Slovenian national awakener, Anton Globonik pl. Sorodolski,
who in 1863 became the district governor of Postojna and consequently also the Chairman
of the Cave Board. During his long career, he was responsible for numerous novelties
introduced in the Cave, which improved the good reputation of the Cave with its growing
offer. He was also the inititator of the cave railway.

... to one-track...

The view of the halls will leave you breathless,

but passing through the narrow passages will
make your heart race.

In 1872 the first tracks which led to the Great mountain (previously known as Calvary)
were laid. These enabled transport of little two-seater carriages which were pushed by the
cave guides. However, the small man-powered railway could not cope with the large
numbers of visitors. The idea of introducing machines instead of man-power was planned
during the WW1, however, it was only realized in 1924. A year before the whole railway
system in the cave had been renovated. The first locomotive Montania no. 803 is today
kept in the Notranjska Museum of Postojna, while the other locomotive Montania S-10, no.
2004 is exhibited on the platform in front of the entrance.

In 1928 at the entrance to the cave, a new administration building, today known as Jamski
dvorec Mansion, was built. It comprised of a restaurant, a guest reception room and also a
new railway stop where visitors who chose to view the cave from the train could board.
However, those visitors who wanted to explore the cave on foot used the main entrance,
which today is used as an exit. This system was in use until 1963.

...and two-track loop railway

In time it became apparent that the old petrol locomotives were no longer suitable for their
purpose. Their exhaust fumes created some sort of fog in the cave and thus reduced
visibility. In 1957, to mark the formal opening of a new tourist season, their role was taken
over by new battery-powered locomotives. Throughout these years, visitor numbers were
constantly on the increase, and with the growing number of visitors the pre-war singletrack railway, with just two sidings along the whole line, on which only three locomotives
could run simultaneously, was becoming a real bottleneck.
On June 20, 1964, there was a formal opening of the two-track line with a loop near the
entrance to the cave and a terminus at the end of the line on the foot of the Great
Mountain, known as the Calvary station. In 1968, the second stage was completed with the
construction of the loop to the Concert Hall. The two-track loop line enabled uniterrupted
transport of numerous visitors, who visited the cave in the following decades.
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