This is how it might have looked in 1873 at the Rigi, when locomotive # 7 climbed the mountain on the maximum 25% gradient on a test run, just above the Schnurtobel bridge, between Mittlerschwanden and Grubisbalm. The wounds from the construction of the track have already grown over. Because the new railroad up to the "Queen of the Mountains", inaugurated on may 21th, 1871, was a huge success from the very beginning, new locomotives and wagons soon had to be ordered. Thus, the H 1/2 # 7 was delivered in 1873 by the SLM in Winterthur (as the very first vehicle of this factory). The first 6 locomotives of almost the same design had been built in the workshop of the Schweizerische Centralbahn (SCB) in Olten. The short passenger car B # 5 had already been delivered in 1871 and was built in the workshop of the Schweizerische Centralbahn in Olten, whose manager, Niklaus Riggenbach, was also the initiator and builder of the Rigibahn.
