Earlier in the year, in January 1882, he had switched on the first steam generating power station at Holborn Viaduct in London.

Initially, the railway line from Bern to Fribourg opened on 2 July 1860 with a temporary terminal at Balliswil about 4 km north of the city, as the Grandfey Viaduct over the Saanegraben was not yet finished.

And to do that meant creating the flattest gradients that had ever yet been made, which meant building long viaducts across river valleys this is actually the viaduct across the Thames at Maidenhead and long tunnels such as the one at Box, in Wiltshire.