Inclined railways on hills

[darkstar974]

I was wondering is there a kit out there for inclines that go up a hill I used to live in Pgh and they have two inclines the Duquesne and the mon has anyone ever attempted to model an incline.

Dark

[Big_Boy_4005]

I would have to say they are pretty rare as models, maybe nonexistant. My guess is that the length of such an installation is so short, that they wouldn't be much fun to operate. In over 35 years in the hobby, I have never seen one modeled.

I have ridden the Mt Washington cog.

Are the ones in Pittsburgh hoisted by cables, or do they use rack and pinion?

[Anonymous]

Here's a link to an incline being built by a modeler on another forum: http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=11267&highlight=incline The builder powered it with the motor of an old cordless drill.

I think including one in your operations could be interesting and a good source of traffic for your mainline. When I finally get around to it, I'd like to model the long-abandoned Otis Elevating Railway at North Lake down in the Catskill Mountains of NY.

Wayne

[jrbarney]

Dark,
I did a search at the Index of Magazines using incline as the search term and found 25 citations, most of which were pertinent. Also did one on cog railways:

Railroad to the clouds Railroad Model Craftsman, January 1954, page 36
( "HOLLAND, GORDON E.", RACK, RAILROAD, RMC )

Railway to the clouds - building the loco Railroad Model Craftsman, February 1954, page 26 ( COG, "HOLLAND, GORDON E.", LAYOUT, RAILWAY, TOURIST, CONSTRUCTION, RMC )

Fifty years ago, Mr Holland built a cog locomotive in HO scale that he stated could go up a 50% grade. It's a bit crude and better plans for a prototype cog locomotive have been published in Narrow Gauge Gazette and Short Line Gazette. I have ridden the inclined railway on Mt. Beacon, Beacon, NY, which used a gantlet/gauntlet track for passing.

Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[Anonymous]

Cincinnati used to have two inclines for their street cars. As a kid I went past the remains of the Price Hill incline quite often. Here are some pictures of it in operation http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/incline-pricehill.html It looks a lot like the model in the link in the above post.

I think if I were going to freelance it I would put a track on the platform and let a trolley car ride from the tracks in the valley to the tracks on the crest of the hill.

[darkstar974]

Big boy i believe they are driven by cables as one car descends the other car ascends. Muddy creek, jrbarney, bukwrm tanks for the links i am going to use them all the pictures looked like what they got in Pittsburgh as far as car wise the pictures of the cincinnati incline remind me of the Mon incline.

[CNJ831]

QUOTE: Originally posted by darkstar974

I was wondering is there a kit out there for inclines that go up a hill I used to live in Pgh and they have two inclines the Duquesne and the mon has anyone ever attempted to model an incline.

They have been done from time to time. I seem to recall there was even a commercial kit by one of the European manufacturers about 20 years ago. MR has run a couple of articles on inclined railways over the years but none recently. Try checking MR's search engine for titles, particular try "Angel's Flight". And I'll bet RMC has had an article on the Otis at some point.

CNJ831