Incline railway? Or not?

[tgindy]

Back from out of town and all is fixed.  Thanks for the heads up!

[vsmith]

Angels Flight is a funicular FYI - cable operated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_Flight

 

[richg1998]

How about this one?

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If any of you ever make it to New England, try to get to the cog railway on Mt Washignton in NH.
The cog railway now has a bio diesel locomotive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVlLGXaIwqA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orlMEIEGxX0&feature=related

Rich

 

[Johnnny_reb]

Hey tgindy

All your links lead to: http://cs.trains.com/forums/

Did you try the links while in Preview?

Rich

Copy and past

[PASMITH]

A number of years ago when General Dynamics was big in San Diego, they sponsored a model railroad club on their premises. One of their club members was a real craftsmen and built the only operating incline ( HO gauge) model that I have ever seen. It operated flawlessly. I do not know what happened to this model railroad when GD was broken up. Sometime thereafter I noted that the San Diego Model RR Club at the San Diego Model RR Museum started to build a downtown trolley line. The quality of this work reminded me of the work that was done on the GD incline although, I have no idea if it was done by the same person. I know that this is not much help, but perhaps someone reading this forum has pictures of this incline or additional information on how it was built.

Peter Smith, Memphis

[richg1998]

Hey tgindy

All your links lead to: http://cs.trains.com/forums/

Did you try the links while in Preview?

Rich

 

[milo]

Here's another one, from Wellington, New Zealand.

 http://www.wellingtoncablecar.co.nz/

Miles

[larak]

Look for Otis elevating railway (Palenville NY). One of the early ones.

Karl

[tgindy]

Welcome to the world's steepest mountain railway in my backyard:

The Johnstown Inclined Plane with a grade of 70.9%...

http://www.inclinedplane.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Inclined_Plane

Two suggestions if an inclined plane like this were to be scratchbuilt:

[1]  A sufficient length of flextrack.

[2]  A triangular-framework under the incline car to make it level.

One inclined plane car starts at the bottom, and the other inclined plane car starts at the top, and they do "a meet" at the halfway point of their journey.  The engine/cable house is by the observation deck & restaurant at the top of the Inclined Plane.

Resting on cement piers, the ties and rails are not lying directly on the ground with a roadbed, but have a supporting foundation under its entire length.  In the pictures you can see a walking path on the hillside and a sculpture where the walking path goes under the rails and continues to wind up the hillside.

The "white specs" you see in the pictures beside the rails are llights...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:JohnstownIncline.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:InclineTopView.jpg

Also note the technical specs that you can easily convert to HO Scale dimensions.

[stebbycentral]

There are plenty of US prototypes to model.  Your real problem may be finding the parts to build one.  Doing a Google search for rack rail in HO, the only current supplier I could come up with was for the European manfuacturer: Fleischman.  Ditto for a cog-driven locomotive.  Finding a US distributor that carries those products might be an issue.

[gkhazzard]

The Mill Mountain funicular, in Roanoke Virginia, is no longer in operation, but you can find some basic information about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Mountain_Incline

[TxPRRfan]

Here's links to information on the Monongahela and Duquesne inclines in Pittsburgh, PA.  FYI both have been in operation for about 125 years.

http://members.tripod.com/~riid/inclines.html  http://incline.pghfree.net/

Here's a YOUTUBE video of a model of the Duquesne incline:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbz3nSMfE9Q

 

[maxman]

Mount Washington cog railway is: http://www.thecog.com/

The Pittsburgh Duquesne Incline is: http://incline.pghfree.net/ 

Regards

 

[tomikawaTT]

The words you are looking for are funicular for a cable-hauled incline (2 cars on the ends of a single cable, passing siding in the middle of the run) and cog (or rack) railway for the variety where the trains have big gear wheels centered on their axles which engage a rack centered between the rails.  Angels Flight and Lookout Mountain are funiculars, while the routes up Mt. Washington and Pike's Peak are rack railroads.

Hope this helps.

EDIT...  Looks like the two previous posters were typing faster than I was!

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[NEMMRRC]

Cog Railway.

Jaime

[paulsafety]

Try "FUNICULAR" -- this should work for your searches.

[UK78ALUM]

Guys,

I'm at a loss for words for a Google search.  What I'm looking for is information on an "incline railway" in HO scale.   I'm thinking of something like Angels Flight in LA, or I think Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga may have had one as well.  That's the principle anyway, and I'll modify it to fit my planned layout.

So, "incline railway" returns a great deal of hits, but they seem to all be about the various ways to gradually raise your regular HO roadbed, and also various products to accomplish this task.

Again, I'm (unsuccessfully) looking for information on how to model the "up and back" transportation car that I only know as an "incline railway".  Is it actually called something else?

Thanks!