What is a cable railway that goes up steep slopes?
Also known as an inclined plane or cliff railway, a funicular railway normally solves the problem of transporting people up extremely steep slopes. They've been used for hundreds of years and are an extraordinary feat of ingenuity.
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A Funicular Railway is just that, fun. Also known as an inclined plane or cliff railway, a funicular railway normally solves the problem of transporting people up extremely steep slopes. They've been used for hundreds of years and are an extraordinary feat of ingenuity.
Some call it a hillside elevator, hillside lift, hillside tram, hill lift, hill tram, tramway, cable car, incline railway, cable railway, hill people mover, chair lift, gondola or even a European funicular.
A funicular is a railway that goes up the side of a mountain. A funicular is pulled by a moving cable and involves complex, counterbalanced movements of the cars. It's a coincidence that the word fun is in funicular, though riding a funicular would likely be very fun indeed: it's a railway that goes up a mountain.
Most trains find it difficult to climb hills and mountain slopes. The trains of cog, or rack, railroads, however, can scale steep slopes using a special toothed rail, known as a rack, in the middle of the track.
The funiculars range from short urban lines to significant multi-section mountain railways. A funicular railway is distinguished from the similar incline elevator in that it has two vehicles that counterbalance one another rather than independently operated cars.
“Funitel” is a portmanteau of the French words “funiculaire” and “téléphérique”. A defining feature of a Funitel is that each cabin has two arms extending from its roof and these arms attach to two cables. A Gondola or Aerial Tram cabin only has one arm, attached to one cable.
The world's steepest cogwheel railway goes up the PilatusThe steepest cogwheel railway in the world, with a gradient of 48% and a length of 4'618 metres, links Alpnachstad with Pilatus Kulm at an altitude of 2'132 m.
The Lookout Mountain Incline Railway is a 4 ft 8+1/2 in standard gauge inclined plane funicular railway leading to the top of Lookout Mountain from the historic St. Elmo neighborhood of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Courchevel Altiport (French: Altiport de Courchevel) (IATA: CVF, ICAO: LFLJ) is an altiport serving Courchevel, a ski resort in the French Alps. The airfield has a very short runway of only 537 metres (1,762 ft) with a gradient of 18.6%.
A cable car is superficially similar to a funicular, but differs from such a system in that its cars are not permanently attached to the cable and can stop independently, whereas a funicular has cars that are permanently attached to the propulsion cable, which is itself stopped and started.