![Baku Funicular](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Baku_Funicular.jpg)
A funicular (, , ) is a type of
cable railway
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep
slope
In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line is a number that describes both the ''direction'' and the ''steepness'' of the line. Slope is often denoted by the letter ''m''; there is no clear answer to the question why the letter ''m'' is use ...
. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite ends of a haulage cable, which is looped over a pulley at the upper end of the track.
The result of such a configuration is that the two carriages move synchronously: as one ascends, the other descends at an equal speed. This feature distinguishes funiculars from
inclined elevator
An inclined elevator or
inclined lift
is a form of cable railway that hauls rail cars up a steep gradient.
Introduction
An inclined elevator consists of one or two inclined tracks on a slope with a single car on each carrying payload. In t ...
s, which have a single car that is hauled uphill.
The term ''funicular'' derives from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
word , the diminutive of , meaning 'rope'.
Operation
In a funicular, both cars are permanently connected to the opposite ends of the same cable, known as a ''haul rope''; this haul rope runs through a system of
pulley
A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft that is designed to support movement and change of direction of a taut cable or belt, or transfer of power between the shaft and cable or belt. In the case of a pulley supported by a frame or shell that ...
s at the upper end of the line. If the railway track is not perfectly straight, the cable is guided along the track using
sheave
A sheave () or pulley wheel is a grooved wheel often used for holding a belt, wire rope, or rope and incorporated into a pulley. The sheave spins on an axle or bearing inside the frame of the pulley. This allows the wire or rope to move fre ...
s – unpowered pulleys that simply allow the cable to change direction. While one car is pulled upwards by one end of the haul rope, the other car descends the slope at the other end. Since the weight of the two cars is counterbalanced (except for the weight of passengers), no lifting force is required to move them; the engine only has to lift the cable itself and the excess passengers, and supply the energy lost to friction by the cars' wheels and the pulleys.
For passenger comfort, funicular carriages are often (although not always) constructed so that the floor of the passenger deck is horizontal, and not necessarily parallel to the sloped track.
In some installations, the cars are also attached to a second cable – ''bottom towrope'' – which runs through a pulley at the bottom of the incline. In these designs, one of the pulleys must be designed as a tensioning wheel to avoid slack in the ropes. One advantage of such an installation is the fact that the weight of the rope is balanced between the carriages; therefore, the engine no longer needs to use any power to lift the cable itself. This practice is used on funiculars with slopes below 6%, funiculars using sledges instead of carriages, or any other case where it is not ensured that the descending car is always able to pull out the cable from the pulley in the station on the top of the incline.[Walter Hefti: ''Schienenseilbahnen in aller Welt. Schiefe Seilebenen, Standseilbahnen, Kabelbahnen.'' Birkhäuser, Basel 1975, (German)] It is also used in systems where the engine room is located at the lower end of the track (such as the upper half of the Great Orme Tramway
The Great Orme Tramway ( cy, Tramffordd y Gogarth) is a cable-hauled gauge tramway in Llandudno in north Wales. Open seasonally from late March to late October, it takes over 200,000 passengers each year from Llandudno Victoria Station to just b ...
) – in such systems, the cable that runs through the top of the incline is still necessary to prevent the carriages from coasting down the incline.[How it works](_blank)
– Great Orme Tramway
Types of power systems
Cable drive
In most modern funiculars, neither of the two carriages is equipped with an engine of its own. Instead, the propulsion is provided by an electric motor
An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...
in the engine room (typically at the upper end of the track); the motor is linked via a speed-reducing gearbox to a large pulley – a ''drive bullwheel
A bullwheel or bull wheel is a large wheel on which a rope turns, such as in a chairlift or other ropeway. In this application, the bullwheel that is attached to the prime mover is called the drive bullwheel, and the other is the return bullwhe ...
'' – which then controls the movement of the haul rope using friction. Some early funiculars were powered in the same way, but using steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
s or other types of motor. The bullwheel has two grooves: after the first half turn around it the cable returns via an auxiliary pulley. This arrangement has the advantage of having twice the contact area between the cable and the groove, and returning the downward-moving cable in the same plane as the upward-moving one. Modern installations also use high friction liners to enhance the friction between the bullwheel grooves and the cable.
For emergency and service purposes two sets of brakes are used at the engine room: the emergency brake directly grips the bullwheel, and the service brake is mounted at the high speed shaft of the gear. In case of an emergency the cars are also equipped with spring-applied, hydraulically opened rail brakes.
The first funicular caliper brakes which clamp each side of the crown of the rail were invented by the Swiss entrepreneurs Franz Josef Bucher
Franz Josef Bucher (17 January 1834 – 6 October 1906) was a Swiss hotels pioneer and magnate.
Bucher was an energetic entrepreneur who attracted anecdotes reflecting his original and direct approach. He is also remembered as a railway pioneer. ...
and Josef Durrer and implemented at the , opened in 1893. The Abt rack and pinion system was also used on some funiculars for speed control or emergency braking.
Water counterbalancing
Many early funiculars were built using water tanks under the floor of each car, which were filled or emptied until just sufficient imbalance was achieved to allow movement, and a few such funiculars still exist and operate in the same way. The car at the top of the hill is loaded with water until it is heavier than the car at the bottom, causing it to descend the hill and pull up the other car. The water is drained at the bottom, and the process repeats with the cars exchanging roles. The movement is controlled by a brakeman
A brakeman is a rail transport worker whose original job was to assist the braking of a train by applying brakes on individual wagons. The earliest known use of the term to describe this occupation occurred in 1833. The advent of through brakes, ...
using the brake handle of the rack and pinion system engaged with the rack mounted between the rails.
The Bom Jesus funicular
The Bom Jesus do Monte Funicular ( pt, Elevador do Bom Jesus do Monte), is a Portuguese funicular transport in civil parish of Nogueiró e Tenões, in the municipality of Braga, in the district of the same name. Operated by the Irmandade de Bom ...
built in 1882 near Braga
Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...
, Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
is one of the extant systems of this type. Another example, the Fribourg funicular
The Fribourg funicular, also known as the Neuveville - Saint-Pierre funicular, is a funicular railway in the Swiss town of Fribourg.
It is powered by wastewater.
History
The Fribourg funicular was opened February 4, 1899. It connects the Sa ...
in Fribourg
, neighboring_municipalities= Düdingen, Givisiez, Granges-Paccot, Marly, Pierrafortscha, Sankt Ursen, Tafers, Villars-sur-Glâne
, twintowns = Rueil-Malmaison (France)
, website = www.ville-fribourg.ch
, Location of , Location of ()
() o ...
, Switzerland built in 1899, is of particular interest as it utilizes waste water, coming from a sewage plant at the upper part of the city.
Some funiculars of this type were later converted to electrical power. For example, the Giessbachbahn
The Giessbach Funicular (german: Giessbachbahn) is a historic funicular in the Swiss canton of Bern and municipality of Brienz. It links a landing stage on Lake Brienz, served by shipping services on the lake, to the Grand Hotel Giessbach and G ...
in the Swiss canton of Berne
The canton of Bern or Berne (german: Kanton Bern; rm, Chantun Berna; french: canton de Berne; it, Canton Berna) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. ...
, opened in 1879, was originally powered by water ballast. In 1912 its energy provision was replaced by a hydraulic engine powered by a Pelton turbine
The Pelton wheel or Pelton Turbine is an impulse-type water turbine invented by American inventor Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead weight like the trad ...
. In 1948 this in turn was replaced by an electric motor.
Track layout
There are three main rail layouts used on funiculars; depending on the system, the track bed can consist of four, three, or two rails.
* Early funiculars were built to the four-rail layout, with two separate parallel tracks and separate station platforms at both ends for each vehicle. The two tracks are laid with sufficient space between them for the two carriages to pass at the midpoint. While this layout requires the most land area, it is also the only layout that allows both tracks to be perfectly straight, requiring no sheaves on the tracks to keep the cable in place. Examples of four-rail funiculars are the Duquesne Incline
The Duquesne Incline () is a funicular located near Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood and scaling Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Designed by Hungarian-American engineer Samuel Diescher, the incline was completed i ...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, and most cliff railways in the United Kingdom.
* In three-rail layouts, the middle rail is shared by both carriages, while each car runs on a different outer rail. To allow the two cars to pass at the halfway point, the middle rail must briefly split into two, forming a passing loop
A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...
. Such systems are narrower and require less rail to construct than four-rail systems; however, they still require separate station platforms for each vehicle.
* In a two-rail layout, both cars share the entire track except at the passing loop
A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...
in the middle. This layout is the narrowest of all and needs only a single platform at each station (though sometimes two platforms are built: one for boarding, one for alighting). However, the required passing loop is more complex and costly to build, since special turnout systems must be in place to ensure that each car always enters the correct track at the loop. Furthermore, if a rack for braking is used, that rack can be mounted higher in three-rail and four-rail layouts, making it less sensitive to choking in snowy conditions compared to the two-rail layout.
Some funicular systems use a mix of different track layouts. An example of this arrangement is the lower half of the Great Orme Tramway
The Great Orme Tramway ( cy, Tramffordd y Gogarth) is a cable-hauled gauge tramway in Llandudno in north Wales. Open seasonally from late March to late October, it takes over 200,000 passengers each year from Llandudno Victoria Station to just b ...
, where the section "above" the passing loop
A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...
has a three-rail layout (with each pair of adjacent rails having its own conduit which the cable runs through), while the section "below" the passing loop has a two-rail layout (with a single conduit shared by both cars).
Some four-rail funiculars have their tracks interlaced
Interlaced video (also known as interlaced scan) is a technique for doubling the perceived frame rate of a video display without consuming extra bandwidth. The interlaced signal contains two fields of a video frame captured consecutively. This ...
above and below the passing loop; this allows the system to be nearly as narrow as a two-rail system, with a single platform at each station, while also eliminating the need for the costly junctions either side of the passing loop. The Hill Train at the Legoland Windsor Resort
Legoland Windsor Resort (), styled and also known as Legoland Windsor, is a theme park and resort in Windsor, Berkshire in England, themed around the Lego brand. The park opened on 17 March 1996 and is currently operated by Merlin Entertainment ...
is an example of this configuration.
Turnout systems for two-rail funiculars
In the case of two-rail funiculars, various solutions exist for ensuring that a carriage always enters the same track at the passing loop.
One such solution involves installing switches
In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...
at each end of the passing loop. These switches are moved into their desired position by the carriage's wheels
A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction with axles, allow heavy objects to be ...
during trailing movements (i.e. away from the passing loop); this procedure also sets the route for the next trip in the opposite direction. The Great Orme Tramway
The Great Orme Tramway ( cy, Tramffordd y Gogarth) is a cable-hauled gauge tramway in Llandudno in north Wales. Open seasonally from late March to late October, it takes over 200,000 passengers each year from Llandudno Victoria Station to just b ...
is an example of a funicular that utilizes this system.
Another turnout system, known as the Abt switch, involves no moving parts on the track at all. Instead, the carriages are built with an unconventional wheelset design: the outboard wheels have flange
A flange is a protruded ridge, lip or rim (wheel), rim, either external or internal, that serves to increase shear strength, strength (as the flange of an iron beam (structure), beam such as an I-beam or a T-beam); for easy attachment/transfer of ...
s on both sides, whereas the inboard wheels are unflanged (and usually wider to allow them to roll over the turnouts more easily). The double-flanged wheels keep the carriages bound to one specific rail at all times. One car has the flanged wheels on the left-hand side, so it follows the leftmost rail, forcing it to run via the left branch of the passing loop; similarly, the other car has them on the right-hand side, meaning it follows the rightmost rail and runs on the right branch of the loop. This system was invented by Carl Roman Abt
Carl Roman Abt (16 July 1850 – 1 May 1933Herring, Peter (2000).) was a Swiss mechanical engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He made groundbreaking innovations in Rack railway, rack-and-pinion railways, giving his name to one of the most widely ...
and first implemented on the Lugano Città–Stazione funicular
The Lugano Città–Stazione funicular, ''Funicolare Lugano Città–Stazione'', or ''Sassellina'', is a funicular railway in the city of Lugano in the Swiss canton of Ticino. The line's upper station is located within the main railway stati ...
in Switzerland in 1886; since then, the Abt turnout has gained popularity, becoming a standard for modern funiculars. The lack of moving parts on the track makes this system cost-effective and reliable compared to other systems.
Stations
The majority of funiculars have two stations, one at each end of the track. However, some systems have been built with additional intermediate stations. Because of the nature of a funicular system, intermediate stations are usually built symmetrically about the mid-point; this allows both cars to call simultaneously at a station. Examples of funiculars with more than two stations include the Wellington Cable Car
The Wellington Cable Car is a funicular railway in Wellington, New Zealand, between Lambton Quay, the main shopping street, and Kelburn, a suburb in the hills overlooking the central city, rising over a length of .
The one way trip takes appro ...
in New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
(five stations, including one at the passing loop
A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...
) and the Carmelit
The Carmelit ( he, כַּרְמְלִית Arabic: كرمليت) is an underground funicular, funicular railway in Haifa, Israel. Construction started in 1956 and ended in 1959. It is the oldest underground transit system in the Middle East and c ...
in Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
, Israel (six stations, three on each side of the passing loop).
A few funiculars with asymmetrically placed stations also exist. For example, the Petřín funicular
The Petřín funicular is a funicular railway in the Czech capital city of Prague. It links the Malá Strana district with the top of Petřín () hill. The funicular is operated by the tramway division of Prague Integrated Transport, the loca ...
in Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
has three stations: one at each end, and a third (Nebozízek) a short way up from the passing loop. Because of this arrangement, carriages are forced to make a technical stop a short distance down from the passing loop as well, for the sole purpose of allowing the other car to call at Nebozízek.
History
A number of cable railway
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
systems which pull their cars on inclined slopes were built since the 1820s.
In the second half of the 19th century the design of a funicular as a transit system emerged.
It was especially attractive in comparison with the other systems of the time as counterbalancing of the cars was deemed to be a cost-cutting solution.
The first line of the Funiculars of Lyon
The Funiculars of Lyon (Funiculaires de Lyon) is a network of funicular railways in Lyon, France. Of the five lines once in existence, only the two routes on the Fourvière hill remain in operation, with the rest of the network now either closed, ...
() opened in 1862, followed by other lines in 1878, 1891 and 1900. The Budapest Castle Hill Funicular
The Budapest Castle Hill Funicular or Budavári Sikló is a funicular railway in the city of Budapest, in Hungary. It links the Adam Clark Square and the Széchenyi Chain Bridge at river level to Buda Castle above.
The line was opened on March 2 ...
was built in 1868–69, with the first test run on 23 October 1869.
The oldest funicular railway operating in Britain dates from 1875 and is in Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
, North Yorkshire.
In Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
, Turkey, the Tünel
The Tünel ( en, Tunnel, designated as the F2 line on the Istanbul transport map) is a historic underground funicular line in Istanbul, Turkey. It has two stations, connecting Karaköy and Beyoğlu. The tunnel runs uphill from near the confluen ...
has been in continuous operation since 1875 and is both the first underground funicular and the second-oldest underground railway.
It remained powered by a steam engine up until it was taken for renovation in 1968.
Until the end of the 1870s, the four-rail parallel-track funicular was the normal configuration. Carl Roman Abt
Carl Roman Abt (16 July 1850 – 1 May 1933Herring, Peter (2000).) was a Swiss mechanical engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He made groundbreaking innovations in Rack railway, rack-and-pinion railways, giving his name to one of the most widely ...
developed the Abt Switch allowing the two-rail layout, which was used for the first time in 1879 when the Giessbach Funicular
The Giessbach Funicular (german: Giessbachbahn) is a historic funicular in the Swiss canton of Bern and municipality of Brienz. It links a landing stage on Lake Brienz, served by shipping services on the lake, to the Grand Hotel Giessbach and G ...
opened in Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
.
In the United States, the first funicular to use a two-rail layout was the Telegraph Hill Railroad
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
in San Francisco, which was in operation from 1884 until 1886. The Mount Lowe Railway
The Mount Lowe Railway was the third in a series of scenic mountain railroads in the United States created as a tourist attraction on Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe (California), Mount Lowe, north of Los Angeles, California. The railway, originall ...
in Altadena, California, was the first mountain railway
A mountain railway is a railway that operates in a mountainous region. It may operate through the mountains by following mountain valleys and tunneling beneath mountain passes, or it may climb a mountain to provide transport to and from the sum ...
in the United States to use the three-rail layout. Three- and two-rail layouts considerably reduced the space required for building a funicular, reducing grading costs on mountain slopes and property costs for urban funiculars. These layouts enabled a funicular boom in the latter half of the 19th century.
Currently, the United States' oldest and steepest funicular in continuous use is the Monongahela Incline
The Monongahela Incline is a funicular located near the Smithfield Street Bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Designed and built by Prussian-born engineer John Endres in 1870, it is the oldest continuously operating funicular in the United Sta ...
located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
. Construction began in 1869 and officially opened May 28, 1870 for passenger use. The Monongahela incline also has the distinction of being the first funicular in the United States for strictly passenger use and not freight.
In 1880 the funicular of Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of s ...
inspired the Italian popular song ''Funiculì, Funiculà
"Funiculì, Funiculà" (, en, "Funicular Up, Funicular Down") is a Neapolitan song composed in 1880 by Luigi Denza to lyrics by Peppino Turco. It was written to commemorate the opening of the first funicular railway on Mount Vesuvius. It was pr ...
''. This funicular was destroyed repeatedly by volcanic eruptions and abandoned after the eruption of 1944.
Exceptional examples
According to the ''Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'', the smallest public funicular in the world is the Fisherman's Walk Cliff Railway
The Fisherman's Walk Cliff Railway, or Southbourne Cliff Railway, is a funicular railway in Southbourne, a seaside suburb of the English seaside resort of Bournemouth. The line serves to link the seaside promenade and beach with the cliff to ...
in Bournemouth
Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...
, England, which is long.
Stoosbahn
The Stoosbahn, also known as the Schwyz–Stoos funicular or ''Standseilbahn Schwyz–Stoos'', is a funicular railway in the Swiss canton of Schwyz. It connects the Hintere Schlattli in the municipalities of Muotatal, Morschach, and Schwyz with th ...
in Switzerland, with a maximum slope of 110% (47.7°), is the steepest funicular in the world.
The Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway
The Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway is a water-powered funicular railway joining the twin towns of Lynton and Lynmouth on the rugged coast of North Devon in southwest England.
Lynton and Lynmouth are separated by a high cliff, making it hard ...
, built in 1888, is the steepest and longest water-powered funicular in the world. It climbs vertically on a 58% gradient.
The city of Valparaíso
Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...
in Chile used to have up to 30 funicular elevators ( es, ascensores). The oldest of them is dating from 1883. 15 remain with almost half in operation, and others in various stages of restoration.
The Carmelit
The Carmelit ( he, כַּרְמְלִית Arabic: كرمليت) is an underground funicular, funicular railway in Haifa, Israel. Construction started in 1956 and ended in 1959. It is the oldest underground transit system in the Middle East and c ...
in Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
, Israel, with six stations and a tunnel 1.8 km (1.1 mi) long, is claimed by the Guinness World Records as the "least extensive metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
" in the world. Technically, it is an underground funicular.
The Dresden Suspension Railway
The Dresden Suspension Railway (german: Schwebebahn Dresden) is a suspended funicular located in Dresden, Germany, and connects the districts of Loschwitz and Oberloschwitz (Rochwitz side). It is one of the oldest suspension railways, having ...
(), which hangs from an elevated rail, is the only suspended funicular in the world.
The Fribourg funicular
The Fribourg funicular, also known as the Neuveville - Saint-Pierre funicular, is a funicular railway in the Swiss town of Fribourg.
It is powered by wastewater.
History
The Fribourg funicular was opened February 4, 1899. It connects the Sa ...
is the only funicular in the world powered by wastewater.
Comparison with inclined elevators
Some systems around the world are branded as funiculars, even though in reality they are inclined elevators. Unlike a funicular, inclined elevators operate independently on the slope rather than in interconnected pairs, and lift
Lift or LIFT may refer to:
Physical devices
* Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods
** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop
** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobile ...
is required to haul the cars uphill.
A notable example of this phenomenon is Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
' Montmartre Funicular
The Montmartre Funicular (french: Funiculaire de Montmartre) is an inclined transport system serving the Montmartre neighbourhood of Paris, France, in the 18th arrondissement. Operated by the RATP, the Paris transport authority, the system opened ...
. Its formal title is a relic of its original configuration, when its two cars operated as a counterbalanced, interconnected pair, always moving in opposite directions, thus meeting the definition of a funicular. However, the system has since been redesigned, and now uses two independently-operating cars that can each ascend or descend on demand, qualifying as a double inclined elevator; the term "funicular" in its title is retained as a historical reference.
See also
* Cable car (railway)
A cable car (usually known as a cable tram outside North America) is a type of cable railway used for Public transport, mass transit in which rail cars are hauled by a continuously moving Wire rope, cable running at a constant speed. Individual ...
* Gravity railroad
A gravity railroad (American English) or gravity railway (British English) is a railroad on a slope that allows cars carrying minerals or passengers to coast down the slope by the force of gravity alone. The speed of the cars is controlled by a bra ...
* Inclined elevator
An inclined elevator or
inclined lift
is a form of cable railway that hauls rail cars up a steep gradient.
Introduction
An inclined elevator consists of one or two inclined tracks on a slope with a single car on each carrying payload. In t ...
* List of funicular railways
This is a list of funicular railways, organised by place within country and continent. The funiculars range from short urban lines to significant multi-section mountain railways.
A funicular railway is distinguished from the similar incline eleva ...
* Steep grade railway
A steep grade railway is a railway that ascends and descends a slope that has a steep grade. Such railways can use a number of different technologies to overcome the steepness of the grade.
Usage
Many steep grade railways are located in mountain ...
* "Funiculì, Funiculà
"Funiculì, Funiculà" (, en, "Funicular Up, Funicular Down") is a Neapolitan song composed in 1880 by Luigi Denza to lyrics by Peppino Turco. It was written to commemorate the opening of the first funicular railway on Mount Vesuvius. It was pr ...
", a Neapolitan
Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to:
Geography and history
* Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city
* Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...
song celebrating Funiculars
References
External links
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{{Authority control
French inventions
Rail technologies
Railways by type
Vertical transport devices