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The funicular, dating back to the 16th century, consists of a track, pulley, and motor. The force of gravity cancels itself out when cars go up and down simultaneously. The cable must run in a continuous loop, and timing must be perfect. The Angel’s Flight accident in 2001 lacked an emergency brake. Notable funiculars include those in Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Chattanooga, Quebec City, Budapest, and Santiago.
It’s an old idea, dating back to the 16th century, but the basic concept of the funicular has remained viable through the centuries. Sometimes referred to as an inclined funicular, the funicular consists of a track, a pulley, and a motor. The motor drives the pulley, which slowly pulls the car up the side of a steep grade. The track is there to guide the wheels.
This all sounds pretty logical, but what about the ride? Wouldn’t the gravitational force of a heavy rail-type car quickly shatter the motor and pulley, hurling passengers to their deaths?
It probably would, except that the original inventors of the funicular found that if cars went up and down simultaneously, an equal number on each side of the pulley, the force of gravity would cancel itself out. The ascending chariot or chariots serve as a brake on the others; The ones going down help supply the tractive force to pull the rising cars up.
This is a simple concept, but not easy to put into practice. The cable must run in a continuous loop, the timing must be perfect, and there must be space for the ascending and descending cars to pass each other on the road.
An example of what can go wrong was a fatal accident on the Angel’s Flight cable car in Los Angeles on February 1, 2001. This was a four-car operation, two on each side of the line. For as yet unexplained reasons, the cable somehow escaped from its groove inside the pulley and created a slack loop. This caused the tallest car in a line to slide backwards into the car below, killing one passenger and injuring seven.
However, it soon turned out that the Angel’s Flight operation lacked the emergency brake usually built into funiculars, a powerful claw-like apparatus that latches onto the cable when a mechanical device detects a sudden increase in speed. The Angel’s Flight funicular was put back into operation in November 2008, its operators sadder but wiser.
Perhaps the best-known cable cars in the United States are the two “inclines” that carry passengers up the steep face of Mount Washington in Pittsburgh. Not far away, the Johnstown Incline Plane is capable of carrying at least one car, as well as passengers, and the Lookout Mountain Incline Railroad in Chattanooga, Tennessee, operates at a terrifying 72 percent grade. Other notables include funiculars in Quebec City, Budapest, and Santiago, Chile.
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