Cable Railway - Examples

Examples

• Opened in 1826, the Bowes Railway on the outskirts of Gateshead, in England, is the world's only preserved operational 4 ft 8 1⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) cable railway system.

• Cromford and High Peak Railway opened in 1831 with grades up to 1 in 8. Had nine inclined planes: eight were engine-powered, one was a counterbalance (gravity) type operated by a horse gin. The Middleton Top winding engine house at the summit of Middleton Incline has been preserved and the ancient steam engine inside, once used to haul wagons up, is often demonstrated.

• Liverpool and Manchester Railway
  • Opened with cable haulage down a 1 in 48 grade to the dockside at Liverpool.
  • Designed for cable haulage up and down 1 in 100 grades at Rainhill in the belief that locomotive haulage was impracticable. The Rainhill Trials showed that locomotives could handle 1 in 100 gradients.

• Brampton Railway was reconfigured in 1836, and included a gravity balanced inclined plane between Kirkhouse and Hallbankgate. It had a maximum gradient of 1 in 17. The mineral lines above the plane were operated after 1840 by Stephenson's Rocket.

• High Peak Junction opened 29 May 1830 with railway incline connecting two canals.

• A Pit fishbelly gravitational railway operated between 1831-1846 to service the Australian Agricultural Company coal mine. B Pit opened 1837 and C Pit opened mid-1842. All were private-operations by the same company.

• Camden Incline, Between Euston and Primrose Hill on the London and Birmingham Railway, 20 July 1837.

• The Welsh slate industry made heavy use of gravity balance and water balance inclines to move slates from quarries down to transshipment points. Examples of substantial inclines were found in the quarries feeding the Ffestiniog Railway, the Talyllyn Railway and the Corris Railway amongst others.

• The Denniston Incline (1879–1967), north of Brunner, New Zealand, was gravity worked. It descended 518 m (1,699 ft) in a track distance of 1,670 m (5,479 ft), separated into two inclines, and during its life carried 13,000,000 t (12,794,685 long tons; 14,330,047 short tons) of coal.

• The middle section of the Erkrath-Hochdahl Railway in Germany (1841–1926) had an inclined plane where trains were assisted by rope from a stationary engine. The height difference was 82 metres over a 2.5 kilometre length (1845–1926)

• 1 in 17 Swanington incline on Leicester to Burton upon Trent Line, later deviated in 1848.

• 1 in 29 Bagworth incline on Leicester to Burton upon Trent Line, later deviated in 1871.

• The Yosemite Valley Railroad operated a cable railway at Incline, California.

• A canal inclined plane lift was created during the late 20th century at Blists Hill Victorian Town in Shropshire, England.

• Katoomba scenic railway.
  originally hauled coal.

• The 52° acute angle track

• Katoomba Scenic Railway descending to the valley floor

• Scenic Skyway Mechanism