Private Funiculars
Private funiculars on steep sections provide easier access from the street to a house than steep paths or steps. They are common in hilly cities, such as Wellington, New Zealand, which has about 300. These have a small car for two to four people permanently attached to a cable from a winch, which runs on an inclined pair of rails (beams) or a single rail at a low speed (0.3 to 1.0 metres/second). They are often called "cable cars" or "lifts" (elevators), e.g., in the New Zealand standard for private cable cars (NZS 5270). Larger and faster models can improve access to commercial buildings (NZ, commercial).
In Quebec City, Canada, the Old Quebec Funicular has been operating since 1879, connecting the Haute-Ville (Upper Town) to the Basse-Ville (Lower Town).
Greenwood Forest Park in North Wales is home to the Dragon roller coaster. This coaster uses a funicular railway pulley system to lift the empty roller coaster using the weight of the people about to ride in it.
Read more about this topic: Funicular
Famous quotes containing the word private:
“It was evident that, both on account of the feudal system and the aristocratic government, a private man was not worth so much in Canada as in the United States; and, if your wealth in any measure consists in manliness, in originality and independence, you had better stay here. How could a peaceable, freethinking man live neighbor to the Forty-ninth Regiment? A New-Englander would naturally be a bad citizen, probably a rebel, there,—certainly if he were already a rebel at home.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)