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:
“The white man regards the universe as a gigantic machine hurtling through time and space to its final destruction: individuals in it are but tiny organisms with private lives that lead to private deaths: personal power, success and fame are the absolute measures of values, the things to live for. This outlook on life divides the universe into a host of individual little entities which cannot help being in constant conflict thereby hastening the approach of the hour of their final destruction.”
—Policy statement, 1944, of the Youth League of the African National Congress. pt. 2, ch. 4, Fatima Meer, Higher than Hope (1988)