Funicular Railway “Fixed Points”

[Nigel BennettParticipant @nigelbennett69913]

I was intrigued by the passing loop on the Cairn Gorm funicular railway. The passing loop has fixed points at each end – an advantage to have no moving parts in icy conditions. But how on earth do they work? If the wheels on the vehicles are flanged, then surely they'll derail, and if they're not flanged, they'll fall off! Anybody know?

[Nigel BennettParticipant @nigelbennett69913]

How do they work?

[Gas_mantle.Participant @gas_mantle]

Hi,

I can't directly answer your question but this peculiarity in Australia on a similar subject may be of interest.

**LINK**

Part way down the page there are a set of facing points where 2 different gauges operate over the same track, the points divert the 2 different gauges on different routes without any moving parts.

Peter.

[AcrosticusParticipant @acrosticus]

This type of funicular carriage has double flanged wheels on the outside rail, and unflanged wheels on the inside, point-side, of the loop, and so are guided by the continuous outer rail of the loop. So, the two carriages are (obviously) mirror images in this respect.

Regards

Tony

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

That would work. But there would have to be a turning loop at either end of the railway, unless the two trains were such that one had the double flange wheel on the Port side & the other on the Stbd side.

Regards,

Richard.

[AcrosticusParticipant @acrosticus]

It's a funicular: there are only two carriages. One goes up pulled by the cable, as the other comes down, in balance. They have double flanged wheels on the outer side of the loop, one carriage on the left, the other one on the right. They don't need to be turned, as they never come off the end of the cable The track is constructed to feed the cable around the correct side of the loop as the carriage comes down to it., as the photo shows.

regards

Tony

[AcrosticusParticipant @acrosticus]

P.S. There is a trailing cable running down beyond the carriage, but as you can see in the photo, this is much thinner than the one which carries the load.

[MM57Participant @mm57]

Wikipedia has it all… **LINK**

Edited By Martin Millener on 09/07/2015 12:27:32

[Nigel BennettParticipant @nigelbennett69913]

Cheers, guys! It's obvious when it's explained! Like Richard, I assumed that the cars would use one side of the loop going up, and t'other one going down, as per normal railway practice. I had done an Internet search before submitting the question, but for some reason I never found the Wikepedia entry Martin Millener shows.

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