…ianwoodmore…Now it worked. Thanks. I’m trying to understand what I’m looking at in the matter of achieving adhesion…Does it work in the manner of 2 drive wheels horizonally positioned against the sides of the center rail with pressure and achieving proper adhesion to pull the train along the track without slipping…In other words, not using any rack and cog system…or did the sides of the center rail have a fine rack design and the driving wheels have the contacting cog against it…I’m guessing that’s it as I now look closer.
…But looking west from up on the bridge [and down where the depot used to be], that too is down grade, albeit not as severe as the other side of the summit.
Rimutaka was worked using the Fell system, which is NOT a cog system. It uses horizontal adhesion wheels, clamped against a center rail with very strong springs.
Incidentally, the ‘rack’ engines are completely separate from the normal locomotive cylinders/drivers, and usually ran at a different speed. Four of these engines, therefore, sounded more like eight. Someone commented that watching four or five of them climb the Spiral was a sight worth coming 12,000 miles to see.
Fell, btw, would be a MUCH better choice for an ‘assisted’ Saluda than anything with fixed cogs. Wear and alignment problems alone with American loads and weights would prove substantial… we won’t get into the probable difficulties with ‘cog braking’. Note that there’s little practical limitation on the number of adhesion-wheel pairs; the solution would then entail the use of ‘helper MATEs’ equipped with multiple electric-motor Fell units, drawing their power from appropriately-modified mothers (which of course could be useful elsewhere on the system, or provided in substantial enough numbers). Only a small number of the MATEs would be needed for anticipated travel over this relatively short grade, and should be capable of sufficient TE to take relatively long cuts of cars…
Thanx Mark - I will try to remember that. Need to go somewhere so I can actually see this in use!
Mook
The Bernina Pass line of the Rhaetian Railways in southeastern Switzerland has some 7% grades, the rest are mainly 6%. Riding up the line from Tornino, Italy, to Pontresina, Switzerland, is quite an experience–especially when the passenger units–passenger car and loccomotive combined–are pulling log-laden flat cars. The line is all adhesion–not a cog in sight.