I was wondering if there is a HO scale incline? It doesn’t matter if its a cog or cable just so it run up and down the side of a hill.
I think that there was one back in the late 60’s offered by AHM now IHC. It could have been made by Rivarossi, Cox or Brawa. It was deinitely European in origin. You might want to check AHM ads from that era in MR to confirm. Where you would find one today is beyond me.
I do believe what you’re looking for is called a Fenicular. I was watching Rick Steve’s Europe this morning (sort of) when they were in Portugal and they had an interesting one that must have been cable operated. I didn’t see any beveled 3rd or 4th rail and they had two cars that passed each other using a wye! That’s the part that makes me think they were cable operated, they hit ‘on’ switch one car goes up the hill the other car goes down. I think the gear ones are more interesting though.
There are many kinds of prototypes…
Funiculars, or inclined planes, are people movers, although incline cars were many times constructed to also carry horses & wagons, which we now call automobiles.
The steepest incline in the world is the Johnstown Inclined Plane at a 70.9% incline – constructed in 1891 as a response to future flooding evacuation after thousands had perished in the 1889 Johnstown Flood. This hillside railroad is controlled by two-inch steel cables from the topside Inclined Plane cablehouse.
Here are links to other prototype funiculars…
http://incline.pghfree.net/historycover.htm
Also look at America’s first incline, the Portage Railroad, constructed in 1834 as part of the Pennsylvania Canal beginning at Hollidaysburg to over the Allegheny Mountains summit headquarters in Cresson and then terminating in Johnstown. The Staple Bend Tunnel was America’s first railroad tunnel.
http://www.funimag.com/funimag28/Allegheny01.htm
Another type of incline railroad can be found at Pike’s Peak, the world’s highest cog railroad, using cogs instead of steel cables…
The few model funicular/inclined planes I’ve run across a few years ago are from European prototype and quite expensive. You might consider a scratchbuilding project. The biggest challenge would be if you make it an electric motor-controlled working inclined plane.
This is a follow up thought. Switzerland has at least one rack railroad and LGB makes the train in G gauge. I would reserach the European producers to see if one is made in HO. It will probably have an electric engine for the power but a diesel shell could possibly be fitted over the mecahnism if you didn;t want to string catenary.
I was going to say, look through the pages of the Walther’s Catalog for funicular railroads.[:)]