… and it´s not a gravy train!
Watch this video of a spectacular train ride on the Ffestiniog Railway in Wales!
Who feels up to making a model of that now? lol
This is the type of train that inspired the Maine 2 footers. Note the link and pin couplers and the comment that the gravity train shortened by 60 feet when it slowed.
Actually, that could have been true. The Ffestiniog Railway was host to many a delegation of railroad experts in the 1860´s and 1870´s, quite a few of them came fromthe US.
Thanks for posting Ulrich. Just had my morning coffee enjoying this.
I noticed that the train didn’t blow a whistle “sans engine” when it past all the whistle post. You would think it would be required to have at least a canned airhorn or something. I also liked the switch levers you could see along the way.
I believe the original gravity trains were horse-propelled upgrade, and the horses rode a special car at the rear to get back down the hill. I wonder what they thought of those tunnels.
I also wonder if this was the inspiration for development of the roller coaster.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964.
The man in the first slate car actually blows a horn at ech crossing or whistle post. You can see that in this video
It looks like an old Fox hunting horn. I bet the local Fox population heads for the hills when they hear that![(-D]
I have now had three rather large mugs of coffee, so thanks to you I will be using the train room facilities often this afternoon.[C][st]
Great stuff, Ulrich. [tup] Thanks for posting those links.
Wayne
Sir Madog wrote the following:
G Paine
This is the type of train that inspired the Maine 2 footers.
Actually, that could have been true. The Ffestiniog Railway was host to many a delegation of railroad experts in the 1860´s and 1870´s, quite a few of them came fromthe US.
My reference book on the 2 ft gauge railroads in Maine confirms this. A group from Maine did go to Wales to see what was going on with railroads there; came back and started building 2 ft gauge railroads
http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/9780738511795/Maine-Narrow-Gauge-Railroads
Nice!
In the very late 1800’s and into the early 1900’s in my hometown of Reading Pennsylvania there were two gravity railroads, the Mt Penn Gravity Railroad and the Neversink Gravity line. Both served luxury hotels on two separate mountain tops around the city. They used shay engines originally then later electrified for the upgrade, and coasted for the downgrade. There was also a two track incline railway that went to the Highland Hotel on the top of Neversink Mt.
http://www.berkshistory.org/photogalleries/gravity/index.html
http://www.berkshistory.org/photogalleries/neversink/index.html
In the 70’s and 80’s I had often hiked the remaining right of way of the Neversink Gravity railroad. A prominent area judge built a home at the site of the Highland Hotel in the mid 1980’s.
Mark H