 The rack rail on a cog railway.
 Schneeberg cog railway steam locomotive, with tilted boiler, on level track A cog railway or rack-and-pinion railway is a mountain railway with a special toothed rack rail mounted on the sleepers between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels that mesh with this rack rail. This allows the locomotives to haul the trains up steeply inclined slopes. Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 705 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 705 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 1461 KB) Picture taken by me User:Robbe of the cog railroad in Puchberg/Schneeberg, Austria. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 1461 KB) Picture taken by me User:Robbe of the cog railroad in Puchberg/Schneeberg, Austria. ...
A mountain railway is a railway that ascends and descends a mountain slope that has a steep grade. ...
A railroad tie or sleeper is an oblong object used as a base for railroad tracks. ...
track Railroad or railway tracks are used on railways, which, together with railroad switches (points), guide trains without the need for steering. ...
There are various types of trains designed for particular purposes, see rail transport operations. ...
Spur gears found on a piece of farm equipment. ...
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train, and has no payload capacity of its own; its sole purpose is to move the train along the tracks. ...
Rack systems A number of different rack systems have been developed: - The Riggenbach system uses a ladder rack, formed of steel plates connected by round bars at regular intervals. The Riggenbach system was the first system devised, and suffers from the problem that its fixed rack is much more complex and expensive to build than the other systems. This system is sometimes known as the Marsh system, because of simultaneous invention by an American inventor, Syvester Marsh, builder of the Mount Washington railroad.
- The Abt system was devised by Roman Abt, a Swiss locomotive engineer working for a Riggenbach-equipped line, as an improved rack system. The Abt rack features steel plates mounted vertically and in parallel to the rails, with rack teeth machined to a precise profile in them. These engage with the locomotive's pinion teeth much more smoothly than the Riggenbach system. Two or three parallel sets of Abt rack plates are used, with a corresponding number of driving pinions on the locomotive, to ensure that at least one pinion tooth is always engaged securely.
- The Strub system is similar to the Abt but uses just one row of wider rack plate. It is the simplest rack system to maintain and has become increasingly popular.
- The Locher system involves gear teeth cut in the sides rather than the top of the rail, engaged by two cog wheels on the locomotive. This system allows use on steeper grades than the other systems, whose teeth could jump out of the rack. It is used on the Mount Pilatus railway.
- The Fell system (not actually a rack system) uses a raised centre rail that is gripped by a mechanism on the engine.
The vast majority of cog railways use the Abt system. Carl Roman Abt ( 16 July 1850 - 1 May 1933, Lucerne) was a Swiss mechanical engineer who invented the Abt rack system for rack railways. ...
Mount Pilatus is a mountain near Lucerne, Switzerland. ...
Fell system as used on the Snaefell Mountain Railway. ...
Some rail systems, known as 'rack-and-adhesion', use the cog drive only on the steepest sections and elsewhere operate like a regular railway. Others are rack-only. On the latter type, the locomotives' wheels are generally free-wheeling and despite appearances do not contribute to driving the train.
Cog locomotives
 Pike's Peak cog steam locomotive on steeply graded track, showing the tilted boiler level Originally, almost all cog railways were powered by steam locomotives. The steam locomotive needs to be extensively modified to work effectively in this environment. Unlike a diesel locomotive or electric locomotive, the steam locomotive only works when its powerplant (the boiler, in this case) is fairly level. The locomotive boiler requires water to cover the boiler tubes and firebox sheets at all times, particularly the crown sheet, the metal top of the firebox. If this is not covered with water, the heat of the fire will melt it until it softens enough to give way under the boiler pressure, leading to a catastrophic failure. Manitou & Pikes Peak Steam Locomotive This photograph shows Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway locomotive Pikes Peak. Photograph was taken during or before 1893 and published around that date, and is thus public domain. ...
Great Western Railway No. ...
Great Western Railway No. ...
East German E 18 electric locomotives of the Deutsche Reichsbahn An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electric motors which draws current from an overhead wire, a third rail, or an on-board storage device such as a battery or a flywheel energy storage system. ...
In a steam engine, the firebox is the area where the fuel is burned, producing heat to boil the water in the boiler. ...
On rack systems with extreme gradients, the boiler, cab and general superstructure of the locomotive are tilted forward relative to the wheels, so that they are more or less horizontal when on the steeply graded track of the railway. These locomotives often cannot function on level track, and so the entire line, including maintenance shops, must be laid on a gradient. This is one of the reasons why rack railways were among the first the be electrfied and most of todays rack railways are electricaly opwere.
On a rack-only railroad locomotives always push their passenger cars for safety reasons since the locomotive is fitted with powerful brakes, often including hooks or clamps that grip the rack rail solidly. Some locomotives are fitted with automatic brakes that apply if the speed gets too high, preventing runaways. Often there is no coupler between locomotive and train since gravity will always push the passenger car down against the locomotive. Eletricaly powered vehicles often have electro-magnetic track brakes as well. Restored passenger cars on display at the Mid Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, WI. A passenger car is a piece of railroad rolling stock that is designed to carry passengers. ...
List of cog and rack railways This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Australia - West Coast Wilderness Railway in Tasmania, originally opened in 1896 to service the Mount Lyell copper mine and closed and completely removed in 1960s'. Rebuilt and re-opened for tourists in 2003. Uses Abt system.
- Mt Morgan - rack system existed until 1950s until deviated.
- SkiTube - in Snowy Mountains.
The West Coast Wilderness Railway, Tasmania is a reconstruction of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company railway between Queenstown and Regatta Point. ...
Jump to: navigation, search Motto: Ubertas et Fidelitas (Fertility and Faithfulness) Nickname: The Apple Isle Other Australian states and territories Capital Hobart Government Governor Premier Const. ...
Jump to: navigation, search 1896 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...
Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company was a Tasmanian mining company formed on the 29 March 1893, most commonly referred to as Mount Lyell. ...
Jump to: navigation, search // Events and trends and events and trends and events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom...
Austria This article is about the Tyrol, the region in the eastern Alps. ...
Styria (die Steiermark in German, Å tajerska in Slovenian) is a federal state or Bundesland, located in the south east of Austria. ...
Schafbergbahn near St. ...
Upper Austria (Ober sterreich) is one of the nine federal states or Bundesl nder of Austria. ...
The Schneebergbahn The Schneebergbahn is a cog railway leading from the small town of Puchberg in Lower Austria up to a pleateau beneath the Schneeberg, with 2076m the highest mountain of Lower Austria. ...
Lower Austria (Niederösterreich) is one of the nine federal states or Bundesländer in Austria. ...
Brazil Corcovado Rack Railcar The Corcovado Rack Railway is a mountain railway line in the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. ...
France A rack-railway train of line C at the station Croix-Paquet. ...
The Mont Blanc Tramway or Tramway du Mont-Blanc is a mountain railway line in the Haute-Savoie region of France. ...
View of the train and the Mer de Glace The Montenvers Railway or Chemin de fer du Montenvers is a mountain railway line in the Haute-Savoie region of France. ...
Germany The Drachenfels Railway or Drachenfelsbahn is a mountain railway line in Germany. ...
Greece - Diakofto Kalavrita Railway [1]
Hungary - Fogaskerekű Vasút in Budapest, Hungary is a kind of cog-wheel tram in the hilly Buda part of the city.
Budapest seen from north. ...
Jump to: navigation, search A modern tram in the Töölö district of Helsinki, Finland Volkswagen Cargo-Tram in Dresden. ...
India The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) is one of the oldest mountain railways in India, built in the Nilgiri Hills of southern India, in the state of Tamil Nadu. ...
Italy The Superga Rack Railway (or Sassi-Superga Railway) is a mountain railway line in the city of Turin in Italy. ...
Japan - Ikawa Line, Oigawa Railway is the only one rack-and-pinion railway operating in Japan. The company runs a 1067mm (Japanese standard) line and Ikawa line, converted from 762 mm gauge, in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan. The Abt system section of 1.5 km with maximum gradient of 9% is in Igawa Line, re-laid from adhesion line on 2 October 1990, due to Nagashima Dam construction.
- Usui Pass was the first cog line in Japan, built in Shin-Etsu Line of the then Japanese National Railway. It was replaced in 1963 by a newly built parallel pure adhesion line.
Usui Pass (碓氷峠) is a mountain pass that lies between Nagano and Gunma Prefectures in Japan. ...
New Zealand The Rimutaka Incline was a 3-mile (5-km) stretch of steeply-graded line between Summit and Cross Creek on the original Wairarapa railway line between Wellington and Masterton in New Zealand. ...
Former parliament buildings on the left and part of the current complex, The Beehive, on the right Wellington (Te Whanganui-a-Tara or Poneke) is the capital city of New Zealand and the countrys second-largest urban area. ...
In geography a fell is a treeless mountain landscape that has been shaped by glacier ice earlier in history. ...
Jump to: navigation, search 1955 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Spain The Montserrat Rack Railway or Cremallera de Montserrat is a mountain railway line north of Barcelona in the Catalonia region of Spain. ...
The Vall de Núria Rack Railway is a mountain railway line in the Pyrenees mountains in the north of the Catalonia region of Spain. ...
Switzerland A train of the BOB in Interlaken The Berner Oberland Bahn (BOB, pro. ...
The Jungfraubahn (JB) is an 1000 millimetre gauge rack railway electrified at 3-phase 1,125 volts, which runs 9 kilometres from Kleine Scheidegg to the highest railway station in Europe at Jungfraujoch. ...
The Luzern-Stans-Engelberg-Bahn (LSE, pro. ...
The Monte Generoso Railway or Ferrovia Monte Generoso (MG) is a mountain railway line inaugurated the 5th of June 1890 in the Italian speaking canton of Ticino, in south-east Switzerland. ...
Pilatus Railway train at the summit station The Locher system rack and pinion Rotary switch in operation The Pilatus Railway or Pilatusbahn (PB) is a mountain railway in Switzerland and is the steepest rack railway in the world, with a maximum gradient of 48%. The line runs from Alpnachstad, on...
A descending Schynige Platte Bahn train The Schynige Platte Railway or Schynige Platte Bahn (SPB) is a mountain railway in the Bernese Oberland area of Switzerland, which connects the town of Wilderswil with the famous wildflower gardens of the Schynige Platte. ...
The Wengernalpbahn (or WAB) is a 19. ...
Alternate uses: Rorschach (superhero), Rorschach inkblot test, Hermann Rorschach Rorschach is a city in the canton of St. ...
Heiden is the name of two municipalities: Heiden,_Germany Heiden,_Switzerland This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
United Kingdom A train at Llanberis station The Snowdon Mountain Railway is a narrow gauge rack and pinion mountain railway in Wales. ...
United States The Mount Washington Cog Railway The Mount Washington Cog Railway was the worlds first cog railway (rack-and-pinion railway). ...
M&PPR locomotive Pikes Peak circa 1893 The Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway is a cog railway in Colorado (United States), climbing the well-known mountain Pikes Peak. ...
In fiction The Culdee Fell Mountain Railway is a fictional cog railway on the Island of Sodor in The Railway Series by Rev. W. Awdry. Its operation, locomotives and history are at least in part based on the Snowdon Mountain Railway. Jump to: navigation, search This article needs to be wikified. ...
// Headline text Headline text Italic textItalic textItalic textItalic textItalic textItalic textItalic textBold textBold textBold textBold text--65. ...
A map of the Island of Sodor showing the Railway system (click to enlarge). ...
Jump to: navigation, search Map showing the railways on the Island of Sodor (click to enlarge). ...
The Reverend W. V. Awdry OBE (15 June 1911 – 21 March 1997) was a clergyman, railway enthusiast and childrens author, best known as the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine. ...
Jump to: navigation, search Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends (changed into Thomas & Friends) is a childrens television series which was first broadcast in 1984. ...
A train at Llanberis station The Snowdon Mountain Railway is a narrow gauge rack and pinion mountain railway in Wales. ...
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