Funicular

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stuttgart funicular to the forest cemetery
Harderbahn near Interlaken

A funicular is a rail-bound means of transport belonging to a cable car , the operating equipment of which runs on rails or other fixed guides and is moved by one or more ropes. With this means of transport, considerable differences in altitude can be overcome over a short distance. On mountain routes, there are usually two cars or groups of cars that are permanently connected to a wire rope that is guided over a pulley in the mountain station . The two wagons or groups of wagons on the wire rope are roughly in equilibrium , so that only small forces have to be applied to drive the train. In the past, the drive was often carried out by water ballast ( water ballast train ), today mostly by an electric motor that acts on the pulley in the mountain station. On most railways, the car going downhill meets the car going uphill in the middle of the route, where a passing point has been created. Alternatively, shorter routes are often designed with two tracks.

The funicular railways also include special designs with only one carriage and a counterweight or a cable drum, usually referred to as inclined lifts or winch lifts.

A distinction must be made between the funicular railway and the cable cars that are coupled to and uncoupled from the main cable , such as the San Francisco Cable Cars or the Mini-Metro .

history

The Budavári Sikló in Budapest opened in 1870. It is the oldest funicular in Europe still in operation.
The Turmbergbahn is the oldest funicular in Germany still in operation.

A funicular railway was first described in a military fireworks book from 1411. The early funiculars were mainly used to transport material and people to castles on steep mountain tops. The oldest surviving funicular in the world is likely to be the tearing train built around 1495 to the Hohensalzburg Fortress . Later funiculars were often built as ship lifts in America in the early 19th century for canal construction .

As the oldest serving the passenger transport funicular opened in 1845 is one water ballast train Prospect Park Incline Railway in Niagara Falls in the United States . In Europe, the first funicular operated in Lyon in 1862 on the Rue Terme – Croix Rousse line , which was closed in 1967 and replaced by a road. The oldest funicular in Europe operating on the original track and route is the Budavári Sikló in Budapest , which has been in operation since 1870 . The oldest underground funicular railway, and the first underground railway outside of London , is the Tünel , which opened in 1875, in Istanbul .

Early funiculars were built as water ballast , but stationary steam engines were also used. (Examples: Schlossbergbahn in Budapest with drive in the valley station, Rue Terme – Croix Rousse in Lyon with drive in the mountain station).

One of the first electrically powered funicular railways was the Bürgenstock cable car, which opened in 1888 and where there was no water in the mountain station. The drive seemed to prove itself, so that the same client also commissioned the Stanserhorn Railway and the San Salvatore Railway as electric funiculars. At the beginning of the 20th century, many water ballast runways were converted to electric drives. Electric operation allowed lighter cars that needed less braking force and could therefore travel faster, so that the transport capacity of the railway could be increased.

Germany

Funicular at the Altonaer Kai around 1849

From 1845 to 1879, on the Altona port railway, freight wagons were moved on trestles over a 210-meter-long slope of 15 percent from the quay to the higher station. The rope hoist was initially driven by a horse peg , then from 1849 by a steam engine . From 1879, this funicular was replaced by a 400-meter-long tunnel section of the Altona-Kiel Railway .

In Zeitz , a funicular railway ran from the lower town to the upper town from 1877 and transported people and wagons on a steep stretch of road. It was driven by a stationary steam engine in the mountain station. Railway operations were stopped in 1959 due to unreliable safety equipment. The Malbergbahn , which opened in 1887, has also been shut down, making the Turmbergbahn near Karlsruhe - Durlach , which opened on May 1, 1888, the oldest funicular railway still in operation.

Austria

In Austria , the first public funicular to the Leopoldsberg was opened in 1873 , but was shut down again in 1876. The Salzburg fortress railway, which went into operation in 1892, is the oldest public facility in Austria that is still in use. Two years later, on November 25th, 1894, the Schloßbergbahn went into operation in Graz . The probably oldest surviving funicular railway, the tear train of the Hohensalzburg Fortress, can be traced back to at least 1460.

Switzerland

Giessbachbahn is the oldest still in operation in Switzerland.

In Switzerland , the Lausanne-Ouchy funicular opened on March 16, 1877. The railway was converted into a rack railway in 1958/1959 and into an automatic Pneumetro ( M2 of Métro Lausanne ) from 2006–2008 . The Giessbachbahn in the Bernese Oberland , opened in 1879, is the oldest Swiss funicular railway still in operation and at the same time the oldest cableway in Europe built solely for tourism purposes. The Territet – Glion funicular on Lake Geneva followed in 1883, the funicular to the Gütsch in Lucerne in 1884 , the Marzilibahn in Bern in 1885 and the Lugano funicular from the station to the city center in 1886. The rate of openings increased thereafter and, in addition to inner-city railways, other local access railways and purely tourist railways were added, the development of which was mostly closely linked to the hotel industry. In this respect, the building contractor and hotelier Franz Josef Bucher- Durrer together with his partner Josef Durrer excelled .

In the 1930s, tobogganing ropeways were built in several Swiss ski resorts , which are popularly known locally as Funi (from French funiculaire or Italian funivia). These railways did not require a fixed infrastructure, so that they could be built inexpensively. The systems were soon replaced by more powerful ski lifts .

In 1934, the last funicular railway in Switzerland was opened for around 50 years. This mode of transport was only used again in 1980 with the Sunnegga Express in Zermatt , when the cable cars in the ski areas reached their capacity limits. In 2001, with the Fun'ambule in Neuchâtel, which was created with a view to the Expo'02, a new inner-city funicular was added for the first time. Most of the existing railways have been repeatedly and thoroughly renewed over the course of time or even rebuilt on the existing route. Some of them have not lost their original character from the early days. For example the Bürgenstock Railway , Heimwehfluhbahn , Giessbachbahn , Reichenbachfall Railway and Sonnenbergbahn .

technology

dare

Harderbahn passenger car near Interlaken
Polybahn in Zurich, fully automatic system with historic-looking cars
In the Stoosbahn, the compartments adapt to the slope

Today, funiculars are mostly used for passenger transport. Smaller cars have a capacity of around 20 people, but sometimes trains with a capacity of 450 people are used.

The cars are usually adapted to the average gradient of the route. Since longer lanes rarely have the same incline all along the route, the floors of the compartments are not always horizontal. In newer systems with strongly fluctuating inclines, such as the Schwyz – Stoos funicular from 2017 and the Hungerburgbahn that went into operation in 2007 , the compartments are suspended individually and movably. A tilt-dependent control ensures that the passenger cabins are always horizontal along the entire route.

In the Alpine countries, many funicular railways were built for the transport of personnel and materials when building power plants in the mountains. After the construction work was completed, these railways were often opened to public transport. Examples are the Gelmerbahn , the Ritom funicular or the Peterskopfbahn .

Most railways have the same type of car. A special feature is the Oberweißbacher Bergbahn , which was opened in 1923 to transport standard-gauge railway cars. One car of the funicular is designed as a normal passenger car, the other as a freight platform that can accommodate a railway car. If no freight wagons are being transported, a standard-gauge passenger car can be placed on the freight platform so that the railway's capacity for passenger transport can be almost doubled.

On some funicular railways, the wagons are not used to transport payloads, but are only used to push other vehicles on the steep section. Such push carriages are called tractors . (see also the section on funicular railways with tractor operation )

Track system

Alternative piece ( Abtsche Weichen ) of the mountain railway to the Königstuhl in Heidelberg
Drive pulley with drive pinion of the Merkur mountain railway from 1913 to 1967
Cable rollers for the Biel-Magglingen Railway

The carriages of the funicular run on rails or, in special cases, on another type of track. These for example include the Dorfbahn Serfaus ( Austria ) and the Skymetro in Zurich Airport - both subterranean air cushion cableway with cable drive, the underground pneumatic subway Carmelite in Haifa or Telefuni plants mentioned in which the cars run on two wire ropes.

The first funicular railways had a separate track for each car, so that two tracks were laid side by side on the route. Since the invention of the Abt switch , which has no moving parts, the route can be laid out on a single track with a passing point in the middle of the route. For this purpose, the wagons require asymmetrical wheel sets that have wheels with double flanges on one side , while the wheels on the other side have no flanges. The double flanged wheels take over the guidance of the car. Because they are on different sides of the two carriages, the carriages follow their outer rails in the turnout and can therefore meet without danger. The rimless wheels must be able to cross the gaps in the rails for the pulling rope to pass through and, in some cases, the space for the safety brakes, which usually encompass the rail head. This is why they have an extra-wide running surface that is similar to a roller.

In the case of railways with an Abt switch, the safety brakes act on the rails on which the double flange wheels run. In the past, the rail heads were often wedge-shaped, so-called wedge head rails, so that the carriages were not pushed upwards when the safety brakes were applied .

Abbot's evasions are not applicable if other vehicles are to be transferred to the cable car route. Then adjustable turnouts or track looping are indispensable and the wagons are equipped with regulating wheel sets. In the case of railways with only one carriage and a drum winder, asymmetrical wheel sets are also not required. However, they are occasionally used anyway because the manufacturers use standard material for them.

Driving operation

The driving speed is in the range of 20 km / h up to 50 km / h in exceptional cases. The travel times vary greatly depending on the train, the travel intervals are usually 15 to 20 minutes.

Many smaller railways are operated driverless and can be operated by the passengers in a similar way to an elevator. Examples are the Merkurbergbahn in Baden-Baden , the Mühleggbahn in St. Gallen or the Rigiblick cable car in Zurich .

Route profile and compensation of the rope weight

Funiculars are the steepest of all. Information on the steepest runs can be found in the Records section . In the case of flat lifts with an incline of less than 50 to 60 ‰, the wagons must also be connected to one another on the valley side by a compensation rope that runs over a retensioned pulley in the valley station. The compensation rope prevents the car traveling downhill from stopping on the route due to the lack of downhill force . In this way, railways are also possible that have no incline at all and, for example, connect two stations located at the same level within cities and airports.

In the case of inclined railways, the weight of the rope also affects the force relationships in the funicular system. When the cars are in the stations, almost the entire mass of the rope is on one side of the pulley in the mountain station, namely on the side of the car in the valley station. At the start of the journey, the entire mass of the rope must be pulled up the mountain, which is often greater than the payload of the wagon on the valley side. The forces to be generated by the drive decrease with the course of the journey, because the rope lengths on both sides of the pulley become more and more balanced until the cars cross in the middle station. Then the rope length increases again on the side of the downhill car compared to the uphill car.

In the case of relatively long stretches or very steep tracks, the occupancy of the wagons compared to the weight of the rope is almost irrelevant because the weight of the rope is significantly greater in relation to the payload. The ideal funicular therefore has a route that starts almost flat at the valley station and becomes steeper towards the mountain station. When leaving the stations, the downhill force acting on the downhill car standing in the steep section is the same as the downhill force of the rope hanging on the uphill car. With the course of the journey, the gradient of the route for the downhill car decreases proportionally, as does the rope length on the uphill car. Some lifts were designed in line with this ideal, for example the Funicular de Montjuïc in Barcelona and the Mendelbahn in South Tyrol.

In many cases, an ideal route profile cannot be achieved, so that the driving force and the brake of the train have to be constantly readjusted in order to keep the traveling speed of the cars constant. At the very steep path Le Châtelard-Château d'Eau , the down force of the rope was so great that it by a special "ballast Vorstellwagen be compensated" had that was recorded on the track.

Inclined elevator

Gelmerbahn , a power station funicular with a 106 percent gradient

Funiculars with only one car are technically referred to as inclined lifts. Many funicular railways built as construction railways along the pressure lines of storage power plants only have one car for transporting payloads. The trolley is either pulled up the route by a drum winder in the mountain station or it is connected to a counterweight via a pulley in the mountain station.

Smaller systems can be equipped with a normal elevator control. That is, they can be used like a vertical elevator in a building, but they run at an angle, mostly on rails. If such systems are not used for the operation of buildings and structures, but for public passenger transport, they are considered funiculars (i.e. they fall under the Cable Car Directive).

Inclined elevators are also used in mining, for the transport of personnel or for mined rock in shaft conveyance, for example the ore mining elevator .

Examples

Boat lift

Saint-Louis / Arzviller boat lift

Ship lifts can be designed as inclined lifts on an inclined plane. These systems are known in French as plan inclinée . Since the transport troughs run on rails and hang at the ends of a rope (a ballast wagon usually hangs at the other end), they only differ from other funiculars in their unusual vehicles (and possibly multi-rail tracks). Examples are the ronquières inclined plane (double lift) in the channel-Brussels Charleroi and Vogesental the anger the ship lift Saint-Louis / Arzviller of Rhein-Marne channel . With these systems, the feeder canal sections could be better integrated into the landscape than for vertical elevators.

The twin lift version, on the other hand, corresponds to the classic funicular in that two troughs hang on the same rope and move in opposite directions. However, there is no longer any such thing. The inclined plains in the Upland Canal in Poland are in operation , but they are not operated with water-filled troughs, but work with dry pumping.

Water ballast track

Different route designs of funicular railways (here as a water ballast railway with the gravity drive often used in the past)
The Nerobergbahn in Wiesbaden, the only water ballast track still in operation in Germany
Neuveville – Saint-Pierre funicular operated with water ballast

With the water ballast lifts, the mass of the car parked in the mountain station is artificially increased by introducing water into a tank. The force of gravity , which acts on the additional mass of the wagon, pulls it downhill, with the wagon standing in the valley station being pulled uphill by means of the wire rope running over the pulley. Because the length of the rope and thus the weight of the rope between the mountain station and the car traveling downhill steadily increases with the journey, the speed must be regulated by braking or draining the water while driving. On these railways, the brake usually acts on a gear wheel that engages in a rack between the rails.

If possible, the water is taken from a stream at the mountain station. If there is no one, the water is pumped from pumps at the valley station through a pressure pipe into a reservoir at the mountain station.

Most railways today have been converted to electrical operation because the water ballast system has some disadvantages. The wagons with up to 5 tons of water ballast are quite heavy, so the tracks have to be designed accordingly and require careful maintenance. You also have to wait between trips until the car's water tank in the mountain station is filled again. This limits the number of possible trips per hour. The few railways that are still in operation are partly operated with wastewater in order to save valuable drinking water.

Examples
  • Neuveville – Saint-Pierre funicular in Friborg (Switzerland), built in 1897. The only water ballast railway still in operation in Switzerland. The wastewater from the district at the mountain station serves as ballast. The railway was restored in 1998 and is a national treasure.
  • Nerobergbahn in Wiesbaden , the only water ballast track still in operation in Germany.
  • Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway , opened in 1890. In contrast to the system for regulating the driving force described above, the water from the car going downhill is not drained from the car going downhill, but from the car going uphill, which is refilled on arrival at the mountain station. This operating mode is sometimes referred to as the subtractive method .

Funiculars with tractor operation

Trieste: A tractor pushes an adhesion wagon over the steep ramp.

Some funiculars do not carry any payload in their car themselves, but are only used to push or brake other vehicles on steep stretches. The transported vehicles could continue their journey with their own drive before or after the funicular. These systems do not belong to the inclined rope planes because the vehicles connected to the rope cannot be operationally detached from it. The push carts of such railways are usually referred to as tractors .

Examples
  • Funicular section of the Trieste – Opicina line in Trieste . The system with two tractors, driven by a fixed electric motor in the mountain station, helps regular four-axle adhesion wagons to overcome a 26 percent steep ramp. This plant is still in operation today.
  • Funicular section of the tram in Catanzaro , Calabria . The system itself had no drive, but rather connected a tram going uphill and a downhill tram by means of tractors. It was driven by the powerfully motorized tram itself. The facility was shut down in 1970 and replaced by a rack railway.
  • Section of the funicular of the Tranvia di Monreale in Sicily . With this system, the tractors drove on a narrow track between the tram track, which enabled them to disappear into a pit in the valley station so that they could be run over by the tram cars. The system did not have a fixed drive, but was driven by the tractors equipped with engines. It was in operation from 1900 to 1946.
  • Funiculars based on the Agudio system

System Agudio

Sassi-Superga train using the Agudio system. The railway was converted into a rack railway in 1935.

Tommaso Agudio developed a funicular, the carriages of which wind themselves up like a chain tractor on a firmly anchored rope, with the winch on the carriage being driven by an endlessly revolving rope that is stationary. The powered wagon, also known as a tractor , could not take a payload due to the complex winch, which therefore had to be pushed uphill in the wagons presented. The descent took place on the stationary drive rope, whereby the speed was only controlled by the brakes on the tractor.

A first test section for the Agudio system was set up in 1863 near Dusino on the Giovipass . Here, the rope drive was carried out by stationary steam engines that were converted from old steam locomotives.

The Agudio system has already been modified and simplified for a further test route along the railway according to the Fell system on the north side of the Mont Cenis pass. The tractor no longer worked its way along a rope, but was equipped with gear wheels that, similar to the Locher system , engaged on both sides of a rack in the center of the track . The Agudio system was transformed into a cogwheel train driven by a revolving rope . The system on Mont Cenis was driven by hydroelectric power from Girard turbines . The line was only in operation for a short time, but some of the equipment was used for the third and final application of the system on the Sassi-Superga line near Turin , where the system was in operation until 1934.

There were also plans to carry out the major Alpine crossings, such as the Gotthard Railway or the crossing of the Cordilleras in Chile , using the Agudio system. The operation of the cable cars was too complicated, so that was not done. Thomas Agudio founded the company named after him for the manufacture of cable cars.

Toboggan cableway

Similar to a normal funicular railway, two steerable sleds are attached to a wire rope that runs over a pulley in the mountain station. Because of the high frictional resistance of the sledges, they must also be connected to one another with a pull rope on the valley side. It is driven by an electric motor either in the valley or mountain station. Due to the lack of guidance through the roadway, the sledges have to be steered by the drivers.

Although the tearing train to the Hohensalzburg Fortress initially used sledges instead of wagons, it was not until the 1930s and 1940s that sledge ropeways became more widespread in the entire Alpine region as inexpensive access to ski slopes. At the end of the season, the systems could be cleared away. The toboggan cable cars were popularly called Funi , a short form of the French funiculaire . Most of the funis were replaced after a short time by more efficient ski lifts , but some were able to last a very long time - in Braunwald GL , the toboggan cableway only stopped operating in 1973, in Saanenmöser in 1986 and in Grindelwald in 1995.

Funiculars on level ground

A 250 m long funicular railway, across a street, connects the research center of the CEA (French state research institute for nuclear energy) at the Grenoble location with the research center for electronics and information technology CEA-Leti . The special thing about it is that the cabin is designed as a clean room in order to be able to transport devices smoothly in low-dust air.

Cable cars related to the funicular

Cable trays with detachable vehicles

No funicular:
San Francisco Cable Cars
Poma 2000 in Laon , 2014

This category includes both historical - such as the cable trams that used to be widely used or the original Glasgow Subway - and some modern systems. What they have in common is that an endlessly revolving rope is used by several rail-bound vehicles at the same time, whereby the carriages connect to the rope for the journey.

The cable trams that run in road traffic are sometimes counted among the funiculars. The systems were integrated into the course of the streets and operation took place almost exclusively within cities. The only remaining systems are the San Francisco Cable Cars . It is therefore irrelevant that the EU Directive 2000/9 / EC of the European Parliament and Council of March 20, 2000 for cable cars for passenger transport does not apply to “cable-operated trams of conventional design”.

In the case of the Skymetro hovercraft at Zurich Airport , which is driven by ropes , the wagons are also not permanently connected to the ropes and can use several rope loops.

The mini-metro system with detachable carriages, revolving traction rope and turntable for changing direction and the cable liner shuttle system with fixed-clamped vehicles are used as cable cars in local public transport in city traffic. The mini-metro system, for example, to connect a large car park with the old town of Perugia or the cable-liner shuttle system in the Mandala Bay resort in Las Vegas.

The Poma 2000 in Laon (northern France), named after the manufacturer Pomagalski from Voreppe near Grenoble , was set up in 1989 to replace a rack-and-pinion tram that operated from 1899 to 1971. The driverless vehicles (usually three) were moved, as in cable trams, by endless cables moving in a constant direction, from which they could disconnect and connect. The wheels of the wagons had pneumatic tires, and angle rails were used to guide them . Operations ceased in August 2016.

Inclined rope plane

Another technically related railway is the inclined rope level, which has now disappeared and where the wagons to be transported are not firmly connected to the rope. In most cases, these systems were part of larger railway networks, the remaining routes of which were operated in normal adhesion operation. Most of the time, only the vehicle connected to the rope had special features, while the other vehicles were normal railroad cars (see for example Paranapiacaba rail cable car ). In the simplest case, the rope was inserted with a chain directly into the foremost tow hook of a train traveling uphill and at the same time in the rearmost tow hook of a train traveling downhill (see, for example, the steep ramp Erkrath – Hochdahl ).

Records

Steepest funicular

The world's steepest funicular is the Katoomba Scenic Railway inclined elevator near Katoomba in Australia with a gradient of 128 percent, which corresponds to an inclination angle of 52.0 °. The Schwyz – Stoos funicular in Switzerland, with a gradient of 110%, is the steepest funicular with two cabins. It overcomes a height of 110 m per 100 m in the horizontal direction, which corresponds to an angle of inclination of 48.0 °. The steepest inclined elevator in Europe is the Gelmerbahn on the Grimsel Pass in Switzerland. It overcomes an incline of 106 percent, which corresponds to an inclination angle of 46.7 °. Another steep track is the facility located in Switzerland in the canton of Valais , which is part of the Parc d'Attractions du Châtelard . This power station railway, which is open to public transport, leads from Le Châtelard to the water tower of the Châtelard-Barberine power stations. The track has a gradient of 87%, which corresponds to an angle of inclination of 41.0 °. Until the opening of the new cable car on the Stoos, it was the steepest funicular with two cars.

Longest funicular

The longest operating railway is the Stollenbahn Gletscherexpress of the Mölltaler Gletscherbahnen with a length of 4827 m .

One of the longest funiculars in Europe was the Kaprun 2 glacier lift with a length of 3900 m. The plant was shut down after the fire disaster on November 11, 2000 , in which 155 people were killed by smoke inhalation.

Other long railways are Sierre-Crans-Montana with 4191 m length, the Arc-en-ciel from Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Les Arcs with 2850 m length, the funicular Seefeld-Rosshütte with 2469 m, the Raschötzer Bahn in Ortisei in Val Gardena with 2402 m and the Mendelbahn near Bozen with 2374 m operating length in one section.

Shortest and smallest funicular

Probably the world's shortest funicular railway from 1929 to 2007 was the 31 m long Saint-Nicholas Cliff Lift in Scarborough , England . The Panoramic 1 inclined elevator, opened in 1995 in the French city ​​of Langres, is only 30 m long.

The shortest funicular in Italy is the Ferata Gran Risa in Stern in the Gadertal ( South Tyrol , Italy) with a length of only 66.7 m and a height difference of 21.77 m, built in 1997.

The shortest funicular railway in Switzerland is the inclined elevator to the Hotel Montana in Lucerne from 1909. The route is 85 m long and connects the hotel, which is located on a slope, with the area of ​​the lake promenade.

See also

literature

  • Roman Abt, Siegfried Abt: Lokomotiv-Steilbahnen und Seilbahnen (= handbook of engineering sciences. Volume 5). 2nd, increased edition. Engelmann, Leipzig 1906.
  • Hans-Joachim Kupfer: High above Heslach - the Stuttgart cable car. 75 years of technology and traffic history. SSB, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-00-013868-4 .

Web links

Commons : Funicular  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Funicular railway  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Austrian Federal Law on Cable Cars (Cable Car Law 2003 - SeilbG 2003)
  2. ^ Walter Hefti: Rail cable cars all over the world. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel / Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-7643-0726-9 , p. 32.
  3. ↑ Reinhard Kriechbaum: The great journey up the mountain. In: the daily mail . May 15, 2004, accessed April 19, 2017.
  4. ↑ 1907 Incline Railway Crash. Retrieved September 5, 2009 .
  5. ↑ La ficelle de la rue Terme. Retrieved September 5, 2009 (French).
  6. ^ Budapest - Castle Hill Funicular (Hungary). Retrieved September 5, 2009 .
  7. ↑ Page of the Istanbul Transport Authority to the Tünel
  8. ^ A b c d e Walter Hefti: Rail cable cars all over the world. Inclined cable levels, funiculars, cable cars. Birkhäuser, Basel 1975, ISBN 3-7643-0726-9 .
  9. ↑ Cable car to the Bürgenstock . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 9 , no. 4 , January 22, 1887, p. 27 ( e-periodica.ch ).
  10. ↑ A. Denzler: Statistics of electrical systems in Switzerland for the years 1891-1892 . 1893, p. 96 , col. Right , doi : 10.5169 / SEALS-18121 .
  11. ↑ Zeitzer cable car - the first funicular in Germany. Archived from the original on April 10, 2009 ; Retrieved September 18, 2009 .
  12. ↑ Fred. Ammann: debit via cable . Swiss hotels with their own funicular railway. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . No. 10 , January 14, 1982, p. 51a .
  13. ↑ 100 and 50 years of cable car history (s). (PDF, 3.599 kB) Milestones, rarities and records in the world of cable cars. ISR Internationale Seilbahn-Rundschau, p. 19 , accessed on September 9, 2009 (in three languages, German, English, French, part 2 of 3): "NAPOLI CENTRALE for 450 + 1 people - Largest funicular in the world"
  14. ↑ Oberweißbacher Bergbahn: Unique funicular railway for transporting railway cars
  15. ↑ There is a new Telefuni in Fully. In: standseilbahnen.ch. Markus Seitz, accessed on March 22, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Abt'sche switches on the steep section of the Oberweißbacher Bergbahn. Retrieved September 14, 2009 .
  17. ↑ funiculars. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 12, 2008 ; Retrieved September 9, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.leitner-lifts.com
  18. ↑ The additional weight car was waiting in the middle of the route. Bahnbilder.de, accessed on September 14, 2009 .
  19. ^ Walter Hefti: Rail cable cars all over the world. Birkhäuser Verlag Basel and Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-7643-0726-9 , p. 34.
  20. ↑ Funicular with water ballast from 1888 in Wiesbaden
  21. ^ Lynton & Lynmouth (England). Retrieved September 7, 2009 .
  22. ↑ cable cars. Construction method Agudio. In: Victor von Röll (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Railway System . 2nd Edition. Volume 9. Urban & Schwarzenberg. Berlin, Vienna 1923, p. 11 ( facsimile on zeno.org )
  23. ^ M. Couche: Système Agudio pour franchir les fortes rampes. Dunod, Paris 1873. (French, blog entry with a picture of the title page )
  24. ^ Antonio Gamboni: L'antica Funicolare di Superga. Retrieved September 17, 2009 (Italian).
  25. ↑ Company brochure ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Pomagalski (PDF file), accessed November 14, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pomagalski.com
  26. ↑ Directive 2000/9 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of March 20, 2000 on cable cars for passenger transport . Chapter I: General Provisions, Article 1 Paragraph 6.
  27. ↑ Blickpunkt Tram 5/2016, p. 133.
  28. ↑ Blue Mountain - Adventure World. In: Australien Journal: Travel - Adventure - Knowledge. Retrieved September 20, 2009 .
  29. ↑ Jürg Auf der Maur: Leuthard has inaugurated the new funicular on the Stoos despite his fear of heights . In: Lucerne newspaper . ( luzernerzeitung.ch [accessed on December 16, 2017]).
  30. ↑ Information about the lift at lift-world.info, accessed on January 1, 2014.
  31. ↑ Thomas Batschelet, CH-2505 Biel / Bienne: 61.042 Sierre - Montana-Crans, Crans-Montana, funicular. Retrieved April 14, 2018 .
  32. ↑ Information about the lift: Arc en ciel at lift-world.info, accessed on May 18, 2013.
  33. ↑ Mountain railway details on: Seefeld-Rosshütte funicular. Retrieved September 6, 2009 .
  34. ↑ Michel Azéma: Saint-Nicholas Cliff Lift. 1998, accessed September 7, 2009 .
  35. ↑ Ferata GranRisa. Retrieved January 25, 2011 .
  36. ^ Michel Azéma: Hotel Montana Cable Car. Retrieved October 25, 2009 .