Letná funicular
The Letná funicular ( Czech : Lanová dráha na Letnou or Lanovka na Letnou for short ) was a funicular that ran in the Czech capital Prague to the Letná hill north of the city center . As the Petřín funicular opened as a water ballast railway in 1891 , it was electrified by František Křižík in 1903 . In 1916 , in connection with the First World War , the railway was shut down until further notice and has not been reopened to this day.
history
Construction and opening
The Letná funicular was opened on May 31, 1891 on the occasion of the national jubilee exhibition in Prague, together with the two new means of transport, the Petřín funicular and Letná tram , under the direction of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy under the name Letná cable car . It connected the center of Prague with the highest point of the Letná Hill (then also known as Letná Height ), one of seven hills surrounding the Prague Valley. The Letná funicular was opened in the same year as the Petřín funicular as water ballast railway built. In contrast to the latter, the Letná funicular was owned by the City of Prague from the start.
The web had a continuous two-track system without passing place with a track width of 1000 mm ( meter gauge ), in each case in the track center, a brake rack according Abt system installed was. The latter braking aid was a rarity, as most railways of this type were built with a brake rack according to the Riggenbach system. The cables were routed between the brake racks and the external tracks on each side of the separate double-track system with partly inclined rollers . The route overcame a height difference of 190 m.
The two vehicles were similar to those of the Petřín funicular , but smaller. They had a glassed on the sides of the car body out of wood with four stepped interior compartments and each a narrow open platform at both ends for the motorman / brakeman .
electrification
In the year 1903 the railway from the Czech was electric - engineer Frantisek Krizik , the builder of the opened in the same year in 1891 as the two funiculars with water obesity drive Letná tram , in its system electrified and continue to operate in this manner until the closure. Except for the drive system, almost nothing was changed on the system; even the vehicles remained the same.
Shutdown
The traffic was stopped for the time being in 1916 because of the First World War and has not been reopened until today. It was declared permanently closed in 1922 and most of the facilities were dismantled from 1937 (before the Second World War ). Remnants of the railway can still be found, however.
