Uncanoonuc Incline Railway
The Uncanoonuc Incline Railway was a tram and an inclined elevator in Goffstown in the US state of New Hampshire .
history
For the excursion traffic to South Uncanoonuc Mountain , the Uncanoonuc Incline Railway and Development Company first built a four-kilometer, single-track, standard-gauge electric tram line from Shirley Junction, at the intersection of South Mast Street / Wallace Road, where there was a track connection to the Manchester tram , along what is today Worthley Hill Road to the base of the mountain. The route was first used on September 15, 1905 and officially opened shortly afterwards. At the end there was a generous turning loop. The trams followed the trains from Manchester . On special occasions, the Manchester tram operated special vehicles from the city to the Uncanoonuc.
To promote tourism, the company then built a hotel on the top of the mountain, to which a 725-meter-long inclined elevator with catenary drive was built from the tram terminus . The hotel and elevator went into operation on June 8, 1907. The travel time for the tram, with an average gradient of 4.5 percent, was 15 minutes uphill and six minutes downhill. The inclined elevator took five minutes to travel and had a maximum gradient of 35 percent.
In February 1923, the hotel burned down on the mountain top, the successor building suffered the same fate in 1930. It was not replaced after that. The tram route to the valley station of the inclined elevator was used for the last time on January 8, 1938 and then shut down, the inclined elevator not until 1941 after a forest fire had destroyed the facilities.
Inclined elevator technology
The two railroad cars were firmly connected with a rope that ran around the mountain station via a pulley anchored to the ground. They acted as a counterbalance for each other and were both powered by 40 hp electric motors. In the middle of the route there was a switch where the oncoming cars met. There were three intermediate stations along the inclined elevator route. The top and bottom stations were each completely covered buildings, in which the cars could be parked at night and in winter, when the traffic was mostly idle.
literature
- Osmond R. Cummings: Manchester Street Cars. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-0412-4 , pages 109-115.