Water ballast track
A water ballast ropeway is a funicular without a prime mover that uses gravity as the driving force. A synonym for this is the water weight cable car .
Construction and drive
The two carriages of the facility are connected by a pull rope that runs over a sheave in the mountain station. The carriages are roughly in equilibrium , so that only the force has to be applied to drive the train to bring the system out of balance. This is done by artificially increasing the mass of the wagon standing in the mountain station with water so that the force of gravity acting on this additional mass can move the train.
Both wagons therefore have a ballast water tank. Between two trips, water is filled into the tank of the car in the mountain station, while the tank of the car in the valley station is emptied. The upper, heavier vehicle driving downhill now pulls the lower, lighter one up the slope. The amount of water required depends on the weight difference between the two cars, assuming about 80 liters for each passenger. Because the length of the rope and thus the weight of the rope between the sheave and the downhill trolley increases while the rope weight of the uphill trolley decreases, the speed must be regulated during the trip. This is done with brakes in the vehicles, which mostly act on a rack in the track bed , and especially with longer systems also by draining water from the car traveling downhill. Some lifts have a lower rope to compensate for the weight of the rope, which is also guided over a pulley in the valley station.
The water required for the operation of the railway was usually taken from a body of water at the mountain station. In places where no water from the surrounding area was available at the mountain station, this was pumped from the valley station through a pressure line running along the route into a reservoir at the mountain station.
The track system is usually single-track and has a passing point in the middle. Due to the special construction of the Abt turnout , each car is automatically routed to one of the two sidings. The narrow route reduces the space required and the effort required to build bridges and tunnels.
Although the water was cheap to get hold of, running with water ballast had disadvantages. Winter operation became dangerous as soon as there was a risk of the water tanks or the brake racks icing up. The compulsory break, which was necessary until the next trip due to the refilling, also proved to be disadvantageous. In addition, the high operating weight and the large axle load of the wagons increased the maintenance effort for the entire system. Therefore only a few railways with water ballast operation have survived worldwide. Most were converted to or discontinued on electrical operation.
history
The oldest installation was believed to be the Prospect Park Incline Railway, opened in 1845 near Niagara Falls in the United States . The plant was later converted to electrical operation and shut down in 1908 after an accident.
The oldest facility in Europe is the Giessbachbahn , which opened in 1879 and was converted to electrical operation in 1948. In 1882 the Elevador do Bom Jesus was opened in Braga (Portugal) , which is the world's oldest system still operated with water ballast.
In Germany, there is only one railway left with the Nerobergbahn in Wiesbaden . In Switzerland, too, there is only one train, the Neuveville – Saint-Pierre funicular in Freiburg .
Lanes
(Sorting according to the opening year)
Funicular railways running with water ballast
- Nerobergbahn Wiesbaden , Germany (in operation since 1888)
- Neuveville – Saint-Pierre (Funi) funicular, Friborg , Switzerland (in operation since 1899)
- Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway , UK (in service since 1890)
- Folkestone Leas Cliff Water Lift , UK (in operation since 1885)
- Saltburn Cliff Lift , Saltburn-by-the-Sea , North Yorkshire , United Kingdom (in operation since 1884)
- Water-balanced cliff railway , Center for Alternative Technology , Machynlleth , Powys, Wales, UK (in operation since 1992)
- Elevador do Bom Jesus , Braga , Portugal (in operation since 1882, the oldest in the world)
Cable cars running with water ballast
- Material cable car Obermatt - Unter Zingel (in operation since 1923)
- Material cable car St. Niklaus Dorf - Riedji (in operation since 1937)
Water ballast runways converted to electrical operation
Only a few examples are listed here, as a great many railways were initially operated with water ballast.
Germany
- Turmbergbahn , Karlsruhe (opened in 1888, converted in 1966)
- Heidelberger Bergbahn (Molkenkurbahn) (opened in 1890, converted in 1907)
Austria
- Salzburg Fortress Railway (opened in 1892, converted in 1959)
Switzerland
(complete list of all funiculars in public passenger transport)
- Giessbachbahn , Bernese Oberland (opened in 1879, converted to drive with Pelton turbine in 1912 , to electric drive in 1948)
- Chemin de fer funiculaire Territet-Glion (opened 1883, converted in 1975)
- Gütsch cable car , Lucerne (opened in 1884, converted in 1961)
- Marzilibahn , Bern (opened in 1885, converted in 1973)
- Lugano funicular railway - SBB station (opened in 1886, converted in 1955)
- Biel-Magglingen-Bahn (opened in 1887, converted in 1923)
- Thunersee-Beatenberg-Bahn (opened in 1889, converted in 1911)
- Polybahn , Zurich (opened in 1889, converted in 1897)
- Funiculaire Ecluse plan , Neuchâtel (opened in 1890, converted in 1907)
- Lauterbrunnen – Grütschalp (opened in 1891, converted in 1901, cable car from 2006)
- Bergbahn Rheineck – Walzenhausen (opened in 1896, cog railway from 1958)
- Cossonay funicular (opened in 1897, converted in 1982)
France
- Funiculaire de Montmartre , Paris (opened 1900, moved in 1931)
Czech Republic
- Letná funicular , Prague (opened 1891, converted in 1903)
- Petřín funicular , Prague (opened 1891, converted in 1932)
Water ballast runways converted to cogwheel operation
- Mühleggbahn , St. Gallen (opened in 1894, converted in 1950, inclined elevator from 1975)
- Bergbahn Rheineck – Walzenhausen (opened in 1896, converted in 1958)
Disused water ballast tracks
Germany
- Krahnenbergbahn in Andernach am Rhein (opened in 1895, closed in 1941)
- Malbergbahn in Bad Ems (opened in 1887, closed in 1979)
- Eschberg funicular railway in Saarbrücken-Eschberg (opened in 1895, closed in 1926)
Switzerland
- Gütschbahn in Lucerne, Switzerland (opened in 1892, converted in 1960, closed in 2008, inclined lift since 2015)
- Wartensteinbahn in the canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland (opened in 1892, closed in 1963)
- Chocolat Suchard chocolate factory in Neuchâtel - Serrières , Switzerland (opened in 1892, closed in 1954)
- Geneva water ballast line , Decauville material ropeway to Bois de la Bâtie opened around 1882 , closed
Other countries
- Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille, France (opened 1892, closed in 1967)
- Pochwalinskij and Kremljowskij in Nizhny Novgorod , Russia (opened July 15, 1896, ceased operations at the beginning of the 20th century)
- Chemin de fer Lausanne-Signal (opened in 1899, closed in 1948)
See also
literature
- Walter Hefti : Cable cars all over the world. Inclined cable levels, funiculars, cable cars. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel et al. 1975, ISBN 3-7643-0726-9 .
- Hans Waldburger: The last cable cars with water weight drive . In: Railway amateur . No. 10 , 1979, p. 593-597 .
Web links
- Cable car nostalgia (website by Claude Gentil, Switzerland)
Individual evidence
- ^ Niagara Falls 1907 Incline Railway Crash. Retrieved September 5, 2009 .
- ↑ Hans G. Wägli: track profile Switzerland in 1980 . General Secretariat SBB, pp. 71, 73.
- ↑ Grand Hotel Giessbach (ed.): Giessbach funicular . S. 6 ( giessbach.ch [PDF]).
- ↑ Michel Azéma: Suchard chocolate factory. Funimag, The first web magazine about funiculars. Retrieved January 6, 1996 .