Rack locomotive
A locomotive is referred to as a rack-and-pinion locomotive which transmits its pulling power to racks using one or more gears . Cogwheel locomotives are mostly used on mountain railways on which the gradients no longer allow safe operation due to the friction in wheel / rail operation or no longer allow it for safety reasons. This is the case in Europe, for example, in the Alpine regions . Up to the present day steam locomotives have been kept on cogwheel trains, which is thanks to the tourist attraction.
Strictly speaking, some of the earliest locomotives built, such as those by John Blenkinsop , and the locomotives built in 1816 and 1817 by the Königliche Eisengießerei in Berlin based on his model were also cogwheel locomotives, as it was still assumed that the dead weight of the vehicles would not generate enough friction . Both of these machines had a gear on one side that engaged the heads of thick nails that were driven along the outside of the rail . Today the gears sit under the locomotive in the middle of the track .
→ Main article: section locomotives in the article rack railway
gallery
Pushing cogwheel diesel locomotive, Tannwalder rack railway , Czech Republic
Rack locomotive on the Snowdon Mountain Railway , Wales
Rack locomotive of the Erzbergbahn , Austria
Electric cogwheel locomotive of the former Furka-Oberalp-Bahn , Switzerland
See also
Web links
- Rack Railway In Austria (Erzbergbahn) ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
