A rack railway is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with this rack rail. This allows the trains to operate on steep grades above 10%, which is the maximum for friction-based rail. Most rack railways are mountain railways, although a few are transit railways or tramways built to overcome a steep gradient in an urban environment.
The Rimutaka Incline was a 3-mile-long (4.8 km), 3 ft 6 in gauge railway line on an average grade of 1-in-15 using the Fell system between Summit and Cross Creek stations on the Wairarapa side of the original Wairarapa Line in the Wairarapa district of New Zealand. The term "Rimutaka Incline" is sometimes used incorrectly to refer to other parts or all of the closed and deviated section of the Wairarapa Line between Upper Hutt and Speedy's Crossing, near Featherston. The incline formation is now part of the Remutaka Rail Trail.
The Snaefell Mountain Railway is an electric mountain railway on the Isle of Man in Europe. It joins the village of Laxey with the summit of Snaefell, at 2,036 feet (621 m) above sea level the highest point on the island. It connects with the Manx Electric Railway (MER) in Laxey. The line is 5 miles (8 km) long, is built to 3 ft 6 in gauge and uses a Fell Incline Railway System centre rail for braking on the steep gradients. It is electrified using overhead wires at 550 volts direct current, with bow collectors.
A cable railway is a railway that uses a cable, rope or chain to haul trains. It is a specific type of cable transportation.
An adhesion railway relies on adhesion traction to move the train, and is the most widespread and common type of railway in the world. Adhesion traction is the friction between the drive wheels and the steel rail. Since the vast majority of railways are adhesion railways, the term adhesion railway is used only when it is necessary to distinguish adhesion railways from railways moved by other means, such as by a stationary engine pulling on a cable attached to the cars or by railways that are moved by a pinion meshing with a rack.
John Barraclough Fell was an English railway engineer and inventor of the Fell mountain railway system.
The NZR H class steam locomotive was a unique class of Fell locomotive used by New Zealand Railways (NZR) on the Rimutaka Incline, the 3-mile (4.8 km) section of 1 in 15 gradient between Cross Creek and Summit, over the Rimutaka Ranges.
The Wairarapa Line is a secondary railway line in the south-east of the North Island of New Zealand. The line runs for 172 kilometres (107 mi), connects the capital city Wellington with the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line at Woodville, via Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Masterton.
The Fell Locomotive Museum in Featherston, New Zealand, exhibits the only remaining steam-powered Fell railway locomotive in the world.
The Rewanui Branch, sometimes referred to as the Rewanui Incline and known as the Point Elizabeth Branch in its early years, was a branch line railway located in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. It branched from the Midland Line near its western terminus in Greymouth and ran up to Rewanui in the Paparoa Ranges. The branch closed in 1985 but the first six kilometres to Runanga remain in operation as part of the Rapahoe Branch.
The Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust is a non-profit, charitable trust in New Zealand that was established in 2003 with the objective of reinstating an operating heritage railway over the Remutaka Ranges using the original route of the Wairarapa Line between Maymorn and Featherston, including the world-famous Rimutaka Incline.
Cross Creek railway station was the base of operations for the Rimutaka Incline, a Fell railway over the Remutaka Ranges, and part of the original Wairarapa Line between Upper Hutt and Featherston in the Wellington region of New Zealand's North Island. The station was between Pigeon Bush and Summit stations on the Wairarapa Line. The station was bypassed when the Rimutaka Tunnel was opened.
The Mont Cenis Pass Railway operated from 1868 to 1871 during the construction of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel through the Alps between Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, southeast France and Susa, Piedmont, northwest Italy. It was designed by John Barraclough Fell and his three-rail design was used on some other mountain railways. The railway was 77 kilometres long, with a gauge of 1,100 mm. The height at the summit was 2,283 metres (7,490 ft) and the maximum gradient was 9 per cent. It was used to transport English mail to India as part of the 1,400-mile (2,300 km) All Red Route.
The Rimutaka incline railway line has had several accidents as the result of strong cross winds. On two occasions passenger trains were derailed by them. The first in 1880 resulting in four deaths, and the second in 1936 resulting in only injuries.
The Estrada de Ferro Cantagalo or Cantagalo Railway in Brazil operated from 1873 to 1965, and used the Fell mountain railway system, with equipment from the temporary Mont Cenis Pass Railway which closed in 1871. From 1883 the Fell rail was used for braking only. Cameron says that the line was 1,000 mmmetre gauge to which the locomotives and rolling stock were converted. The line was built by British engineers and capital.
The Bessbrook and Newry Tramway operated a 3 ft narrow gauge, hydro-electrically powered tramway transporting passengers and freight between Bessbrook and Newry in Northern Ireland between 1885 and 1948.
Price's Bush Tramway was a bush tramway built around 1903 near Akatarawa in the Tararua Range of New Zealand's North Island. It was built with a raised Fell third rail for braking the loaded trucks, as used by the Rimutaka Incline.
The Hanscotte system was a design for railway locomotives and track using, in addition to the conventional load-bearing driving wheels, pairs of horizontal driving wheels mounted underneath the locomotive and pressing inwards upon a central rail, to improve adhesion and traction. The engineer Jules Hanscotte developed the system while working for Société de construction des Batignolles (SCB), Paris, in about 1904.
