a railway up the side of a mountain pulled by a moving cable and having counterbalancing ascending and descending cars

a cable railway ascending a mountain

a cable railway which climbs a very steep hill

a railway for transporting passengers up a steep incline

A short-length railway on a continuous steep incline, worked by cable and stationary engines. With this system, the weight of the train going up is either counterbalanced by a similar train going down, or by a dead weight. In cases were the train going down is always heavier than the one going up, the stationary engine in unnecessary. Where running water is continuously available at the top of the incline, use of this might be made in filling a tank in the vehicle at the top of the incline and letting it out again at the bottom (see also fell system and rack-and-pinion).

Mountain railway on which counterbalanced cars on parallel sets of rails are pulled up and lowered by cables.