Cable car (railway)

A cable car or cable railway is a mass transit system using rail cars that are propelled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required. Cable cars are sometimes confused with funiculars, where the cars are permanently attached to the cable.

History

Though there may have been earlier attempts to pull cars by endless ropes, the first cable car installation in operation was the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway in New York, which ran from 1 July 1868 to 1870. The cable technology used in this elevated railway involved collar-equipped cables together with claw-equipped cars, and proved cumbersome. The line was closed, rebuilt and reopened with steam locomotives.

Related Topics:
West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway - New York - 1 July - 1868 - 1870 - Steam locomotives

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The first cable cars to use grips were those of the Clay Street Hill Railroad which later became part of the San Francisco cable car system in San Francisco. This building of this line was promoted by Andrew Smith Hallidie with design work by William Eppelsheimer, and it was first tested in 1873. The success of these grips ensured that this line became the model for other cable car transit systems, and this model is often known as the Hallidie Cable Car.

Related Topics:
Clay Street Hill Railroad - San Francisco cable car system - San Francisco - Andrew Smith Hallidie - William Eppelsheimer - 1873

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In 1881 the Dunedin cable tramway system opened in Dunedin, New Zealand and became the first such system outside San Francisco. For Dunedin, George Smith Duncan further developed the Hallidie model, introducing the pull curve and the slot brake; the former was a way to pull cars through a curve, since Dunedin's curves were too steep to allow coasting, while the latter forced a wedge down into the cable slot to stop the car. Both of these innovations were generally adopted by other cities, including San Francisco.

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1881 - Dunedin cable tramway system - Dunedin - New Zealand - George Smith Duncan

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Cable cars rapidly spread to other cities, although the major attraction for most was the ability to displace horse-drawn (or other animal-drawn) systems rather than the ability to climb hills. Many people at the time viewed horse-drawn transit as unnecessarily cruel, and the fact that a typical horse could work only 4 or 5 hours per day necessitated the maintenance of large stables of draft animals that had to be fed (typically 30 lb (14 kg) of feed each day), housed, groomed, medicated and rested. Thus for a period economics worked in favour of cable cars even in relatively flat cities.

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For example, the Chicago City Railway, also designed by Eppelsheimer, opened in Chicago, Illinois in 1882 and went on to become the largest and most profitable cable car system. As with many cities, the problem in flat Chicago was not one of grades but of transportation capacity. This caused a different approach to the combination of grip car and trailer. Rather than using a grip car and single trailer, as many cities did, or combining the grip and trailer into a single car, like San Francisco's California Cars, Chicago used grip cars to pull trains of up to three trailers.

Related Topics:
Chicago City Railway - Chicago, Illinois - 1882

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In 1883 the New York and Brooklyn Bridge Railway was opened, which had a most curious feature: though it was a cable car system, it used steam locomotives to get the cars into and out of the terminals. After 1896 the system changed to one where a motor car was added to each train to manoeuvre at the terminals, while en route the trains were still propelled by the cable.

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1883 - New York and Brooklyn Bridge Railway - Steam locomotive - 1896

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On 25 September 1883 a test of a cable car system was held by Liverpool United in Kirkdale. This was the first cable car system in Europe, but Liverpool United decided against implementing it. Other cable car systems were implemented in Europe, though, among which was the Glasgow District Subway, the first underground cable car system in 1896. (London's first deep-level tube railway, the City & South London Railway, had earlier also been built for cable haulage but had been converted to electric traction before opening in 1890.) A few more cable car systems were built in the United Kingdom, Portugal and France, but European cities, having much more curves in their streets, were less suitable for cable cars than American cities.

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25 September - 1883 - Liverpool United - Kirkdale - Glasgow District Subway - 1896 - London - City & South London Railway - 1890 - United Kingdom - Portugal - France

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Though some new cable car systems were still being built, by 1890 the cheaper to construct and simpler to operate electrically-powered trolley started to become the norm, and eventually started to replace existing cable car systems. For a while hybrid cable/electric systems operated, for example in Chicago where electric cars had to be pulled by grip cars through the loop area, due to the lack of trolley wires there. Eventually, San Francisco would become the only street operating manually operated system to survive, whilst Dunedin, the second city with such cars, would also prove to be the second last city to operate them, closing down in 1957.

Related Topics:
1890 - Electrically - Trolley - 1957

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In the last decades of the 20th century cable cars have seen a limited revival as automatic people movers. They are completely computer controlled and can be switched easily from one continuous loop to another. They are normally used in resort areas, airports and huge hospital centers. The biggest manufacturer is Poma-Otis, a company formed by the merger of the cable car interests of the POMA ski lift company and the Otis elevator company. In a certain way, they can be considered as horizontal elevators. Most of these cable car systems operate above ground on supported guideways, but some have sections that go underground.

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