Rack Rock and Rail the Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway By W Spencer Wren Jr SC

$9.50

RailroadTreasures offers the following item:

RACK RAILWAYS...also known as "cog" railways, occupy only a short section in the annals of railroading. There are currently about fifty-five rack railways in the world. The first, built in New Hampshire, is the Mt. Washington Cog Railway which has been in operation since 1869 and is still using much of its original equipment. The science of mountain railroading, however, has been perfected in the high Alps of Switzerland, where there are twenty-five rack railways, some using combined rack-adhesion locomotion. The photo on the right shows the Gornergrat Railway in Zermatt, Switzerland.

A conventional locomotive is propelled by the adhesion of the wheels to the rails and can only climb short seven to nine percent grades. A rack railway locomotive can climb much steeper grades: the Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway (employing the Abt rack system) ascends sections of twenty-five percent, with an average grade of fifteen percent, while the Mt. Pilatus Railway in Switzerland (using the Locher rack system) climbs sections of forty-eight percent!

Of all the rack railways in the world, the Manitou and Pikes Peak is the highest and has the greatest elevation gain-over 7500 feet!

All pictures are of the actual item. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.

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