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59-613: The Highgate Hill Cable Tramway was the first cable tramway in Europe. Opened in 1884, it was built to demonstrate the benefits of the technology first pioneered in San Francisco . The 1860s and 70s saw a boom in horse tramway construction all over the world. Cable haulage had been used in Britain since the 1830s in coal mines and on some short sections of passenger railways, but the grip system patented by Hallidie represented

118-493: A clamping device attached to the car, called a grip , applies pressure to ("grip") the moving cable. Conversely, the car is stopped by releasing pressure on the cable (with or without completely detaching) and applying the brakes. This gripping and releasing action may be manual, as was the case in all early cable car systems, or automatic, as is the case in some recent cable operated people mover type systems. Gripping must be applied evenly and gradually in order to avoid bringing

177-406: A collision. A cable car is superficially similar to a funicular , but differs from such a system in that its cars are not permanently attached to the cable and can stop independently, whereas a funicular has cars that are permanently attached to the propulsion cable, which is itself stopped and started. A cable car cannot climb as steep a grade as a funicular, but many more cars can be operated with

236-649: A country (for example, 1,440 mm or 4 ft  8 + 11 ⁄ 16  in to 1,445 mm or 4 ft  8 + 7 ⁄ 8  in in France). The first tracks in Austria and in the Netherlands had other gauges ( 1,000 mm or 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in in Austria for the Donau Moldau line and 1,945 mm or 6 ft  4 + 9 ⁄ 16  in in

295-488: A hybrid cable car/funicular line once existed in the form of the original Wellington Cable Car , in the New Zealand city of Wellington . This line had both a continuous loop haulage cable that the cars gripped using a cable car gripper, and a balance cable permanently attached to both cars over an undriven pulley at the top of the line. The descending car gripped the haulage cable and was pulled downhill, in turn pulling

354-498: A major technical advance on these operations. The world's first successful cable tramway was opened in San Francisco , USA, by London-born Andrew Smith Hallidie in 1873 using a constantly moving cable in a conduit with grippers on the cars which could be engaged or disengaged by their drivers. In 1881 the Steep Grade Tramways & Works Company Ltd was incorporated, one of its directors being William Booth Scott,

413-559: A series of (mainly financial) problems which eventually resulted in the liquidation of the Company later that month. After a further change of company owner, on 14 August 1896 the line was sold to a new concern, the Highgate Hill Tramways Ltd, and was reopened on 19 April (Easter Monday) following year. The Company apparently considered converting the line into a standard gauge electric tramway but got nowhere with

472-412: A single cable, making it more flexible, and allowing a higher capacity. During the rush hour on San Francisco's Market Street Railway in 1883, a car would leave the terminal every 15 seconds. A few funicular railways operate in street traffic, and because of this operation are often incorrectly described as cable cars. Examples of such operation, and the consequent confusion, are: Even more confusingly,

531-510: A standard gauge of 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ), and those in Ireland to a new standard gauge of 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ). In Great Britain, Stephenson's gauge was chosen on the grounds that existing lines of this gauge were eight times longer than those of the rival 7 ft or 2,134 mm (later 7 ft  1 ⁄ 4  in or 2,140 mm ) gauge adopted principally by

590-614: A system. The rope available at the time proved too susceptible to wear and the system was abandoned in favour of steam locomotives after eight years. In America, the first cable car installation in operation probably was the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway in New York City , as its first-ever elevated railway which ran from 1 July 1868 to 1870. The cable technology used in this elevated railway involved collar-equipped cables and claw-equipped cars, proving cumbersome. The line

649-492: A test of a cable car system was held by Liverpool Tramways Company in Kirkdale , Liverpool . This would have been the first cable car system in Europe, but the company decided against implementing it. Instead, the distinction went to the 1884 Highgate Hill Cable Tramway , a route from Archway to Highgate , north London, which used a continuous cable and grip system on the 1 in 11 (9%) climb of Highgate Hill. The installation

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708-423: A time-consuming and expensive process. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a "standard gauge" of 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ), allowing interconnectivity and interoperability. A popular legend that has circulated since at least 1937 traces the origin of the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) gauge even further back than

767-463: 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 became the only street-running manually operated system to survive – Dunedin, the second city with such cars, was also the second-last city to operate them, closing down in 1957. In

826-570: Is also applied to systems with other forms of propulsion, including funicular style cable propulsion. These cities include: Information Patents Standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ). The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson ), international gauge , UIC gauge , uniform gauge , normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It

885-431: Is also the advantage that keeping the car gripped to the cable will also limit the downhill speed of the car to that of the cable. Because of the constant and relatively low speed, a cable car's potential to cause harm in an accident can be underestimated. Even with a cable car traveling at only 14 km/h (9 mph), the mass of the cable car and the combined strength and speed of the cable can cause extensive damage in

944-766: Is currently operated by the Ghana Railway Company Limited . Kojokrom-Sekondi Railway Line (The Kojokrom-Sekondi line is a branch line that joins the Western Railway Line at Kojokrom ) Indian nationwide rail system ( Indian Railways ) uses 1,676 mm ( 5 ft 6 in ) broad gauge. 96% of the broad gauge network is electrified. The railway tracks of Java and Sumatra use 1,067 mm ( 3 ft 6 in ). Planned and under construction high-speed railways to use 1,668 mm ( 5 ft  5 + 21 ⁄ 32  in ) to maintain interoperability with

1003-480: Is defined in U.S. customary / Imperial units as exactly "four feet eight and one half inches", which is equivalent to 1,435.1   mm. As railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge (the distance, or width, between the inner sides of the rails) to be used. Different railways used different gauges, and where rails of different gauge met – a " gauge break " – loads had to be unloaded from one set of rail cars and reloaded onto another,

1062-790: Is one of the few still functioning in the traditional manner, with manually operated cars running in street traffic. Other examples of cable powered systems can be found on the Great Orme in North Wales, and in Lisbon in Portugal. All of these however are slightly different to San Francisco in that the cars are permanently attached to the cable. Several cities operate a modern version of the cable car system. These systems are fully automated and run on their own reserved right of way. They are commonly referred to as people movers , although that term

1121-571: Is the most widely used track gauge around the world, with about 55% of the lines in the world using it. All high-speed rail lines use standard gauge except those in Russia , Finland , Uzbekistan , and some line sections in Spain . The distance between the inside edges of the rails is defined to be 1,435 mm except in the United States, Canada, and on some heritage British lines, where it

1180-553: The Liverpool and Manchester Railway , authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The extra half inch was not regarded at first as very significant, and some early trains ran on both gauges daily without compromising safety. The success of this project led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Thus the 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ) gauge became widespread and dominant in Britain. Robert

1239-454: 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 was changed to one on which a motor car was added to each train to maneuver at the terminals, while en route, the trains were still propelled by the cable. On 25 September 1883,

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1298-487: The United Kingdom , Portugal , and France . European cities, having many more curves in their streets, were ultimately less suitable for cable cars than American cities. Though some new cable car systems were still being built, by 1890 the cheaper to construct and simpler to operate electrically -powered trolley or tram started to become the norm, and eventually started to replace existing cable car systems. For

1357-615: The Chief Surveyor for St. Pancras Borough Council. To build the Highgate Hill Tramway from Archway Tavern to South Grove, Highgate Village they issued 6,000 shares of £5 each and a prospectus endorsed by Sir Sydney Waterlow of Fairseat, who had seen the system operate in the USA. The Highgate Hill system was designed by William E. Eppelsheimer, who had designed the pioneering Clay Street Hill Railroad and created

1416-913: The Great Western Railway. It allowed the broad-gauge companies in Great Britain to continue with their tracks and expand their networks within the "Limits of Deviation" and the exceptions defined in the Act. After an intervening period of mixed-gauge operation (tracks were laid with three rails), the Great Western Railway finally completed the conversion of its network to standard gauge in 1892. In North East England, some early lines in colliery ( coal mining ) areas were 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ), while in Scotland some early lines were 4 ft 6 in ( 1,372 mm ). The British gauges converged starting from 1846 as

1475-647: The Netherlands for the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij ), but for interoperability reasons (the first rail service between Paris and Berlin began in 1849, first Chaix timetable) Germany adopted standard gauges, as did most other European countries. The modern method of measuring rail gauge was agreed in the first Berne rail convention of 1886. Several lines were initially built as standard gauge but were later converted to another gauge for cost or for compatibility reasons. 2,295 km (1,426 mi) Victoria built

1534-645: The advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent. By the 1890s, the entire network was converted to standard gauge. The Royal Commission made no comment about small lines narrower than standard gauge (to be called "narrow gauge"), such as the Ffestiniog Railway . Thus it permitted a future multiplicity of narrow gauges in the UK. It also made no comments about future gauges in British colonies, which allowed various gauges to be adopted across

1593-411: The ascending car (which remained ungripped) uphill by the balance cable. This line was rebuilt in 1979 and is now a standard funicular, although it retains its old cable car name. The best-known existing cable car system is the San Francisco cable car system in the city of San Francisco, California . San Francisco's cable cars constitute the oldest and largest such system in permanent operation, and it

1652-461: The cable car may not be able to stop and can wreak havoc along its route until the cable house realizes the mishap and halts the cable. One apparent advantage of the cable car is its relative energy efficiency. This is due to the economy of centrally located power stations, and the ability of descending cars to transfer energy to ascending cars. However, this advantage is totally negated by the relatively large energy consumption required to simply move

1711-541: The cable over and under the numerous guide rollers and around the many sheaves . Approximately 95% of the tractive effort in the San Francisco system is expended in simply moving the four cables at 15.3 km/h (9.5 mph). Electric cars with regenerative braking do offer the advantages, without the problem of moving a cable. In the case of steep grades, however, cable traction has the major advantage of not depending on adhesion between wheels and rails . There

1770-410: The car to cable speed too quickly and unacceptably jarring passengers. In the case of manual systems, the grip resembles a very large pair of pliers , and considerable strength and skill are required to operate the car. As many early cable car operators discovered the hard way, if the grip is not applied properly, it can damage the cable, or even worse, become entangled in the cable. In the latter case,

1829-409: The cars to be automatically decoupled from the cable under computer control, and can thus be considered a modern interpretation of the cable car. The cable is itself powered by a stationary engine or motor situated in a cable house or power house. The speed at which it moves is relatively constant depending on the number of units gripping the cable at any given time. The cable car begins moving when

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1888-483: The coal mines of County Durham . He favoured 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham , and used it on his Killingworth line. The Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge. Stephenson's Stockton and Darlington railway (S&DR) was built primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees . Opening in 1825,

1947-493: The coalfields of northern England, pointing to the evidence of rutted roads marked by chariot wheels dating from the Roman Empire . Snopes categorised this legend as "false", but commented that it "is perhaps more fairly labeled as 'Partly true, but for trivial and unremarkable reasons. ' " The historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles around 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) apart probably derives from

2006-534: The colonies. Parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. The American gauges converged, as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent. Notably, all the 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) broad gauge track in the South was converted to "almost standard" gauge 4 ft 9 in ( 1,448 mm ) over

2065-459: The course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886. See Track gauge in the United States . In continental Europe, France and Belgium adopted a 1,500 mm ( 4 ft  11 + 1 ⁄ 16  in ) gauge (measured between the midpoints of each rail's profile ) for their early railways. The gauge between the interior edges of the rails (the measurement adopted from 1844) differed slightly between countries, and even between networks within

2124-589: The entire route which meant one wing of Fairseat, Sydney Waterlow 's old house, had to be demolished. 51°34′09″N 0°08′32″W  /  51.5691°N 0.1421°W  / 51.5691; -0.1421 Cable tram The first cable-operated railway, employing a moving rope that could be picked up or released by a grip on the cars was the Fawdon Wagonway in 1826, a colliery railway line . The London and Blackwall Railway , which opened for passengers in east London , England, in 1840 used such

2183-540: The fact that a typical horse could work only four or five hours per day necessitated the maintenance of large stables of draft animals that had to be fed, housed, groomed, medicated and rested. Thus, for a period, economics worked in favour of cable cars even in relatively flat cities. For example, the Chicago City Railway , also designed by Eppelsheimer, opened in Chicago in 1882 and went on to become

2242-740: The first railways to the 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) Irish broad gauge. New South Wales then built to the standard gauge, so trains had to stop on the border and passengers transferred, which was only rectified in the 1960s. Queensland still runs on a narrow gauge but there is a standard gauge line from NSW to Brisbane. NMBS/SNCB 3,619 km (2,249 mi) Brussels Metro 40 km (25 mi) Trams in Brussels 140 km (87 mi) 1,032 km (641 mi) The Toronto Transit Commission uses 4 ft  10 + 7 ⁄ 8  in ( 1,495 mm ) gauge on its streetcar and subway lines. Takoradi to Sekondi Route,

2301-629: The grip currently used by San Francisco cable cars. It was constructed by the Patent Cable Tramways Corporation. The engineers for the tramway's construction were Joseph Kincaid and an American, S. Bucknall Smith, who said the route was chosen as the one nearest London which could be used for demonstration purposes. The line linked the busy horse tram terminus at the Archway Tavern with Highgate Village , running up Highgate Hill , with its gradient of 1:11, which

2360-558: The idea, caught as it was in the middle of a London County Council (LCC) and Middlesex County Council (MCC) rivalry, making it difficult for the Company to gain the necessary authority. From 1905 the line had to compete with the long-awaited electrified tram track along Archway Road , beneath the new Archway Bridge, built by the MCC and leased to the Metropolitan Electric Tramways Company. In 1909 it

2419-429: The initial gauge of 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made, debuting around 1850, to the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) gauge. The historic Mount Washington Cog Railway ,

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2478-468: The largest and most profitable cable car system . As with many cities, the problem in flat Chicago was not one of incline, 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. In 1883

2537-563: The last decades of the 20th-century, cable traction in general has seen a limited revival as automatic people movers , used in resort areas, airports (for example, Toronto Airport ), huge hospital centers and some urban settings. While many of these systems involve cars permanently attached to the cable, the Minimetro system from Poma /Leitner Group and the Cable Liner system from DCC Doppelmayr Cable Car both have variants that allow

2596-438: The most extensive in the world with 1200 trams and trailers operating over 15 routes with 103 km (64 miles) of track. Sydney also had a couple of cable tram routes. Cable cars rapidly spread to other cities, although the major attraction for most was the ability to displace horsecar (or mule -drawn) systems rather than the ability to climb hills. Many people at the time viewed horse-drawn transit as unnecessarily cruel, and

2655-607: The old 4 ft ( 1,219 mm ) plateway was relaid to 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) so that Blenkinsop's engine could be used. Others were 4 ft 4 in ( 1,321 mm ) (in Beamish ) or 4 ft  7 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,410 mm ) (in Bigges Main (in Wallsend ), Kenton , and Coxlodge ). English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for

2714-458: The pull curve and the slot brake; the former was a way to pull cars through a curve, since Dunedin's curves were too sharp 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. In Australia, the Melbourne cable tramway system operated from 1885 to 1940. It was one of

2773-436: The rails is better, thus the minimum distance between the wheels (and, by extension, the inside faces of the rail heads ) was the important one. A standard gauge for horse railways never existed, but rough groupings were used; in the north of England none was less than 4 ft ( 1,219 mm ). Wylam colliery's system, built before 1763, was 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ), as was John Blenkinsop 's Middleton Railway ;

2832-411: The rest of the network. All other railways use 1,668 mm ( 5 ft  5 + 21 ⁄ 32  in ) ( broad gauge ) and/or 1,000 mm ( 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in ) metre gauge . BLS , Rigi Railways (rack railway) 449 km Several states in the United States had laws requiring road vehicles to have a consistent gauge to allow them to follow ruts in

2891-545: The roof. On 29 May 1884 the line was opened by the Lord Mayor of London , Sir Robert Fowler , and was operated by the Highgate Hill Tramways Company (the successor to the Steep Grade Tramways & Works Co. Ltd who had obtained the original authority). A fatal accident on 5 December 1892, after a cable snapped and the runaway cable car crashed, saw the tramway closed down; this was only one in

2950-429: The term "narrow gauge" for gauges less than standard did not arise for many years, until the first such locomotive-hauled passenger railway, the Ffestiniog Railway , was built. In 1845, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , a Royal Commission on Railway Gauges reported in favour of a standard gauge. The subsequent Gauge Act ruled that new passenger-carrying railways in Great Britain should be built to

3009-479: The width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Research, however, has been undertaken to support the hypothesis that "the origin of the standard gauge of the railway might result from an interval of wheel ruts of prehistoric ancient carriages". In addition, while road-travelling vehicles are typically measured from the outermost portions of the wheel rims, it became apparent that for vehicles travelling on rails, having main wheel flanges that fit inside

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3068-426: The world's first mountain -climbing rack railway , is still in operation in the 21st century, and has used the earlier 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) gauge since its inauguration in 1868. George Stephenson introduced the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) gauge (including a belated extra 1 ⁄ 2  in (13 mm) of free movement to reduce binding on curves ) for

3127-647: Was agreed that the LCC would buy its portion of the cable tramway for £13,099, effective from 24 August, and the MCC would purchase its 400 yards at the village end for £6,377, which it would then lease back to the LCC for working. Cable operation ceased immediately and the tramway was closed for reconstruction, reopening eight months later as part of the London County Council Tramways standard gauge electric tramway network. The cable cars were sold for scrap. The new electric line had double track over

3186-516: Was closed and rebuilt, reopening with steam locomotives . In 1869 P. G. T. Beauregard demonstrated a cable car at New Orleans and was issued U.S. patent 97,343 . Other cable cars to use grips were those of the Clay Street Hill Railroad , which later became part of the San Francisco cable car system . The building of this line was promoted by Andrew Smith Hallidie with design work by William Eppelsheimer , and it

3245-587: 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 . 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

3304-594: Was not reliable and was replaced by electric traction in 1909. 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 , England'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

3363-528: Was powered by a large steam-powered stationary engine in the winding house, whose tall chimney was a feature of the Highgate skyline. The initial rolling stock was dummy grip cars, pulling trailers which could go on to other lines pulled by horses. After problems with the connection between the cars and the trailers the Company was required to use single unit cars. These cars, in dark blue and cream livery, were double deck, carrying 26 passengers inside and 28 on

3422-605: Was reported to have said that if he had had a second chance to choose a gauge, he would have chosen one wider than 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ). "I would take a few inches more, but a very few". During the " gauge war " with the Great Western Railway , standard gauge was called " narrow gauge ", in contrast to the Great Western's 7 ft  1 ⁄ 4  in ( 2,140 mm ) broad gauge . The modern use of

3481-445: Was too steep for horse drawn trams or buses. It was built on the narrow gauge of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) and was double track over its lower length, converging to single track with two passing loops for its last 330 yards (300 m). The depot and cable winding house, which was demolished in 1983, was near the brow of the hill behind 6-8 Highgate High Street . The moving cable, which had a speed of 6.5 miles per hour (10.5 km/h),

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