Large Scale Central

So, would these be R1 curves?

General Discussion
#1

So, would these be R1 curves?

From http://www.funimag.com/photoblog/index.php/articles/us-mount-tamalpais-muir-woods-railway/ (US) Mount Tamalpais & Muir Woods Railway Mount Tamalpais Gravity Railroad Videos West Peak Radio Station Incline Google Maps Mount Tamalpais & Muir Woods Railway Today

#2

Neat stuff, another interesting back door to history side note: these remnants of the old Mt Tam RR that were converted to dirt roads were also part of the proving grounds for a bunch of hippie cyclists back in the 70’s who converted old newsboy beach cruisers into multigear off road machines designed to bomb down these very same ROW/roads at breakneck speeds and became as we know today as the Mountain Bike. So if you own a Mt Bike you can partially thank the builders of the Mt Tam RR.

#3

No kiddin? Had no idea, zero, nada, nunca.

#4

The old Edison films of the railway are pretty cool, especially the ones showing the Shays in action.

#5

This is quite interesting. I didn’t catch how they got the cars back up the hill? What was the reasoning behind this type of operations?

#6

Ric they would wait till the end of the day, couple all the gravity cars together and use the geared locos to push them back up the hill for the next day. it was a very early form of natural roller coaster. The gravity cars had very good brakes that were activated by a foot push bar that was controlled by a resort employee, so the cars weren’t ‘freewheeling’ they were always under control.

#7

Victor,

Thanks for the response. That is what I suspected on both logistics and control. Seems like an interesting, unique feature.

#8

Here in North Wales the Blaenau Ffestiniog slate quarry cars were all loaded, hitched up thirty or forty at a time, and allowed to free-wheel [under control, natch] all the way from Blaenau to Porthmadog - a distance of some 13 miles. Of course, Wales being mainly a 3D country, this was pretty easy to do. I once calculated that left to their own devices without any braking they would be hitting 1926 mph at the harbour…might have gotten the decimal point wrong there, tho’.

Of course, what we really need over here in UK is a working Shay for the two-foot trackage of which there is so much. Or even the 2ft 6in of the Welshpool - runs parallel to the highway for almost all the 8.5 miles for great views of the wiggly bits! With no turnaround facilities and a light loading the Shay would be ideal - the ruling grade out of Raven Square Station is 1 in 24 - the steepest of any adhesion line anywhere in the UK.

tac
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