File:Wonders and curiosities of the railway; or, Stories of the locomotive in every land; with an appendix, bringing the volume down to date (1906) (14761246925).jpg

Identifier: wonderscuriositi00kenn (find matches)
Title: Wonders and curiosities of the railway; or, Stories of the locomotive in every land; with an appendix, bringing the volume down to date
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Kennedy, William Sloane, 1850-1929
Subjects: Railroads
Publisher: New York, Hurst & company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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angle of fifty degrees (average). Theupper station is a simple but tasteful shed, placed about onehundred steps from the rim of the smoking and rumblingcrater. About midway the inclination reaches sixty-threedegrees, which to most people seems practically perpendicu-lar, and the sensations experienced during the two minutesrequired to pass over this portion of the track may be betterimagined than described. The road is double-tracked, andthere is a counterpoise of cars, one up and one down. Theseare worked by a stationary traction engine. The boiler ofthis engine was drawn up the carriage road by twelvehorses, one of which died from the effects of the strain re-ceived. The huge pulleys that work the cars were pulledup the slippery cone by the united efforts of ninety men,and once at the top they were of service in hoisting other *See also Science, April 4,1884. t Further particulars of this road are given in the Railway Review, Chi-cago, Oct. 20, 1883, page 613. MOUKTAIN RAILWAYS. 133
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134 WONDEES AKD CURIOSITIES OF THE RAILWAY. material. There was great perplexity at first in the mindsof the contrivers of the road, as to where the water forthe engine was to come from. But the constructor, DallOngaro, excavated two huge cisterns, and then laid broadstretches of red tile on the surface of lava crusts and cindersto collect rain water and conduct it into the receptacles pre-pared. The joists of the track are bolted to the solid lava.A single cogged rail is placed on a continuous beam, aboutthree feet high, and beneath the car is a single large wheelrunning on the rail; but the car is steadied by two otherwheels placed obliquely to the bottom of the car, and run-ning on a projecting edge of the road-beam. The railwaycost one hundred and fi.fty thousand dollars, and is insuredagainst the volcano (!) by an Italian compan)^ for one hun-dred thousand dollars. The most famous mountain railways with ordinary trac-tion are, in Europe, the Semmering, the Brenner, theMt. Cenis,

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