"FUNICULARS, AERIAL CABLE CARS,
COGWHEEL RAILROADS" Page 1, 2

ABOVE: A train of the Gornergrat cogwheel railway in Zermatt, Switzerland. The toothed center rail meshes with horizontal gears on the electric locomotive.

Cogwheel railroads

A cogwheel, rack-and-pinon, or rack railway is similar to a conventional railroad, except that the locomotives or self-propelled railcars are equipped with horizontal gears. These gears mesh with a toothed rail between the ordinary rails, providing traction on slopes that are too steep for propulsion via conventional adhesion (wheel against rail).

Often, mountain railways use cogwheel or rack-and-pinion propulsion only on sections that require the extra traction. If you're traveling on such a railroad, you'll sense the change to cogwheel propulsion when the train stops and the engineer or engine driver engages the cogwheel.

Web links

Travel Planner: Mountain Transportation switzerlandforvisitors.com
This page from the Transportation section of my Switzerland & Austria Travel Planner has links to articles and Web sites for funiculars, aerial cable cars, and cogwheel railroads.

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