It's still there but has been

It's still there but has been completely rebuilt and you park your cars at the bottom of a hill just off Interstate 5 halfway between the San Fernando Valley and West LA.

. You ride up this incline to a restaurant That sets in a spot that allows you to see the LA Basin as well as the central San Fernando Valley there is also a Museum on top. I grew up in Northridge & Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley for 44 years and when I went back for a visit last fall (I live in Virginia now) my friends told me about it and I remember the vertical railway being there when I was a Kid back in the 1950's.

Dan

Search

Do a Google search for the place.

Almost any place today has web presence.

You will probably find videos at the You Tube site.

I find a lot of video links at You Tube as many, many people make videos and submit them to the You Tube site.

I recently did the Mt Washington Cog Railway tour and we went up the mountain pushed by the steamer. I put them on You Tube with many who have done the same.

The new bio-diesels are quite something. About 15 to 18 gal of fuel to get to the top, 6280 feet.

Rich

Allegheny Portage & Model Funicular

We visited the Allegheny Portage NHS last summer -- if you're ever in Altoona (and every railfan has to visit Altoona and Horseshoe Curve eventually, right?) then you're in the neighbourhood and you should go. Neat place.

Re models: Below is an operating HO model in the RR museum at St. Thomas, Ontario. It was based on a historical funicular in the area, and they also had the cars from the real one.

Now that's what I'm talkin' about

Thanks, Steve. That makes one modeler doing it. Not that I was wanting to do it myself - I was just curious.

PA is a bit of a journey for me (50 miles south of Los Angeles), but were I needing to be in the area I would probably visit for the fun of it (my sister gave me a postcard of the site). Yes, I knew of the Horseshoe Curve as well - you get to see yourself going where you came from, in a sense. Seems there was an article on it in RMC just a few years back.

Anyone else know of someone doing a funicular (a variation is a cog railway)?

1/87 Swiss Funicular

Here is a Swiss prototype on the layout of a friend here in Alberta. The model operates using an electric motor on the cable return wheel at the top of the line but the prototype was gravity powered. The coaches have water tanks under the floor which are filled at the top of the line and emptied at the bottom. This ensures that the "down-bound" car is always heavier than the "up-bound" car.

That makes two ...

Thanks, Brian. The intricacies of funicular railways can be numerous. When the car arriving at the bottom has the water tank emptied, is the water then pumped back to the top?

What Happens to the Water

Bill,

The water in the bottom car is simply dumped. At the top there is a cistern or reservoir for a ready water supply. There is generally no lack of water in the Swiss Alps so there is no need to recycle it.

The model is very cool to watch. Just as with the prototype the Y-turnouts are snap types; no switch stands etc. required.

Langley make a model

 The UK model company Langley make a Funicular, or Cliff Railway in British English,  http://www.langleymodels.co.uk/acatalog/Shop_Front_OO_Scale_Accessories_F150_to_F171b_25.html  

Number  161 in their catalogue.

Norman

Langley makes a model - yes

@Norman - Yes, I did see you post earlier and checked it out. Very interesting product. Not quite what I was looking for - I was wanting to see if others had made a model. Mostly just curious. Thanks for the reference. I did do some further research on UK Cliff Railways - had no idea there were so many.