Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1916-03-03
VARIOUS QUAINT LINES
FRENCH RAILROADS BUILT TO
OVERCOME OBSTACLES.
Ireland Has One of the Most Remark
able Rail Routes-"Rack" System
Has Been Found a Necessity
w. in Switzerland.

Of the various quaint railroads in
the world one is not so very far away,
although you have perhaps never
heard of it, much less travelled along
its eccentric line, remarks London
Answers.
This is the Lartigue railroad, at Bal
lybunion, in Ireland, some idea of
which you can CLEAN from the picture.
This strange train, you will observe,
is in duplicate, the engine and car
tiages being double, while the line
consists of central rail, which passes
down the center of the train. To add
TO the humor of the thing, passengers
are sometimes requested to change
their seats from one side Of the train
TO the other so that a proper balance
may be maintained.
Other out-of-the-way railroads are
sometimes used in order to negotiate
any very steep ascents or descents
where the ordinary train would come
10 grief In this connection we find
what are known as rack" railroads,
more than one of which is used in
Switzerland
The rack railroad, instead Of having
ordinary smooth lines only, has a
rack-rail in the center of the track,
this rail being cut into a series of
teeth, which jut out rather like the
teeth of a saw held upside down.
Under the engine of the train itself
there is fixed cogwheel, V I'll grips
the teeth of the rack-rail, a.. so pre-
vents the train from slipping back
along the ordinary rails that lie on
either side of the rack-rail
Cars fitted thus are able to ascend
and descend montains on which an
ordinary train would quickly meet
with disaster.
Another form of mountain railroad
Is that run by means of cables. The
cable principle is roughly this: The
cables wind round drums at the top
and bottom of the slope. Then, as
one train descends the other climbs
up the hill, the process being reversed
for the return journeys.
A sensational train, which we may
yet see in everyday work is the Bren-
nan monorail demonstrations of which
we're given by it's inventor few years
ago. The peculiarities of this train
are that it has only one rail, being
balanced by means of a couple of
horoscopes.
There is also moving platform rail
road, which has been actually used in
New York, and which somewhat re-
sembles the moving staircases now in
use in parts of London. In this case
the first platform is stationary, but
beside it there is another platform
which moves forward at the rate of
three miles an hour. Next to this
comes third platform, moving at six
miles per hour, while the fourth and
last moves at nine miles per hour.
(. The idea is, of course, that passen-
gers shall step from platform to plat
form, according to the pace at which
they wish to travel; It being in their
power always to return to the station
airy platform when they so desire. In
leaving one platform for another,
moreover, they are never changing
their rate Of progress by more than
three miles. On each platform, also,
there are number of posts and hand
rails to which passengers can cling,
If nervous. Believers in this method
of travel prophesy great future for
the invention; but whether their be.
liefs are justified or not remains to be
seen.