Quote:
Originally Posted by GH85Carrera
OK How can this work at all? |
this is the reply I got from my buddy....
This is a cog railway where the power uses cog in the middle of the rail to power itself along the rail. This is only used on very steep grades. It is similar to a rollercoaster climbing that very first hill, although the rollercoaster is much steeper.
The wear on the cog portion indicates that the siding is seldom used. This would be where a cog locomotive could be sent into a roundhouse for repairs, although due to lack of obvious wear on the cogs, I would say it is just a siding, seldom used. When it is used the switch at the far end of the picture would be thrown and the points would direct the loco on to the siding. The straight rail would be moved (it is not obvious how), but the cog rail is then moved over to the usually really hard rubber supports to allow the loco to motivate itself onto the siding. I’ve only seen this on the Mt. xxxxxxxxx just outside Colorado Springs.