(This article originally appeared in The Lantern, the official publication of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club.)
My Railway has a Funicular
by Bart Hasselfield
Author's Note: Pushing the boundaries of what constitutes a “model railroad” as a member of the
Winnipeg Model Railroad Club was not my intent in building this. It falls within the boundaries: it is a
model, it has rails.
The idea came to me after a really enjoyable discussion at last year's MegaTrain show. Partnered at the
entrance gate with a pair of pretty smart guys, Murray Brown and Tommy Kucera, somehow the
word, “funicular” entered the conversation.
From Wikipedia:
A funicular, or funicular railway, is a type of cable railway system that connects points along
a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced
carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite ends of a haulage
cable, which is looped over a pulley at the upper end of the track. The result of such a
configuration is that the two carriages move synchronously. As one ascends, the other
descends at an equal speed. This feature distinguishes funiculars from inclined elevators,
which have a single car that is hauled uphill.
Tommy's lifelong interest in music came to the forefront recounting to us the story of the song
“Funiculi Funicula” which was written for the inauguration of the first funicular in Italy on Mount
Vesuvius in 1880. (Winnipeggers will know this song as the theme for pizza commercials for Pizza Place in the1960s and 1970’s.) I joined in the conversation with some recollections of funiculars (“ascensors”) that I had seen, ridden in, and photographed on a trip to Valparaiso Chile a few years ago.
On returning home after the show, I started looking at some websites, with lots from Chile and some really recent ones from Britain.
So the germ was planted. Most of my construction on my model railroad is based on proof of
concept.... I visualize an idea, then scrape together the materials and courage to put it together. I have
no background in architecture, art, carpentry, construction, electronics or railroading. So it's quite a
miracle when something that I put together actually works, and doesn't burn or electrocute someone. I’ve
often hooked up batteries to circuits to “let the smoke come out.” (thanks Sean.)
But I did need to build a funicular once I'd thought about it. There was a space on a corner of
my layout where a tunnel met an ugly stairway, and it needed some immediate scenic assistance. So I
took out my trusty yardstick and measured the angle and the base and decided that the job must be done.
This type of construction is a lot easier nowadays than it used to be. I am pretty handy with
shopping by computer (is this a skillset?), so I headed over to my laptop and made a list of materials:
1. a motor
2. a wheel to hook onto the motor
3. some pulley wheels to run the cable over
4. some electrical switches to reverse the motor
5. track
6. cars
7. something to make the cars look horizontal
8. wood and screws.
There are several major suppliers on the internet for items 1 to 4 – DigiKey in the US, Mouser
in the US, Amazon in US or Canada, and the hobbyist favourite – AliExpress in China. I ended up
ordering the parts from Amazon.
First – wood and screws. Easily found in the pile of scraps under my bench. I chopped two
1x2s at the precisely estimated angle, tied them together with a third piece and then tested the structure
at the space on my layout. Perfect fit! Back on the workbench, I cut and glued some cork roadbed and nailed down the two strips of track to carry the cars up and down.
I dug up an old passenger car from the 19th century or sometime.. measured it, and then cut it in
half. (no respect here, kids) Then cut the ends off another car and glued them onto the cut ends. Then I
took some scrap plastic and made benches for my little passengers to sit on. Then went online and
bought something really cool – acrylic paint markers. I used these to paint the cars in bright colours
(like the cars I had seen in Chile) and to touch up some of the details on my passengers.
So the next problem was how to support the cars horizontally as they go up and down the
incline. My first thought was to build an elegant soldered brass structure with ball bearing wheel sets and braking systems. This thought was soon brought to rest when I found a piece of 2x4 which could
be cut at the same angle as the track incline, and glued to the bottom of the car, thus rendering the passengers an authentic horizontal experience.
I screwed a set of trucks from a freight car (which had fallen off my layout) into the middle of the wood, and it was soon looking pretty good. I painted the wood in a dark colour which would look authentic from 3 feet away (advice given by the late Norm Leathers), and justified the design with reference to a water driven prototype currently operating in England.
Next was the scientific part. We would connect the cars by cable (tiny) to a pulley system and
loop the cable around a motorized large wheel and then run it back over the other pulley to the other car.
One car could go up. The other could go down. So the scientific method began, how fast does
the motor turn, and how big was the wheel so that the cars go up and down S L O W L Y . I forget what
numbers I came up with, but they were the right ones, and I found a 3.5 inch wheel which fit onto a 20
RPM motor and after converting my order to metric, sent the order away, and went up for coffee.
Several weeks later, everything arrived. In the interim, I had also chanced upon a switch system
with a rheostat to drive the 12 volt system and could now put the thing together for testing on my work
bench.
So I wired all the electrics together, hooked it up to my 12 volt supply (former desktop part) and got every thing turning. One more problem – I needed a tiny cable. Something strong, very strong.
I didn't have any fishing line. Thread wasn’t strong enough. Must be flexible. Waxed. Waxed? I went
back upstairs. Judy (my highly educated and very smart wife) suggested Dental Tape. Dental tape, the strongest rope known to mankind!! So now I was able to hook up the two cars on the track, run the
cable over the pulleys down to the wheel and get it running. And it ran. And ran. Up. Down. Up and
down!
Next I took the structure and wires over to the layout. In the next few weeks I made a slot for the
“ramp” so it could be moved out for repairs in the future. I covered the wood with cardboard and
plaster cloth to make an authentic mountainside, and then I painted the whole thing in glorious dirt
colours. Added trees, added some LED streetlights. Wired them up. Built a little shack at the bottom
for the cars to slide into.
Am thinking about the shack on the top now...
The parts:
From Amazon.ca:
1. DC Motor Speed Controller (PWM)
2. 12 V Reversible High Turbo Worm Reduction Electric Motor 20 RPM
3. Small pulley block wheels
4. Harfington Single Groove Pulley 6mm fixed bore 60mm Outer diameter etc
5. 38 Colors Dual Tipped Acrylic Markers
From my basement floor:
1. Wood scraps
2. Screws
3. 12 V and 5 V power supplies
4. Random wires
5. Plaster cloth and cardboard held together with staples and gun glue.
6. Trucks from a broken model car
7. An old passenger car and some plastic.
Resources on the internet:
A Google search will show many funiculars in Canada, Chile and the UK. There's a pretty readable site
called, “All the Funiculars” https://columbia.edu/~brennan/fun which is all about the ones in the UK.
The photographs are amazing!
For the Chilean ones, there are a large number of great videos on Youtube. Search “Valparaiso
Ascencores” on Google. Don't be afraid of the Spanish, the videos are amazing. We went up and down
quite a few of the ones in Valparaiso when we were there in 2006/7. Valparaiso should be a sister city
to Winnipeg - both cities suffered similar fates with the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914.
