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42-562: The Clay Street Hill Railroad was the first successful cable hauled street railway . It was located on Clay Street, a notably steep street in San Francisco in California , United States , and first operated in August 1873. The promoter of the line was Andrew Smith Hallidie , and the engineer was William Eppelsheimer . Accounts differ as to exactly how involved Hallidie was in the inception of

84-493: A clamping device attached to the car, called a grip , applies pressure to ("grip") the moving cable. Conversely, the car is stopped by releasing pressure on the cable (with or without completely detaching) and applying the brakes. This gripping and releasing action may be manual, as was the case in all early cable car systems, or automatic, as is the case in some recent cable operated people mover type systems. Gripping must be applied evenly and gradually in order to avoid bringing

126-406: A collision. A cable car is superficially similar to a funicular , but differs from such a system in that its cars are not permanently attached to the cable and can stop independently, whereas a funicular has cars that are permanently attached to the propulsion cable, which is itself stopped and started. A cable car cannot climb as steep a grade as a funicular, but many more cars can be operated with

168-451: A cutting to the valley near Frasers Road. The last cable car ran on this line on 25 October 1951. The western section beyond the cutting was too steep for a road link, so, when the cable cars ceased, the portion near Belgrave Crescent was redeveloped as a short street serving several houses while retaining the pedestrian walkway through to Delta Street. Trolleybuses replaced the service as far as Belgrave Crescent, using City Road instead of

210-482: A hybrid cable car/funicular line once existed in the form of the original Wellington Cable Car , in the New Zealand city of Wellington . This line had both a continuous loop haulage cable that the cars gripped using a cable car gripper, and a balance cable permanently attached to both cars over an undriven pulley at the top of the line. The descending car gripped the haulage cable and was pulled downhill, in turn pulling

252-412: A single cable, making it more flexible, and allowing a higher capacity. During the rush hour on San Francisco's Market Street Railway in 1883, a car would leave the terminal every 15 seconds. A few funicular railways operate in street traffic, and because of this operation are often incorrectly described as cable cars. Examples of such operation, and the consequent confusion, are: Even more confusingly,

294-456: A terminus near Mornington Park containing a cafe, museum and storage area for the cable car. The Maryhill Extension exited from the back of the Mornington cable car house at the end of Henderson St, following Glenpark Avenue for 0.5 miles (0.8 km). The line was perfectly straight, and was sometimes referred to as The Big Dipper , similar to a roller coaster, going steeply down one side of

336-536: A test of a cable car system was held by Liverpool Tramways Company in Kirkdale , Liverpool . This would have been the first cable car system in Europe, but the company decided against implementing it. Instead, the distinction went to the 1884 Highgate Hill Cable Tramway , a route from Archway to Highgate , north London, which used a continuous cable and grip system on the 1 in 11 (9%) climb of Highgate Hill. The installation

378-458: A while hybrid cable/electric systems operated, for example in Chicago where electric cars had to be pulled by grip cars through the loop area, due to the lack of trolley wires there. Eventually, San Francisco became the only street-running manually operated system to survive – Dunedin, the second city with such cars, was also the second-last city to operate them, closing down in 1957. In

420-482: Is also applied to systems with other forms of propulsion, including funicular style cable propulsion. These cities include: Information Patents Dunedin cable tramway system The Dunedin cable tramway system was a group of cable tramway lines in the New Zealand city of Dunedin . It is significant as Dunedin was the second city in the world to adopt the cable car (the first being San Francisco ). The first Dunedin cable car line opened in 1881,

462-431: Is also the advantage that keeping the car gripped to the cable will also limit the downhill speed of the car to that of the cable. Because of the constant and relatively low speed, a cable car's potential to cause harm in an accident can be underestimated. Even with a cable car traveling at only 14 km/h (9 mph), the mass of the cable car and the combined strength and speed of the cable can cause extensive damage in

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504-769: Is one of the few still functioning in the traditional manner, with manually operated cars running in street traffic. Other examples of cable powered systems can be found on the Great Orme in North Wales, and in Lisbon in Portugal. All of these however are slightly different to San Francisco in that the cars are permanently attached to the cable. Several cities operate a modern version of the cable car system. These systems are fully automated and run on their own reserved right of way. They are commonly referred to as people movers , although that term

546-449: The New York and Brooklyn Bridge Railway was opened, which had a most curious feature: though it was a cable car system, it used steam locomotives to get the cars into and out of the terminals. After 1896 the system was changed to one on which a motor car was added to each train to maneuver at the terminals, while en route, the trains were still propelled by the cable. On 25 September 1883,

588-643: The Town Belt ), covering a distance of 1.4 miles (2.3 km), opening on 6 February 1881. The line went up Rattray Street, with the world's first pull curve in front of St Joseph's Cathedral. It then cut through the Town Belt in Belleknowes (where the cutting is still generally visible) past the Beverly-Begg Observatory to climb the full length of Ross Street and part of Belgrave Crescent, then descend through

630-480: The United Kingdom , Portugal , and France . European cities, having many more curves in their streets, were ultimately less suitable for cable cars than American cities. Though some new cable car systems were still being built, by 1890 the cheaper to construct and simpler to operate electrically -powered trolley or tram started to become the norm, and eventually started to replace existing cable car systems. For

672-521: The Clay Street Hill Railway. One version has him taking over the promotion of the line when the original promoter, Benjamin Brooks , failed to raise the necessary capital. In another version, Hallidie was the instigator, inspired by a desire to reduce the suffering incurred by the horses that hauled streetcars up Jackson Street, from Kearny to Stockton Street. There is also doubt as to when exactly

714-534: The Kaikorai side, restricting access to Ann Street and Oates Street. It closed on 31 July 1947. Opening on 23 March 1883, the Mornington line travelled one mile (1.6 km) up High Street to Mornington. This line was the steepest recorded tramline in the world, with a gradient at the highest point of the track measured at 1 in 3.75. The Mornington line was the last to close, on 2 March 1957, leaving San Francisco as

756-464: The Mornington cable car house, going up Mailer Street and then following Elgin Road for a total of 0.9 miles (1.4 km). It opened on 6 October 1906, and closed only four years later, on 22 January 1910. In contrast to Dunedin's other cable car lines, there was very little gradient on this line. However, the line featured a number of very sharp curves which caused the rope to wear out much faster than those on

798-411: The ascending car (which remained ungripped) uphill by the balance cable. This line was rebuilt in 1979 and is now a standard funicular, although it retains its old cable car name. The best-known existing cable car system is the San Francisco cable car system in the city of San Francisco, California . San Francisco's cable cars constitute the oldest and largest such system in permanent operation, and it

840-407: The bottom of Littlebourne Crescent and up to Highgate at School Street, then dropped down to Kaikorai just before Nairn Street, where a turntable in the road turned cars through 90° and sent them south-west into their shed. The route was eventually turned into a four-lane highway, cutting Littlebourne Crescent off from Littlebourne Road, going under a new bridge and undergoing considerable widening on

882-461: The cable car may not be able to stop and can wreak havoc along its route until the cable house realizes the mishap and halts the cable. One apparent advantage of the cable car is its relative energy efficiency. This is due to the economy of centrally located power stations, and the ability of descending cars to transfer energy to ascending cars. However, this advantage is totally negated by the relatively large energy consumption required to simply move

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924-534: The cable over and under the numerous guide rollers and around the many sheaves . Approximately 95% of the tractive effort in the San Francisco system is expended in simply moving the four cables at 15.3 km/h (9.5 mph). Electric cars with regenerative braking do offer the advantages, without the problem of moving a cable. In the case of steep grades, however, cable traction has the major advantage of not depending on adhesion between wheels and rails . There

966-510: The car down the hill and up again without any problems. The Clay Street line started regular service on September 1, 1873, and was a financial success. In 1888, it was absorbed into the Sacramento-Clay line of the Ferries and Cliff House Railway , and it subsequently became a small part of the San Francisco cable car system . Today none of the original line survives. However grip car 8 from

1008-410: The car to cable speed too quickly and unacceptably jarring passengers. In the case of manual systems, the grip resembles a very large pair of pliers , and considerable strength and skill are required to operate the car. As many early cable car operators discovered the hard way, if the grip is not applied properly, it can damage the cable, or even worse, become entangled in the cable. In the latter case,

1050-409: The cars to be automatically decoupled from the cable under computer control, and can thus be considered a modern interpretation of the cable car. The cable is itself powered by a stationary engine or motor situated in a cable house or power house. The speed at which it moves is relatively constant depending on the number of units gripping the cable at any given time. The cable car begins moving when

1092-495: The corner of Clay Street and Kearny. Cable car (railway) The first cable-operated railway, employing a moving rope that could be picked up or released by a grip on the cars was the Fawdon Wagonway in 1826, a colliery railway line . The London and Blackwall Railway , which opened for passengers in east London , England, in 1840 used such a system. The rope available at the time proved too susceptible to wear and

1134-520: The engineer responsible being George Smith Duncan . For this system he introduced the pull curve and the slot brake; the former was a way to pull cars through a curve, since Dunedin's curves were too steep to allow coasting, while the latter forced a wedge down into the cable slot to stop the tram, which was deemed necessary after the line had a runaway tram some two months after it opened. The last line closed on 2 March 1957. Dunedin's first cable car served Roslyn (although initially only going as far as

1176-526: The fact that a typical horse could work only four or five hours per day necessitated the maintenance of large stables of draft animals that had to be fed, housed, groomed, medicated and rested. Thus, for a period, economics worked in favour of cable cars even in relatively flat cities. For example, the Chicago City Railway , also designed by Eppelsheimer, opened in Chicago in 1882 and went on to become

1218-418: The first run of the cable car occurred. The franchise required a first run no later than August 1, 1873. However, at least one source reports that the run took place a day late, on August 2, but the city chose not to void the franchise. Some accounts say that the first gripman hired by Hallidie looked down the steep hill from Jones and refused to operate the car, so Hallidie took the grip himself and ran

1260-468: The largest and most profitable cable car system . As with many cities, the problem in flat Chicago was not one of incline, but of transportation capacity. This caused a different approach to the combination of grip car and trailer. Rather than using a grip car and single trailer, as many cities did, or combining the grip and trailer into a single car, like San Francisco's California Cars , Chicago used grip cars to pull trains of up to three trailers. In 1883

1302-552: The last decades of the 20th-century, cable traction in general has seen a limited revival as automatic people movers , used in resort areas, airports (for example, Toronto Airport ), huge hospital centers and some urban settings. While many of these systems involve cars permanently attached to the cable, the Minimetro system from Poma /Leitner Group and the Cable Liner system from DCC Doppelmayr Cable Car both have variants that allow

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1344-554: The line has been preserved, and is now displayed in the San Francisco Cable Car Museum . The line involved the use of grip cars, which carried the grip that engaged with the cable, towing trailer cars. The design was the first to use such grips. The railroad was designated as California Historical Landmark #500, with the landmark marker being placed in Portsmouth Square at the site of its eastern terminus near

1386-438: The most extensive in the world with 1200 trams and trailers operating over 15 routes with 103 km (64 miles) of track. Sydney also had a couple of cable tram routes. Cable cars rapidly spread to other cities, although the major attraction for most was the ability to displace horsecar (or mule -drawn) systems rather than the ability to climb hills. Many people at the time viewed horse-drawn transit as unnecessarily cruel, and

1428-703: The only operational cable car system in the world. Wellington Cable Car , also in New Zealand but in the North Island, is a funicular rather than a true cable car. Cable Car House (now used by the Mornington Health Centre after the Plumbers moved out) is still clearly marked in the shopping area, having had little external changes since the line closed. In 2013, a local group announced plans to reinstate this line. The project, estimated to cost $ 22m, would include

1470-453: The pull curve and the slot brake; the former was a way to pull cars through a curve, since Dunedin's curves were too sharp to allow coasting, while the latter forced a wedge down into the cable slot to stop the car. Both of these innovations were generally adopted by other cities, including San Francisco. In Australia, the Melbourne cable tramway system operated from 1885 to 1940. It was one of

1512-544: The straight steep cutting through the Town Belt. Travelling a distance of 1.2 miles (1.9 km), the Stuart Street line opened on 6 October 1900, running largely parallel to the Roslyn line. The track went up Stuart Street from The Octagon , turned half-right at York Place into what was then called Albert Street, continued on past the end of that street through a short section of Town Belt, past Otago Boys' High School , across

1554-525: The system was abandoned in favour of steam locomotives after eight years. In America, the first cable car installation in operation probably was the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway in New York City , as its first-ever elevated railway which ran from 1 July 1868 to 1870. The cable technology used in this elevated railway involved collar-equipped cables and claw-equipped cars, proving cumbersome. The line

1596-528: The valley and then up the other side. It opened on 18 March 1885 and closed on 29 October 1955. The line was originally operated using two grip trams which were later destroyed by a fire. Later, the line was operated by the former Elgin Road grip tram, DCCT No 106. When this car was being overhauled, it would be replaced by 'convertible' grip tram No 105, which was used as a spare car on the Mornington and Maryhill lines as its grip could be set at two different heights to allow it to run on either line. Grip tram 106

1638-505: Was closed and rebuilt, reopening with steam locomotives . In 1869 P. G. T. Beauregard demonstrated a cable car at New Orleans and was issued U.S. patent 97,343 . Other cable cars to use grips were those of the Clay Street Hill Railroad , which later became part of the San Francisco cable car system . The building of this line was promoted by Andrew Smith Hallidie with design work by William Eppelsheimer , and it

1680-569: Was first tested in 1873. The success of these grips ensured that this line became the model for other cable car transit systems, and this model is often known as the Hallidie Cable Car . In 1881 the Dunedin cable tramway system opened in Dunedin , New Zealand and became the first such system outside San Francisco. For Dunedin, George Smith Duncan further developed the Hallidie model, introducing

1722-580: Was not reliable and was replaced by electric traction in 1909. Other cable car systems were implemented in Europe, though, among which was the Glasgow District Subway , the first underground cable car system, in 1896. ( London , England's first deep-level tube railway, the City & South London Railway , had earlier also been built for cable haulage but had been converted to electric traction before opening in 1890.) A few more cable car systems were built in

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1764-666: Was withdrawn in 1955 and donated to the Otago Early Settlers Museum where it remains on static display. 'Convertible' grip tram 105 remained in service on the Mornington line until the closure of the Mornington line in 1957 when it was donated in working order to the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine , where it is stored in a complete state along with its grip. The Elgin Road Extension also left

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