Incline Railway at Lookout Mountain - Chattanooga.

Incline Railway at Lookout Mountain
Still the 29th September and our second historic railroad visit takes us to the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway on a wet, overcast afternoon. For Europeans the standout virtue of this place is its beautiful poetic name, although a few travellers recall that hard-hitting tennis ace Rosco Tanner came from here. So it is a little mortifying to discover that a very significant landmark in mechanical engineering development is here in the form of this cable operated railway which dates from 1895. It is a serious bit of engineering too! Ascending the mountain which gives it its name via a ramp of varying slopes it follows a not-entirely straight course of about a mile which includes a section climbing at 72.7% that is claimed to be the steepest passenger railway incline anywhere. Presumably, what exactly constitutes a "railway" comes into this somewhere.

The line is set-up for tourists now, but you have to be impressed by it. There are two passenger cars which alternate up and down the hill and are linked by a continuous steel cable running on rollers. The passenger vehicles are like a conventional tram or street-car, but the centre aisle between the seats is like a stairway because the cars are always standing on a slope! The electric winding-motor at the top of the incline is just 250 horsepower which tells you how little effort is required to overcome friction and inertia in a smooth running rail based system where the gravity component of the force equations is balanced out by one car going uphill while the other is going down. The line uses ideas which were adopted in other incline railways around the world such as a "three rail" section on the upper part of the slope which cleverly avoids a moving point-switch where the line divides to permit descending and ascending cars to pass each-other. Incidentally, that electric motor which powers the whole thing now is bolted straight on to the cast-iron baseplate of the vertical steam engine which once did the duty.

The summit is near to a Civil War battle site, but time constraints and the all enveloping low cloud and rain filled mist which covered the mountain during our visit prevented us from seeing anything of it. Chattanooga could just be made-out through the haze however, and one could be sure that on clear days the summit would afford spectacular views. This railway is certainly well worth a visit for anyone with an interest in mechanisms and can be thoroughly recommended.

Everyone seemed to enjoy our ride on this bit of history, although the slightly hectic pace of our two railroad visits made us all feel quite relieved to board our bus for the short trip back to the hotel in Chattanooga.