Rimutaka

Came across this on YouTube, which gives a good overview of operation of the Rimutaka incline in New Zealand - 3 miles at an average of 1 in 15, worked using the Fell system with a centre rail and locomotives that drove both through conventional wheels and horizontal wheels gripping on the centre rail. At times there would be up to five locomotives marshalled through the train to provide adequate traction (and braking power coming back downhill).



And some photos I took in the Fell Locomotive Museum in Featherstone, home to the last surviving locomotive and brake van from the system:



Fell locomotive H199 by Tom James, on Flickr

(Click on photo to go to first photo in the album).

Tom

 

I went in there and have photographs from the pit beneath the locomotive. Featherston is a a bit of a one-horse town but at least has a train service to Wellington; not many places in New Zealand have that! We went in the café across the road from the museum and asked the proprietor if the road was so wide to enable wagon trains to turn. He said that the founders had allowed for the town growing into a big city where such width would be needed, but of course it never has. As for the Rimutaka and the Fell system, it struck me as a solution to a problem of the engineer's own making. Investing in a longer route with easier gradients would have made more sense, even with the resources of the day. We'll be back at Wellington in February; might get over to Featherson again.