Builder: dolfmeister
Region: Asia & Australasia
Category entered:
Year entered: 2022
Brand of building bricks used:
LEGO
Since 2026, the Brick Train Awards have accepted models created with other LEGO®-compatible construction brick systems.
About Abt System Funicular Railway by dolfmeister
Funiculars are inclined railways with two cars connected to each other by a cable that is routed around a pulley at the upper terminus. The two cars balance out each other's dead weight. The cars themselves are not powered, they are hauled up the incline by electric or steam machinery, or by the weight of water carried in a tank on the descending car.
There may be two separate parallel lines, a three-rail track with a shared middle rail, or as in the case of the Abt system, a single track. The latter two require a passing loop in the middle. The world's first single track funicular railway was opened in 1879. Built by Carl Roman Abt, using the "Abt'sche Ausweiche", a special switch named after him.
Excepting the cable guide rollers, this switch has no moving parts. Instead, the cars feature double flanged wheels on the outside, and a cylindrical roller on the inside. The rollers pass over gaps provided in the rails for the cable to pass through, while the flanges force the cars to follow the continuous outer rails.