The funiculars of Genova

Liguria, Italy

Text and photos by Michel AZEMA ... September 1996
Genova/Presentation | Genova/Righi | Genova/Sant'Anna | Granarolo 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Menu

Funicolare Principe - Granarolo (2)

The interior and the commands of the cabin.
The only siding of the line! It is located in the middle of the line. Look at the photo (right)...don't you think this siding looks like a funicular siding?
Another question: how the interior wheels can pass over the rail of the other track? There is no gap for the wheel... at least the cabin has kept the flat wheels which are normally on the interior side of a funicular cabin!

When the cabin passed the siding there was no second car from the opposite side. Note also that the herb is higher between the left track than the right track. It means may be that only one car is used.
The cabin number 2 climbing the Granarolo hill.
Great panorama of Genova from the Granarolo Hill.
The cabin number 2 arriving at the second road crossing. A road crossing could be an argument against the idea that it was a funicular because of the difficulty to pass over the cable. In fact not, this is not an argument. There are many exemples of funicular with road crossing: Stanserhornbahn, Besancon- Bregille...Lisbon...
Note also how is built this cabin. The floor has three levels like steps. This kind of cabin is very common for funiculars but very unusual for cog-wheel train. I only know one exemple of a cog-wheel train with this kind of cabin: the Pilatusbahn in Switzerland, but the gradient, there, is 47%!



Granarolo page 1 | Granarolo page 3




Genova/Presentation | Genova/Righi | Genova/Sant'Anna | Granarolo 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Menu
 

Copyright © 1996 by Michel Azéma, Paris (France)
E-Mail: contact