Plateway 1999.
This Book explores the world of mountain railways, and their locomotives as depicted on historic postcards. Included are main line routes such as the Simplon and Gotthard....secondary routes like Switzerland's Rhatischebahn and Austria's Vordenberg-Eisenerz.... and distinctive railways winding their way through the mountains of Burma, Canada, Eritrea, Jugoslavia and East Africa. The mountain railway reached its peak of technological supremacy in the struggle to carry traffic to the very peaks of the mountains, using a variety of methods such as the Fell rail, the Riggenbach rack, the Abt rack and other systems. Illustrated, examples of rack systems in Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Slovakia, Switzerland, Greece, Madeira, Italy, the Lebanon, India and the USA, a selection of funiculars, and a look at how the mountain railway tackles the ever-present problem of snow. The text includes an overview of the history of mountain railways, a description of the various rack railway systems and their locomotives, and a select Bibliography.
Softback with full colour cover, 64 pages, over 100 black and white illustrations.