Train World - Cable Car

A cable car is a passenger vehicle that is pulled by a constantly moving wire cable. Some cable cars, such as ski lifts, run on cables suspended between towers. However, most cable cars run on rails.

In such systems, the cable runs in a channel beneath the street. An engine in a station propels the cable at about 9 miles per hour. A cable car moves when its operator pushes a lever that causes the car’s heavy metal grip to latch onto a moving cable.

An American named Andrew S. Hallidie invented the first cable car in 1873 in San Francisco, California.

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