A railway mode in which a toothed rack rail laid between the running rails engages a cog wheel on the locomotive or railcar, giving the traction needed to climb grades far steeper than an ordinary adhesion railway can manage safely. Cog, or rack, railways are used mainly on mountain lines, where the added grip lets a train climb slopes that would otherwise require switchbacks or cable haulage.
Facts
Core ConcernClimbing grades far steeper than an ordinary friction-based railway can manage, using a toothed rack rail engaged by a cog wheel or pinion on the train. 1 Origin YearThe Blenkinsop system on the Middleton Railway near Leeds, England was the first practical rack railway, in 1812; the first railway purpose-built to climb a mountain, the Mount Washington Cog Railway, opened decades later, in 1868 to 1869. Sources
1. Wikipedia: Rack Railway
WikipediaLead paragraph, second sentence
This allows the trains to operate on steep gradients of 100% (45 degrees) or more, well above the 10% (5.7 degrees) maximum for friction-based rail.
Lead paragraph, third sentence
The first cog railway was the Middleton Railway between Middleton and Leeds in West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, where the first commercially successful steam locomotive, Salamanca, ran in 1812.
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