Cable Train Runs on the Weight of Sewage

Posted by Queuebot in Odd News on September 17, 2009 at 11:18 am


Kris at Low Tech Magazine explains how furniculars, those cable trains that were built up the sides of hills and mountains, often ran on water! The two cars were
connected by cables, so you added 400 gallons of water to the one at the top, to make it heavy enough to roll down the hill while pulling up the lighter one at the bottom.

In Fribourg, Switzerland, they had a much better idea. One area in town is at the top of a hill, and the other at the bottom, separated by about 375 feet of elevation. And if there is one thing that is always flowing from the top to the bottom, it is sewage. Instead of running in a pipe, they pump some of it into the car at the top; at the bottom, they open it up and let it run into the lower sewer.

Link – via treehugger

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by christackett.


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COMMENT

10 comments to "Cable Train Runs on the Weight of Sewage"

  1. Christophe
    September 17th, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    Does it smell like sewer too?

  2. Kalel
    September 17th, 2009 at 12:36 pm

    Now I know what my grandmother meant when she'd say things like, "I don't have enough poop to get up those stairs."

  3. Skipweasel
    September 17th, 2009 at 1:07 pm

    So - if you want to go - you have to go?

  4. contron
    September 17th, 2009 at 1:08 pm

    Someday I'm going to live in one of these and open up a theme park.

  5. Tim Giachetti
    September 17th, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    "Wonder Twins Power Acticate!!
    Shape of a Train!!

    Form of an Outhouse!"

    Hmmmm not as I imagined it at all! :P

  6. Chris Monty
    September 17th, 2009 at 2:38 pm

    Wow, I bet that train smells lovely.

  7. Skipweasel
    September 17th, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    @Chris Monty: No worse than most.

  8. Grandnom
    September 17th, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    To all those who are asking if the trains smell.

    Haven't you noticed the non-sewage powered trains in the USA are not exactly odor free? HMMMMM?

  9. felixthecat
    September 17th, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    Perhaps the trains can run on the sewage some in the art world foist upon us, and that the aesthetes are so fond of rolling in. *cough* tin foil ball *cough*

  10. dutchboy
    September 17th, 2009 at 10:25 pm

    I love these things.


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