The Barney's all had telescoping axles and a set of double flanged wheels which caught a guide shoe leading to a narrower interior track, one flange collapsing the Barney's axles inside that of the main car track—which passed over and outside the barney hatches. So configured, it could travel into one of the two openings shown and travel around the large diameter winch pulley to re-emerge out the other side.
This is an in-between (non-terminus) 'relative lift bottom', where the track leading in behind the camera is at the bottom of a seven mile descending incline from Mount Pisgah, terminated by the slight rise at the position of the camera and winch.
Beyond the bump of the winch hump, this view shows a staging area before a latch (brake) designed to hold any train slowing as it tops the winch house for the positioning of the Barney to emerge behind it and couple. The Barney coupled train is then released and advances on the cable into the slight drop below to climb the long ascent up the Jefferson Plane to surmount a final summit, detach from the Barney in a similar hump, then drop as if a gravity railroad to the Summit Hill station or switching network.
The system could be run in funicular mode, but this was seldom used.
* "The switchback" part of the railroad name refers to parts not depicted, an auxiliary spur with its own cable incline and gravity railroad descent through a clever succession of automatic, self-acting switchbacks used solely for coal transport, the founding purpose for the railroad that ended its long life as an amusement ride. These switchbacks were abandoned after the 1872 opening of the Hauto Tunnel but the name stuck as part of the legal documents when the railroad was sold to new owners for its life as a tourist railroad.
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer.
You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States.
Note that a few countries have copyright terms longer than 70 years: Mexico has 100 years, Jamaica has 95 years, Colombia has 80 years, and Guatemala and Samoa have 75 years. This image may not be in the public domain in these countries, which moreover do not implement the rule of the shorter term. Honduras has a general copyright term of 75 years, but it does implement the rule of the shorter term. Copyright may extend on works created by French who died for France in World War II (more information), Russians who served in the Eastern Front of World War II (known as the Great Patriotic War in Russia) and posthumously rehabilitated victims of Soviet repressions (more information).
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/PDMCreative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0falsefalse
Licensing
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1929, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. See this page for further explanation.
This image might not be in the public domain outside of the United States; this especially applies in the countries and areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada, Mainland China (not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany, Mexico, and Switzerland. The creator and year of publication are essential information and must be provided. See Wikipedia:Public domain and Wikipedia:Copyrights for more details.
Captions
Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents
{{Information |Description={{en|Mauch Chunk and Summit Hill Switchback Railroad, looking up the Jefferson plane.}} |Source=[http://www.gingerb.com/CNJ Mauch Jefferson Plane - looking up.jpg http://www.gingerb.com/CNJ Mauch Jefferson Plan