# modeling the Duquesne Incline



## grudatom (Nov 14, 2018)

Hi I am staring on making my own layout in my new house and am thinking about modeling the duquesne incline.

i was thinking of getting scale trolley bodies and building a base to match the incline but I'm not positive how this would work, can anyone put their two cents in?

this is a big attraction in pittsburgh pa


http://www.duquesneincline.org/


----------



## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

The first thought that came to mind is to use
an old HO loco DC motor and perhaps a
gear chain that operates a drum with a
line to the car. The lift
would ride on rails but be pulled up by
the under table system. You would power
it with an old DC power pack and use it's
speed control.

The lift would descend by gravity but still
the motor system would hold it to speed.

If you wanted it to operate automated, you
could use a DPDT relay that is tripped when
the car reaches either terminal.

My recollection is that the cab rode level even
tho the frame was at the incline slope. You'll
need to do some model construction perhaps
using the trucks from an old HO car upon which
you would build the support for the cab.

Don


----------



## Lehigh74 (Sep 25, 2015)

What scale are you thinking? If it's O, the Corgi Birney safety car might work as the donor trolley body.


----------



## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Here are two pictures of the one on the Carnegie Science Center O gauge layout. No idea how they made it work.


----------



## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

I had thought about modeling an incline on my O-Gauge layout, and the way you suggest making the car body was how I was going to do mine. The problem I haven't solved is how to power the thing. At least on mine, and yours if you model the Duquesne Incline at its angle in the real world, the incline will be too steep for powered wheels to get the car up the incline - they will spin (I did a test, mine did).


----------



## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

It's a funicular. Why not power the model the way the real funicular works ... by having a cable at the top pulled around a drum?


----------



## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Looks like the cable method is the most practical way to go, and it preserves the original operation so you don't need to try and hide any extra equipment. One suggestion I *can* make here, however, is that you will want to find a motor that is significantly geared down. One suggestion would be clock motors, but that may just be too slow. I have seen a number of 12VDC motors on ebay which are geared down to a few hundred RPM, so they have a significant amount of torque to them. You might want to use a belt drive to allow for slippage so if the car does not stop at the top it doesn't get ripped apart, and this would also allow you to put the motor out of sight and allow a cut-away of the building to show the mechanism in action (with the just drum and 'wooden' gears in view).


----------



## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Shdwdrgn said:


> ... and allow a cut-away of the building to show the mechanism in action (with the just drum and 'wooden' gears in view).


Love that idea! Would be a very creative, fun presentation!

TJ


----------



## Nikola (Jun 11, 2012)

You can get 12 volt gear motors with any ratio desired. Google robot suppliers (as in Sumobots and other hobby and science fair robotic endeavors). You can buy racks from MCMaster-Carr, so that the car can run up the slope without a cable.

If you are building it with two tracks, then cable it so that as one car rises the other descends. Then the gravity of the situation makes the motor requirement far less.

If it is one track, then you can have a hidden counterweight underneath, like in an elevator.

A cheapo Harbor Freight battery drill makes it easy to reverse and has plenty of power.

This is a terrific idea as you not only have the modeling of the car, ramp and so on, but also the engineering to make it work!


----------



## grudatom (Nov 14, 2018)

thanks so much guys great info!


----------

