Rack railway in the context of "Rigi Railways"

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR), colloquially called the "Toy Train" by locals, is a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge railway in Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu, India, built by the British in 1908. The railway is operated by the Southern Railway and is the only rack railway in India.

The railway relies on its fleet of steam locomotives. NMR switched to diesel locomotives on the section between Mettupalyam and Udhagamandalam. Local people and visitors led a campaign to return to steam locomotives in this section.

Mettupalayam is a municipal town and headquarters of Mettupalayam Taluk in the Coimbatore District of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the second largest town in the Coimbatore district after Pollachi. It is located to the north of Coimbatore city on the way to Ooty, in the foothills of Nilgiri hills. As of 2011, the town had a population of 69,213. Mettupalayam railway station is the starting point of Nilgiri Mountain Railway and it operates the only rack railway in India connecting Ooty and Mettupalayam. It is a suburban area of Coimbatore City.

The Sassi–Superga tramway is a steep grade railway line in the city of Turin in northern Italy. Managed by Gruppo Torinese Trasporti, it connects the Turin suburb of Sassi to the Basilica of Superga at an altitude of 672 m (2,205 ft). The lower station is situated at an altitude of 225 m (738 ft) a.s.l., the upper at 650 m (2,130 ft). From here, high in the hills facing the city across the River Po, a panorama of Turin is visible against a backdrop of the Alps. Intermediate stops (only on demand) are located at Prima Galleria, Raddoppio, and Pian Gambino.

The line was opened on 27 April 1884 as a cable driven rack railway of the Agudio system. In this system cables ran along the side of the track and passed around two large pulleys on each side of the cars, which in turn drove the cog wheels that propelled the train consisting of the driven car (only occupied by the driver and a brakeman) and up to three passenger cars. The cable was originally driven by a steam engine in the upper station, from 1922 on by an electric motor. During World War I passenger numbers dropped sharply, so that the line was temporarily shut down until 1919.

A rack and pinion is a type of linear actuator that comprises a circular gear (the pinion) engaging a linear gear (the rack). Together, they convert between rotational motion and linear motion: rotating the pinion causes the rack to be driven in a line. Conversely, moving the rack linearly will cause the pinion to rotate.

The rack and pinion mechanism is used in rack railways, where the pinion mounted on a locomotive or a railroad car engages a rack usually placed between the rails, and helps to move the train up a steep gradient. It is also used in arbor presses and drill presses, where the pinion is connected to a lever and displaces a vertical rack (the ram). In pipelines and other industrial piping systems, a rack displaced by a linear actuator turns a pinion to open or close a valve. Stairlifts, lock gates, electric gates, and the mechanical steering mechanism of cars are other notable applications.

A pantograph (or "pan" or "panto") is an apparatus mounted on the roof of an electric train, tram or trolley buses to collect power through contact with an overhead line. The term stems from the resemblance of some styles to the mechanical pantographs used for copying handwriting and drawings.

The pantograph is a common type of current collector; typically, a single or double wire is used, with the return current running through the rails. Other types of current collectors include the bow collector and the trolley pole.

The Budapest Cog-wheel Railway (Hungarian: budapesti fogaskerekű vasút [ˈbudɒpɛʃti ˈfoɡɒʃkɛrɛkyː ˈvɒʃuːt]) is a rack railway in the Buda part of the Hungarian capital city of Budapest. It connects a lower terminus at Városmajor (hu), two tram stops away from the Széll Kálmán tér transport interchange, with an upper terminus at Széchenyihegy (hu). The line is integrated into the city's public transport system as tram line number 60, is 3.7 kilometres (2.3 mi) in length, and was opened in 1874.

The railway is operated by BKV, who also operate the city's tram and metro lines. It runs throughout the year between the hours of 0500 and 2300. As a fully integrated part of Budapest's public transport system, standard tickets and passes can be used.

The Mount Washington Cog Railway, also known as the Cog, is the world's first mountain-climbing cog railway (rack-and-pinion railway). The railway climbs Mount Washington in New Hampshire, United States. It uses a Marsh rack system and both steam and biodiesel-powered locomotives to carry tourists to the top of the mountain. Its track is built to a 4 ft 8 in (1,422 mm) gauge, which is technically a narrow gauge, as it is 1⁄2 inch (13 mm) less than a 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge.

It is the second-steepest rack railway in the world, after the Pilatus Railway in Switzerland, with an average grade of over 25% and a maximum grade of 37%. The railway is approximately 3 miles (5 km) long and ascends Mount Washington's western slope, beginning at an elevation of approximately 2,700 feet (820 m) above sea level and ending just short of the mountain's summit peak of 6,288 feet (1,917 m). The train ascends the mountain at 2.8 miles per hour (4.5 km/h) and descends at 4.6 mph (7.4 km/h). Steam locomotives take approximately 65 minutes to ascend and 40 minutes to descend, while the biodiesel engines can go up in as little as 36 minutes.

The Gornergrat Railway (German: Gornergrat Bahn; GGB) is a mountain rack railway, located in the Swiss canton of Valais. It links the resort village of Zermatt, situated at 1,604 m (5,262 ft) above mean sea level, to the summit of the Gornergrat. The Gornergrat railway station is situated at an altitude of 3,089 m (10,135 ft), which makes the Gornergrat Railway the second highest railway in Europe after the Jungfrau, and the highest open-air railway of the continent. The line opened in 1898, and was the first electric rack railway to be built in Switzerland.The Gornergrat is a starting point for many hikes, as it lies surrounded by 29 peaks rising above 4,000 m (13,123 ft) in the Alps and several glaciers, including the Gorner Glacier (which is billed as the second longest glacier in the Alps). At the end of the line on Gornergrat, the Matterhorn is visible on a clear day. It is also a popular skiing area.

The Gornergrat Railway Ltd (Gornergrat Bahn AG) is a wholly owned subsidiary of BVZ Holdings AG, who are also the majority owners of the Matterhorn Gotthard Verkehrs AG, the company that operates the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB), with which the GGB connects in Zermatt.