What is a funicular railway?

This is a cool short railway designed to pull people up a steep hill. There are several of them in the world. The photo to the left is of Angels Flight in Bunker Hill, Los Angeles CA. The one above is located in Chile. The term funicular is from the architectural / mathematical meaning of a curve. There are two counterbalanced cars, one on each end of a cable. I guess the curve is in the cable.

This model is in Naples while the other one is a modern version from Istanbul. To see Angeles Flight in action, check out this video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hynvS0t5LFc

(Shameless Plug) For other cool stuff check out www.allendavidgallery.com and www.allenbunker.com .

Interior of Angels Flight