Ebbw Vale Garden Festival Funicular

The Ebbw Vale Garden Festival Funicular was a funicular railway built to carry visitors around the Ebbw Vale Garden Festival in 1992. FestivalThe Ebbw Vale Garden Festival of 1992 was the last of the series of British National Garden Festivals from the mid-1980s to early '90s, funded by central government under Michael Heseltine in a bread and circuses plan to distract from the closures of major heavy industries in the regions; the same industries whose sites would form the location for most of the festivals. Ebbw Vale was chosen as waste land which had been the British Steel Corporation's Ebbw Vale Steelworks, closed and partially demolished in the early 1980s. Work began in 1989 and the festival ran from 1 May 1992 and until October. As well as gardens, plant exhibitions and fairground-style attractions the festival also featured a funicular railway. EngineeringThe funicular was intended as a viewpoint across the festival site, as much as a means of transport between levels, and so at it was quite long by funicular standards although had only a short rise of. The route meandered in a rough S shape, so that passengers on both sides could see the view across the site. The gauge cars were open-sided, with toast-rack seating. The two trains each had three 8m cars and could seat 96 people. Gradients were 1: 9 overall, with a maximum of 1: 5 and flat areas at the end stations and passing loop. With a journey time of 4& frac12; minutes, it could move a target maximum of 1, 000 people per hour.

The Ebbw Vale Garden Festival Funicular was a funicular railway built to carry visitors around the Ebbw Vale Garden Festival in 1992. FestivalThe Ebbw Vale Garden Festival of 1992 was the last of the series of British National Garden Festivals from the mid-1980s to early '90s, funded by central government under Michael Heseltine in a bread and circuses plan to distract from the closures of major heavy industries in the regions; the same industries whose sites would form the location for most of the festivals. Ebbw Vale was chosen as waste land which had been the British Steel Corporation's Ebbw Vale Steelworks, closed and partially demolished in the early 1980s. Work began in 1989 and the festival ran from 1 May 1992 and until October. As well as gardens, plant exhibitions and fairground-style attractions the festival also featured a funicular railway. EngineeringThe funicular was intended as a viewpoint across the festival site, as much as a means of transport between levels, and so at it was quite long by funicular standards although had only a short rise of. The route meandered in a rough S shape, so that passengers on both sides could see the view across the site. The gauge cars were open-sided, with toast-rack seating. The two trains each had three 8m cars and could seat 96 people. Gradients were 1: 9 overall, with a maximum of 1: 5 and flat areas at the end stations and passing loop. With a journey time of 4& frac12; minutes, it could move a target maximum of 1, 000 people per hour.