24hrs to ride 3 FUNICULARS in AMERICA?!

a portion of this video is brought to you by ag1 now if you went onto the internet and you looked up funicular I don't know why you would but I did this is what you'd find videos of fun looking trains that go up and down Hills also known as incline Railways and I want to ride them so for the next 48 hours we'll be traveling across the us to ride the three most significant funiculars in the country why I don't really know but to bring it up to speed he ended last week's episode on aerial tramways right here in New York City and yes while they have some iconic Railways in transit like this the New York City subway I mean really this is one of the most used transit systems in the world sounds a lot better than I thought it would and maybe unsurprisingly is the fact that it's the world's longest subway system and has the most stations now speaking of which this is ours now New York City also has the busiest commuter Railway in North America which is the LIRR as I like to call it the lure I don't think anyone else calls it that that's right the Long Island Railroad but these trains are that interesting so we're gonna keep going and next is the air train which I'll admit is a very cool name but isn't all that special in itself other than the fact that it's getting us to JFK where we're jumping onto a plane and flying to the beautiful Pittsburgh we must be in Pittsburgh yes I rented a car and we're off to ride our first bunnicular take a slight left turn that's blood right trains don't usually do well on Hills but this one we're gonna see is built for Hills oh it's getting hilly we're going down a hill that's a good sign we've come all this way to ride this I think they call it the monangala correct me if I'm wrong incline railway is also a Historic Landmark just my luck it's too bad it's closed because this is the oldest and steepest funicular in America even though it's close for maintenance they are running it today they're really cute stations they're really well kept these are great I think that's it monongahala Monongahela we'll go with that well we've come this far let's drive up the hill and see what's up there not much else to say about the Monongahela it's a nice view top of Mount Washington this funicular was built in 1870 to connect the community at the top of the embankment with the river and the bridge to Pittsburgh below like it's a nice little Community up here this building was built in 1893 which is 25 years after the funicular which means this building might not have been here without the funicular wow small little Railway big impact it also has a pretty nice viewing platform to look out over the whole city but lucky for us Pittsburgh has another one down the road that is running today so we're gonna go ride that and while I drive a mile down the road to get there let me tell you about the sponsor of this portion of the video ag1 I mean it says right on the pack ag-1 is comprehensive and complete daily nutrition with 75 vitamins minerals and Whole Food sourced ingredients including probiotics and adaptogens and the reason that's so useful for me is because sometimes it's difficult to make sure I'm getting what my body needs while I'm traveling and so ag-1 makes it easy for me and the best part is that even when I'm traveling they have these handy little travel packs that make it easy for me to make sure I get what my body needs while I'm on the road ag1 is more than just a greens powder with natural energy supporting ingredients like vitamin B12 and performance and Recovery support with magnesium and superfoods and considering how healthy the ingredients are it actually tastes pretty good which makes for an easy daily habit just one scoop of AG one eight ounces of water shake and enjoy but don't take it from me try ag1 for yourself go to athleticreens.com Downey live and you'll get a year's supply of vitamin D3 and K2 and 5 free travel packs thank you ag1 where is everybody that's where we're going this is the parking lot there's nobody here downtown Pittsburgh ladies and gentlemen Welcome to The Duquesne Incline Railway AKA a funicular maybe the reason this one is still here is that it was listed on the national register of historic places so it's got to be worth riding you see the whole point of a transit system is to connect people to places and I just don't know what this connects to that's okay let's go ride it anyways that's nice incline Railways are interesting because they're kind of like a railway because they're on tracks but they're also kind of like an elevator last trip 12 40 a.m this thing runs late five dollars goes right in there you still use it look at that cool this is beautiful what year was this built 1877 April 12th is his birthday that's exciting look at this Historic Landmark 1877. all right let's give it a go wow the details this lovely little funicular will take us 400 feet up along a 30 degree angle at just over four miles per hour how cute is this how cute is this all right well I guess it's just us there's not much to it wow oh it's beautiful oh it's electric all right that's the Bell here we go wow and maybe one of the most unusual things about it is that it uses a wider than normal track gauge which is only used in Finland Russia and Mongolia [Music] so a funicular or an incline railway runs on tracks like a train and it's pulled by a cable to the top because they're attached to the same cable they move at the same speed at the same time and the weight of one counteracts the weight of the other so it's actually not that difficult to get it moving you know if this was full of people it would be very heavy but there's the whole weight of the one going down that helps to pull this up I mean really funiculars are a very clever way to get people up and down a very steep slope which is exactly what we have here in Pittsburgh I still haven't figured out why is here but we'll see what's at the top the detail in all of this I feel like I've traveled back in time that was amazing just put a smile on my face oh this is great they let you go downstairs and underneath to see the hoisting equipment so this is the car we came up on there's the cable underneath it it comes up here goes around a wheel up there comes under this wheel and into wow the Machine Shop look at the size of that I'm blown away this is a living breathing Museum here as well not just a little elevator ride to the top of a mountain realistically top of a big hill it's not not a mountain this is much more impressive than I expected so the Duquesne Incline was closed in 1962 but David Miller here one of the neighbors who lived at the top got all the neighbors together and they built the rehabilitation Group which took over and have continued operating it since 1963. pretty neat The Duquesne Incline would not be here today without the residents of Duquesne Heights saving it and now running it as a non-profit to preserve the incline railway for us to ride the top of the hill is a community apartment buildings homes has a great view of Pittsburgh from the top I can see the appeal of living up here so while Pittsburgh has the oldest incline railway let's head to Los Angeles to ride the shortest Railway in America all right back to the airport we go so cue up the Montage Music to skip us ahead by a few hours thank you bringing us to tonight or now here at the Vermont and sunset Metro station this station is inspired by 1950s science fiction wait La has a Metro yeah I didn't know that either this station being the closest to the famous Griffiths Observatory is designed with space in mind it has design elements of celestial orbits on the floor and overhead a star chart mapping the Earth's placement in the universe details are to be found all over the station it's maybe not the most beautiful station with most Metro stations looking kind of all the same it's nice to have a few of them that stand out just for being a little bit unique and the Elevator Shaft is domed to mimic The Observatory itself now let's move on from one star theme station to another slightly different star theme station and so here we are at the corner of Hollywood and Vine walking amongst the stars on the famous Walk of Fame this is the Hollywood and Vine Station which has the most detail and decorations of any station in the entire metro system the pillars are designed to look like palm trees obviously in the center of the station are two movie projectors donated by Paramount Pictures and a nod to The Yellow Brick Road in the halls and the whole ceiling is covered in 35 millimeter reels honestly noticing these little details helps to kind of pass some of the time while waiting for your next train this transportation system I'm lucky for us the Pershing Square is the station that we're actually here to get out at we're going around the corner to the angels flight this Metro ride is taking us to our final stop be on the left now this is a funicular similar to the other two incline Railways we saw earlier but it's slightly different there are three rails whereas the Pittsburgh funiculars had four rails or two fully separated tracks this means that this track splits in the middle you can see as the cars come together they do actually pass here before they come back together so this is the Angel's flight also possibly technically America's shortest Railway yes it's another funicular but uh it is technically part of the Metro System here in La so it it's one of the perishing Square connections where we just walked from all right let's take it there's no one here wow look at this woodwork again beautiful so as far as I can tell we just walk on and we pay at the top and the whole thing is slightly stepped and you and you can sit outside on the front deck two cars just like the last ones one coming down as one goes up and it has a passing point in the middle and we're off now they say that it runs every two minutes because it takes a minute to get to the top and then another minute to unload and reload people here's our passing point [Music] it's beautiful this is a nice ride the Angel's flight costs just a dollar thank you and I don't know if it's because we're here at night or because of the orange paint job I think this is a beautiful piece of Railway Heritage that I'm glad they've kept alive technically there is a staircase right next to it so you don't have to ride it but why wouldn't you it's easier for someone to say it's not worth keeping around anymore I think they are next week we're moving on from Heritage to the future of Transportation in America riding on one of the most difficult elevators to engineer riding on a system of autonomous pods and of course the infamous monorail so come back and ride along with me right here on Downey live because frankly I don't know where I'm going next but I know I want you there with me I'll see you next week

Channel: DownieLive

Views: 191,427

Keywords: downielive, downie live, funicular, incline railway, American funicular, funicular usa

Id: SI47_IpmjUM

Length: 12min 28sec (748 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 01 2023