Hello Tinplate world :
1896 Carlisle & Finch of Cincinnati offers a humble 4 wheel electric trolley with a loop of track for $3.00. There is still a question if it was 3 rail as pictured or 2 rail as all remaining examples so far found. Business must have been good as C&F expanded in 1897 with an eight wheel trolley , mining train and an "Incline Railway" .
Nearest big market to Cincinnati is Pittsburgh ... so Incline may have been patterned after the Price Hill Incline in Cincinnati operational 1874-1943 see link for more info
http://www.cincywhimsy.com/201...l-incline-climb.html
Regretfully no known surviving examples of the C&F Incline have surfaced (yet..it only been 120 years ). About 10 years ago a talented builder decided the fill the void of the lack of the C&F incline in the world. Two examples were built using the only known illustration found in the 1897 C&F catalog ....and using period C&F technology and building skills ( save the electric motor relay inside). One example may be in a museum in Cincinnati ...? However here is the other one alive and well serving very small customers daily who have a need for vertical assistance.
The Incline will be worked into the 2" layout once built . This is a BIG accessory... 42" deep and about 28" to the top of chimney. The size and delicate nature of the attaching the incline ramp may have been the down fall to survival and or original sales.
The graphics on the Incline station are patterned after the C&F ( Terra-ferma) station of the period .
So sit back and take a ride up and down , with the simple pleasures from 120 years ago
Guaranteed to amuse children by the hour ......oh for the days before smart phones ...
Cheers Carey
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