1910–1911
Britannica 11th
Encyclopaedia Britannica · 11th edition
SWITCHBACK, a form of pleasure railway, built over alternate descents and ascents, the train or car first gathering momentum by running down an incline, and surmounting by means of this a lesser ascent. Switchbacks were originally merely an imitation, using cars upon wheels, of the sledge-coasting courses of Russia, and were indeed named by the French montagnes russes. They were introduced in Paris in 1816, but soon disappeared in consequence of several serious accidents. About 1880 they again became popular both i…
- Source status
- OCR text aligned to scanned pages
- Pages
- Vol. 26, pp. 238-238