This was a train in Paris France that operated without an engine and without energy. It carried over one million passengers per year and operated between 1900 and 1930.
The system was very simple, very reliable and very safe but with the introduction of cheap energy the authorities decided to do away with something that was impossible to improve on.
There were many trains like this and they all operated in the same way. There were two cars, when one went up the hill the other car went down. In this way most of the energy was provided by one car pulling the other. But extra energy was needed to overcome friction and other energy losses. Therefore the car that was going down carried water equal to the passenger load being carried. This helped gravity and only gravity was used to move both the cars. There were brakes on the cars if they went too fast. When the top car got to the bottom they would empty the water and add water to the other car at the top. So this train was operated only by gravity and it worked great.
Pretty neat eh? and pollution free!!
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