SOUTH KOREA: Visitors to the High 1 Resort in Gangwon province have a new attraction to enjoy. The ChooChoo Park Railway is the latest addition to a wide range of leisure facilities, which include skiing, nature trails and golf, with hotels and a revolving restaurant set amid scenic mountain views.
Visitors can hire a four-seater ‘family rail bike’ and descend the mountain on a ‘meandering scenic’ section of disused railway stretching for more than 1 km. And the happy travellers do not need to worry about pedalling their bike back up the hill, as they can ride in comfort on a new funicular railway.
Supplied and commissioned by Qualter Hall under contract to Posco Engineering, the funicular has a gradient of 15·6%, and operates at 5 m/s. A pair of two-car trains carrying 70 passengers each are attached to a continuous rope using a 400 kW balanced friction winder. Up to 20 empty bikes can be hauled up the mountain on each trip. The funicular is expected to transport more than 2000 passengers and around 600 bikes per day.
With its origins in the coal mining sector, Barnsley-based Qualter Hall has developed a particular expertise in ‘personnel transport systems incorporating rope management and winders’; it has previously supplied manrider trains for two Korean coal mines. The company also supplied bodyshells to Brush Traction for the Channel Tunnel shuttle locomotives.
