By Cuthbert Allison.

THIS article, published in 1934, shows how much thought had gone into the workings of the Penang Hill Railway when it was built and why it is such an important heritage icon of Penang.

ATTEMPTS to build a cable-car system, similar to the one at Matlock, were made as far back as the “90's” but abandoned as the task proved too much for the slender means at command. The old embankments are still in existence, signs of much wasted capital. But at the beginning of the last decade the job was undertaken seriously, and after much consideration the scheme adopted was that known as the funicular plan, whereby one car is balanced against another at either end of a cable wound over a drum, one descending as the other rises. The method, on a small scale, has been in common use for many years, at numerous seaside resorts, as an easy means of getting down to the beach from a higher level; there is an example at Sospel, in the south of France, nearly 800 feet in length, and another up to the Church of Notre Dame at Marseilles.

The railway at Penang was to be a bigger thing than any so far attempted, and great care had to be taken in the planning. It was eventually decided to make the track in two sections, one a replica of the other, and both together rising to a height of 2,381 feet. To withstand the severity of the tropical rains the track was based on solid granite set in cement throughout its whole length, while the deep ravines and rocky spurs, making very irregular the chosen spot, necessitated the building of eleven viaducts, the longest with a span of 775 feet and 50 feet high at the highest point. Numerous cuttings pierce the solid rock, the deepest being 68 feet below the original surface, and a tunnel 258 feet from end to end, and said to be the steepest in the world, was blasted through the granite.

The track is of only one set of rails instead of the usual two, and cars pass at a loop at the centre of each section, the cable passing over pulleys inclined at an angle. Every precaution has been taken to ensure absolute safety, the breaking and signal systems being interlocked and of very efficient types, and every possible source of trouble has been anticipated and overcome. The engine houses are at the top of each section, and each contains a 75 h.p. motor, running at 300 revolutions per minute. Breaks are provided to come into automatic operation in the event of engine failure. The steel cable, 1¼in. in diameter and weighing 11 lbs. to the yard, is wound over two driving sheaves, each set weighing 17 tons and fixed on steel shafts nearly a foot in diameter. The breaking strain of the cable is 75 tons, and the car is carried upwards at a speed of 4 miles per hour.

The trip to the top, which costs the equivalent of 3/6, is one of great beauty as the panorama of land and sea opens out before one. The cars are open-ended and allow full advantage of the view to be taken. On clear days the hills behind Taiping, 60 miles away, can be seen, and the vista of forest-clad peaks forming the backbone of the peninsula is one not easily forgotten. Nearer at hand, the town of Penang lies extended like a map, embosked in bright green coconut and areca-nut plantations. Temples and bungalows dot the slope while huge liners lying in the roadstead look like toy steamers.

Huge boulders strew the sides of the track, some estimated to weigh as much as 12,000 tons. During the rains the water tumbles over these massive rocks in turgid fury, and unusual care has had to be taken to allow the flood-water free egress through the railway's foundations, otherwise severe damage would be inevitable.

**Republished with permission. Extracted from The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 9 (January 1, 1934).

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Note by Penang Heritage Trust: New Zealand’s capital Wellington is one of the few places in the Asia-Pacific region that has a funicular railway. The Wellington Cable Car, as it is called, ascends from Wellington city to Victoria University of Wellington. It is a small system compared to the Penang Hill Railway, rising only 120 m over a length of 612 m.

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