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Switchback - LoveToKnow 1911 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08) |
 | | 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. |
 | | A variation of the switchback, though lacking its essential principle of climbing by means of momentum, is the water-chute, an imitation of the Canadian toboggan-slide, in which cars built in the shape of boats glide down steep inclines into artificial lakes at their bases. |
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