Funicular Service Penang Hill
Century-old funicular railway climbing a steep hillside to a colonial-era hill station summit.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Penang Hill funicular traces a bet three British men made that steel rails could tame this slope, and the 1897 steam railway that failed the climb. It follows the young engineer brought in afterward to design something sturdier, and the tunnel his crews blasted through rock so steep it was called the steepest in the world. Trial runs began quietly in 1923, watched by builders who still remembered the earlier failure.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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Penang Hill
Colonial-era hill station reached by a steep century-old funicular through the world's steepest railway tunnel.
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