Funicular

21 April 2010

Funicular. I think it should mean “fun with a homunculus”, but apparently doesn’t. It comes from a derivation of rope, which means, I suppose, that it refers to a train on a string. A train on a string could be extremely environmentally friendly. David Cameron’s endless teams of selfless volunteers could pull train along the network of Britain’s railways, masses of them, scooting on Government issue heelies and emitting no more CO2 than that generated by their exhausted exhalations.

I’ve been on a couple of funicular railways and fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on your point of view – there is no string in evidence. I still have fond memories of the one in Australia’s Blue Mountains, which lowers you down a cliff side into a jungle of ferns and eucalypts like something out of Jurassic Park (but with Koalas rather than eye-spitting poisonous lizards). It was like Time Tunnel, if Time Tunnel had cost $4.50 and warned you to be back in two hours.

I could go on more about funicular rail. You wouldn’t like it though, so I’ll stop.