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Hi,
A big thank you to all who took part in our previous 'Finest Cut' challenge. Who would have thought that so many ideas could start with a pizza cutter.
This week we start outdoors. This is the Saltburn Cliff Lift which is a funicular railway on leading down to the promenade and pier, in Saltburn on the north east coast of England. Constructed in the 1880s, it has been updated several times, but is still powered by water. The tank underneath the upper car is filled with water and when it is heavier than the car at the bottom it descends and pulls the lower car up, all controlled by the brakeman in the wheelhouse. At the bottom the tank empties and the upper car is filled. The water is pumped back to the top.
So that is the scene - what can you do to bring it to life?
When you post your response can you add just a few words on how you went about it. It may help others see the potential of different approaches, software, and tools to such a challenge.
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Have fun!
Dave
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Winter when they put away the carriages 😞
Summer when it's very busy!
Ok, who's next?
Courtesy of Gemini 2.5
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Haha - brilliant Euan, and very quick, I posted this less than an hour ago! I see Gemini appears, like other AI generators, to struggle with hands though.
 
Dave
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But, an excellent job of putting them behind the railings 😉
The old trade off: good, cheap, quick, which two do you want?
(Doesn't seem to know much about rails either)
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EuanWilliamson what no Adobe Firefly?
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No, just an amount of Photoshop mixed in.
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Could it, perhaps, be Lord Marks who designed and installed it, coming back to check on it? Or is it his predecessor J Anderson who had designed and built a vertical lift leading down to the pier, which he also built, 10 years before it was replaced by the funicular.  🙂
Dave
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Dave, actually it is Blondin, redoing one of his (late) unknown performances, like in Teesdale, only this here was among his most seriously impossible ones, carriages moving together and then apart.
It would be great to know how the vertical one looked, and what Marks and Anderson might think now.
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Ah, I see him now, Jacob. 🙂
Dave
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We're not far from Heartbeat land, Jacob. He must be investigating the case of the stolen door locks! 🙂
Dave
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Ah, of course, Dave, right you are.
I thought Alf had just decided to go a bit further than to Whitby for a day off by the sea.
But obviously he would never do either in his uniform.
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Thanks for the link, Greg, I see the connection. 
I was bemused by the fact that Angels Flight is the worlds shortest railway at 298 feet of track, whilst the Saltburn track is only 207 feet. Maybe Saltburn's cliff railway doesn't qualify as a railway for the purpose of that record. 🙂
Dave
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This instantly reminded me of Lisbon. There are several funiculars still in use. They were also powered by water counterweights, back in the day, but they're now electric.
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Greg, further to what Dave said, the Angels Flight Railway funicular is more than twice as long as each of the two currently operating funiculars in Bournemouth, the Fisherman's Walk Cliff Lift/Railway and the West Cliff Lift/Railway, so longer than both of them combined; and it is also longer than the third funicular in Bournemouth, the East Cliff Lift/Railway, (hopefully temporarily) closed owing to a landslip.
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Jacob, I forgot that I had seen this in Bournemouth, last year.
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Indeed, Greg.
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He deserves that cuppa. That must have been a hard days work!
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Well done Trevor! That has smartened it up. He does indeed deserve a cuppa. 🙂
Dave
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I'm struggling for ides this time Dave 😞
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The range of ideas that come out of these SFTW threads always amazes me, Trevor. 🙂
Dave
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Made it so much cheerier. Nice!
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