We enjoyed the cliff railway. It doesn't give the mass of an empty car but the 1500 litres of water in a full tank at the top would have a mass of 1500 kg and a weight of 14.7 kN. This must be enough to lift 12 people and overcome frictional losses. Let's estimate 12 adults at 80 kg each. That's roughly 1 tonne so say 10 kN. The frictional losses are therefore worth about 5 kN. 207 feet is around 60 metres so work done against friction might be in the region of 5 kN x 60 = 300 kJ. That doesn't actually sound that much
