Did this just for the tourist factor.
It's cool to go on at least once in your life, but my experience was pretty much:
- Pay IN EXACT CHANGE (a very unhappy attendant - the Duquesne Incline nazi?)
- Get on + ride to the top
- Get off at the top, take a picture of the Pittsburgh skyline. There was a decent amount of people up there, so it was kind of hard to get a good view.
- Look around at the newspaper articles inside the station (tried walking around to see if there was anything else to sight see outside the station at the top...I didn't see much except restaurants). It was pretty cool reading about the history of the incline, though.
- Go back down
Beware tourist buses stop here also. If you're caught in that, be prepared to wait a looonnng time (the train cars don't hold that many people) and be really crowded when you finally do get to the top station.