Trev,
There is quite a good website here
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/html/cchow.html#top explaining the various aspects of cable car systems.
I think it's true to say that most cable car systems only had cables running in straight lines. When the car came to a corner it had to release its grip, freewheel around the corner and then regrip onto the next cable. Where this wasn't possible (e.g. going uphill) the cable normally went around the curve on pulleys. When the car with its grip clamped to the cable passed around the curve it tended to pull the cable away from each pulley in turn so they had to have rubbing strips that the side of the grip could contact with to avoid it getting too far out of line. Apparently it was subject to a very high rate of wear and tear and because of the high degree of friction the cars had to go round these curves with a fair bit of speed which could be quite hairy
John.