How to attach gear to line

I have a line. The line has a number of vertices. Per vertex, I want to attach gears. The gears connect and, accordingly, turn in unison. I want the ability to attach each gear to each vertex of the line and I want to be able to move the line in any direction and have to gears move in unison with the line.

Can someone tell me how I can do this, or point me to a tutorial which will offer some insight?

neo-

can you show a pic here

can you use duplivert in this case ?

or need some animation to do it ?