"QUANTUM SHOT" #558
Link
- article by M. Christian and
Avi Abrams
A dream of high-tech splendor balanced on a single rail
Why use two tracks when you can have only one, or no track at all
(magnetic "levitation")? Same sort of logic gave us
mono-wheel vehicles, Segway, and today is used extensively for public transportation in
high-density urban areas. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present to
you, for your amusement and edification, one of the strangest and
counter-intuitive ways of getting from point A to point B: the monorail.
While the concept of possibly traveling across a city, and/or across the
landscape, on monorails has become close to acceptable these days – or
even grudgingly acceptable - back in its infancy visionary proponents of
this form of transportation instead saw a future where everyone,
everywhere, moved in gleaming high-tech splendor balanced on a single
rail.
top image: The George Bennie RailPlane System of Transport, see below,
via - bottom image
via
Early Dreamers
One of those first dreamers was Henry Palmer, whose creations
worked the docks of London for many years – and even carried quite a few
passengers. Terrified of falling over, to be sure, but passengers
nonetheless. Other inventors, like Ivan Elmanov in Russia and Charles
Lartigue, the French Engineer, saw their dreams made in iron and steel and
even – in the case of Lartigue – were able to ride their visions and see
them as, albeit short-lived, successes.
Left image - Schwebebahn in Barmen-Elberfeld,
via
-- Top right: 1876 - Philadelphia Centennial steam-driven monorail (by
General Le-Roy Stone) -- Bottom right: 1911 - William H. Boyes Monorail
(Seattle, Washington),
via
An interesting early 1910s application of monorail technology is U.S.
Senate Monorail (1912) - carrying senators along the tunnels under the
U.S. Senate building on the "shortest and most exclusive railway in the
world." (read more
info) -
(image by Library of Congress,
via)
To be fair, some of these early designs were more thought-out than you
might think – though the actual engineering was naturally a bit primitive.
Some designs used a single rail for both balance as well as power (either
balanced by a gyroscope or hanging by an overhead support), while others
kind of ‘cheated’ by having a single rail for balance and then a second
wheel off to the side for propulsion.
Propeller-driven "The Bennie Railplane" - "The short test
track was built over a railroad line near Glasgow, Scotland. Two
electrically-powered propellers delivered 240 horsepower in a short burst
for acceleration to the cruise speed of 160 kph. There were plans for a
high-speed link between London and Paris, with a seaplane to carry
passengers across the English Channel, but the grave economic difficulties
of the 1930's doomed the Railplane from the start." (source)
"The Bennie Railplane",
via
Russia's Imperial Monorail, 1900
Russia has a long history of playing with monorail concept - as far back
as 1820, in the small village of Mychkovo, Russian inventor Ivan Elmanov
built an elevated single-track: the horses would draw carts sliding over
the wooden pole "rail". The idea became even more popular in Russia than a
normal steam train at the time (old salt mines in Crimea used Elmanov's
monorail, for example):
(image via)
Another Russian inventor Ippolit Romanov asked permission from the Romanov
royal family to build an elevated monorail in the city of Gatchina, and
got the blessing of the Russian Imperial Technical Society. The road was
constructed in the best Victorian fashion and received its first
passengers in June, 1900 -
(images via
Alexey Dedushkin, "Niva" newspaper, 1900)
After that, much more ambitious project, a high-speed monorail (with
speeds up to 200 km/hr) connecting St.Petersburg and Moscow was considered
and declined for the lack of funds. An image of projected huge terminal
station survives (see the whole series of "Moscow of the Future" from
1900s - click
here) -
The Oldest Monorail System in Operation: Steampunkish Wuppertal
Schwebebahn
Wuppertal Schwebebahn (Suspension Railway) opened in 1901 along the
Wupper river and remains in operation for more than 100 years. Perhaps it
is the biggest miracle that it remains profitable and safe, economical and
simply gorgeous (with new or vintage cars). It was designed by the Civil
Engineer Eugen Langen of Cologne:
(images via 1,
2,
3,
4,
Life)
1930-1970s always saw the future as balancing on one rail
While the early 20th century didn’t see a lot of huge developments in
one-rail trains – except for here or there earnest experiments and limited
uses – the 1920s and 30s were a boom year for the monorail in the pages of
science fiction and techno-gee-whiz magazines like Popular Science and
Modern Mechanix.
(images via 1,
2)
For some reason the brilliant artist of these and other magazines always
saw the future as balancing on one rail. Their images are bold and daring,
a plastic … or more like bakelite … glowing and chrome gleaming tomorrow
of pipe-smoking, hat-wearing business men and balloon-toting and picnic
basket-carrying children and wives zipping across meticulously manicured
landscapes at the astounding speeds of 300 miles per hour.
(image via
Modern Mechanix)
Arthur Radebaugh, "Metro Metropolis", images
via
Amphibious Monorail - Designed to traverse the deserts of
Turkmenistan (and to bring economic development to the area rich in
natural resources), this Soviet "dream train" would turn into a boat for
the independent crossing of major rivers. This "boat-train" idea may seem
a little far-fetched, until you consider the projected link between
Siberia and Alaska: a fleet of amphibious transport vehicles could be a
viable alternative to building a costly tunnel.
Cover of "Popular Science", July 1934 (fragment), images
via
Dreaming along similar Tomorrowland vistas, Disney’s imagineers adopted
the monorail as the futuristic way of traveling around their famous
amusement park:
(images via 1,
2)
Other engineers looked to this high-speed, or at least futuristic, way of
travel as well, getting their visionary monorail systems installed in
Japan (naturally), Seattle and a few other rare urban experiments.
Soviet monorail car, 1967,
via
(images via
1,
2)
Monorail in Singapore, image
via)
Magnetic Levitation: "Flying on the Ground"
It’s ironic that a system put in place – sometimes -- as a way to bring
the future into the backward world of today would now be seen as a
realistic future mass transit alternative – all because of magnets.
Well, Maglev to be precise: “magnetic levitation” to you and I. The
principle is simple: put the plus pole of a magnet to the plus pole of
another magnet (or negative to negative) and you get resistance, that fun
little ‘repulsion’ that’s delighted kids since magnets were first
discovered.
Shanghai-Pudong Magnev Monorail (top speed 501 km/h - 311 mph)
While this propulsion method was often included in those chrome and
bakelite futures of one-railed, high-speed trains it wasn’t until recently
that the idea of using magnetic levitation has been taken seriously as a
mass transit alternative. It seems that one of the best ways of using
Maglev is as the lift for a monorail system – as test beds around the
world have proven. Proven so well in fact that Maglev trains hold the
current ‘fast train” record at Modern Mechanix, Popular Science astounding
speeds of 361 miles per hour.
(images via
1,
2)
It’s fun to look back at those old pulp dreams of tomorrow, at their
bulbous machines and glowing tube control panels, their mountain-sized
turbines and silo-proportioned engine cylinders and barely suppress a
superior smirk at how they – charmingly, to be sure – got it so wrong,
but, who knows, maybe sometime soon we’ll be doing that smirking while we
silently blast across our own carefully maintained landscape as passengers
in 300+ miles per hour, magnetically supported, one-rail trains.
Discarded Ideas
A few concepts that did not make it in public transportation (single-rail
or no-rail). First, some ideas for those on a limited budget:
(images credit:
Alexey Andreev)
An interesting futuristic vehicle, that made appearance in the popular
German science fiction show "Perry Rhodan" - A Cable Police Car,
concept by Georg Joergens:
(image
via,
click to enlarge)
CONTINUE TO "EARLY AVIATION" ->
Also Read:
Retro-future: Mind-Boggling Transportation
Future of the Urban Transport
Category:
Technology,Vintage
|
19 Comments:
Great roundup and pix, but here's one you missed: Morgantown, West Virginia's Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) at University of West Virginia. But it doesn't have a rail so technically doesn't qualify. But so cool! http://admissions.wvu.edu/undergraduate/discover/prt.asp
Monorails! Fantastic, thanks. I'm still waiting, and won't believe that the future has arrived till I ride one.
The last image is almost identical to one of Chris Foss's concept drawings for Superman!
This reminded me of Blaine the mono in Stephen King's Dark Tower epic.
Here's some more you've missed:
http://peeron.com/inv/sets/6990-1?showpic=6467
http://peeron.com/inv/sets/6991-1?showpic=3077
http://peeron.com/inv/sets/6399-1?showpic=6487
And I have 6399.
ha ha, had to do it.
Give it a Splat!
Bertin's Aerotrain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%A9rotrain) was tested in the late 60s on a test track constructed near Orléans France. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VvsxaaFNAs
Don't forget the early-1900's Brennan gyro-monorail (linky)
Don't forget about the Las Vegas monorail, designed and built by Bombardier, the world's largest rail company.
great tips, all - the full story is not told yet, will go into part two.
I used to know a bloke who'd ridden on the Bennie Railplane as a young man. Sadly, he died last year, and I wish I'd talked to him more about it. Although, frankly, I don't think there was much to tell: as you say, it was a test track, and didn't actually go anywhere. He did say that it sounded - as you would expect - exactly like a plane. And at 20-30 feet from the ground, that must have been quite a racket. Not to mention the wash from the propellers (one at the front, one at the rear).
By all accounts, Bennie wasn't much of a businessman, but I can't help thinking that the technical issues doomed it as much as the economics.
There is a monorail very similar to the one at Disney located at the Miami Metrozoo in South Florida.
You forgot the best one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marge_vs._the_Monorail
The Senate subway wasn't (and still isn't) a monorail. Notice the motors on the trucks beneath the cars. The upper track is just the power source, like pangraph, but more durable.
For the true monorailists out there, don't forget The Monorail Society at http://www.monorails.org
We once had a monorail in berlin too:
http://www.berliner-verkehrsseiten.de/m-bahn/index.html
"Soviet monorail car, 1967, via"
it look like the French Safege !!!
Then there's this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF_yLodI1CQ
In 1911, Burbank, California launched "the first patented monorail in the USA," a fan-driven affair dubbed "Fawkes Folly."
http://wesclark.com/burbank/fawkes_folly.html
check this nice edit too Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VvsxaaFNAs&feature=related
"Perhaps it is the biggest miracle that it remains profitable and safe, economical and simply gorgeous"
It's not a miracle, it's german :)
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