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72-567: The term possibly originated in 1897 from German engineer Eugen Langen , who called an elevated railway system with wagons suspended the Eugen Langen One-railed Suspension Tramway (Einschieniges Hängebahnsystem Eugen Langen). Monorails have found applications in airport transfers and medium capacity metros. To differentiate monorails from other transport modes, the Monorail Society defines

144-422: A railroad double-crossover . Vehicle specifications are generally not open to the public, as is standard for rolling stock built for public services. An alternative to using a wye or other form of switch, is to use a turntable , where a car sits upon a section of track that can be reoriented to several different tracks. For example, this can be used to switch a car from being in a storage location, to being on

216-587: A connection on the Trona Railway , eastward to harvest epsomite deposits in the Owlshead Mountains . This non-passenger monorail achieved gradients of more than ten percent. It only operated until June 1926, and was dismantled for scrap in the late 1930s. A mountain railway was built between Chilecito and Famatina in La Rioja, Argentina. It was 44 kilometres (27 mi) long and had

288-560: A faulty monorail from a confidence trickster at a wildly inflated price. The Monorail Society, an organization with 14,000 members worldwide, has blamed the episode for sullying the reputation of monorails, to which Simpsons creator Matt Groening responded "That's a by-product of our viciousness...Monorails are great, so it makes me sad, but at the same time if something's going to happen in The Simpsons , it's going to go wrong, right?" The 2005 feature film Batman Begins features

360-651: A load-bearing single rail and an external wheel for balance. A highspeed monorail using the Lartigue system was proposed in 1901 between Liverpool and Manchester. In 1910, the Brennan gyroscopic monorail was considered for use to a coal mine in Alaska. In June 1920, the French Patent Office published FR 503782, by Henri Coanda, on a 'Transporteur Aérien' -Air Carrier. One of the first monorails planned in

432-554: A manually operated monorail of limited but sufficient capacity for the transport of small timber and firewood in the Northern Surabaya forest district. In later years, this idea was further developed by L. A. van de Ven, who was a forester in the Grobogan forest district around 1908–1910. Monorails were built by plantation operators and wood processing companies throughout the mountains of Central Java. In 1919/1920, however,

504-522: A maximum gradient of 33%, necessitating the use of rack rails. The Lynton Railway was a planned Lartigue monorail between Filleigh and Lynton in Devon, England. It was approved by an act of parliament in 1886 but was not proceeded with. The Manchester and Liverpool Express Railway was the closest that the 'Lightning Express' concept came to becoming a reality. This would have been a 34 + 1 ⁄ 2 -mile (55.5 km) long double-track railway with

576-576: A maximum speed of 110 miles per hour (180 km/h). It would have run between Deansgate in Manchester and Church Street in Liverpool with no intermediate stops, covering the distance in 20 minutes. A joint committee of the major stakeholders in both cities was formed and in May 1899 it reported that the total cost would be £1,487,311. Soon after, the Manchester and Liverpool Electric Railway Syndicate Ltd

648-644: A milesman, who died from his injuries. In 2003 the Lartigue Monorailway Restoration Committee , a voluntary organisation from Listowel , opened a 1-kilometre (0.6 mi) section of Lartigue monorail on the trackbed of the former North Kerry line in Listowel. Visitors to the site Lartigue Monorail and Museum can take a demonstration monorail trip and learn about the history of the Lartigue Monorail. The line

720-422: A monorail as a "single rail serving as a track for passenger or freight vehicles. In most cases, rail is elevated, but monorails can also run at grade , below grade, or in subway tunnels. Vehicles either are suspended from or straddle a narrow guide way. Monorail vehicles are wider than the guideway that supports them." Monorails are often elevated, sometimes leading to confusion with other elevated systems such as

792-829: A monorail, constructed by Bruce Wayne's father through Gotham City, that is part of the climax of the film. The monorail is also included in the spin-off video game . Blaine the Mono is a train featured in Stephen King 's The Dark Tower series of books and first appears in The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands . Monorails have also appeared in a number of other video games including Transport Tycoon (since 1999), Japanese Rail Sim 3D: Monorail Trip to Okinawa by Sonic Powered , SimCity 4: Rush Hour , Cities in Motion 2 , Cities: Skylines in

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864-516: A new type of railway. Instead of the conventional two parallel rails on the ground, it had a single rail sitting above the sand and held at waist height on A-shaped trestles. The carriages sat astride the trestles like panniers. The most famous Lartigue railway was the Listowel and Ballybunion Railway in Ireland which ran for 36 years from 1888. Despite how it is referred to, the Lartigue system

936-448: A passenger train was derailed near Galey bridge, probably as a result of sabotage to the line. Several bolts were found to have been removed from the track and discarded some distance away. Fortunately no-one was injured. On 28 November 1907, a double-headed train on a busy race day collided with some sleepers on a trestle and derailed. On 14 October 1914, a train heading towards Listowel reached Moybella at 18.00 and hit James Lynch,

1008-530: A road to cross the track, a kind of double-sided drawbridge had to be provided, which required an attendant to operate it. Where farmers' tracks crossed the line there were level crossings based on the principle of a turntable . They were locked and the farmer in question provided with a key. Once unlocked, the track could be swivelled to one side to allow the crossing to be used. Both the swivelling and drawbridge-type crossings were automatically linked to signals, which stopped any approaching trains, and road traffic

1080-412: A similar function was fulfilled by a large number of curved movable pieces of track which, when rotated one way, would connect the main and one other track. When turned end-for-end, the curve went in the opposite direction, and so connected the main and a different track. The devices could not be called turntables because they could only be moved when there was no rolling stock on them. There was, however,

1152-549: A turntable at each terminus. The three locomotives were of the 0-3-0 type, constructed by the Hunslet Engine Company . They were specially built with two boilers to balance on the track, and consequently two fireboxes , one of which had to be stoked by the driver. They were also fitted with powered tenders for auxiliary use on hills. The tender wheels were driven by two cylinders via spur gears . Two small chimneys were fitted to each tender to discharge

1224-456: A wooden platform (in the full-scale project the trestle would have been concrete). A model train, built to 1/5 scale to test the vehicle concept, was capable of reaching speeds of up to 70 km/h. The full-scale project was expected to reach speeds of up to 300 km/h. In the latter half of the 20th century, monorails had settled on using larger beam- or girder-based track, with vehicles supported by one set of wheels and guided by another. In

1296-438: Is because Chongqing is criss-crossed by numerous hills, mountains and rivers, therefore tunneling is not feasible except in some cases (for example, lines 1 and 6 ) due to the extreme depth involved. Today it is the largest and busiest monorail system in the world. In July 2009, two Walt Disney World monorails collided , killing one of the drivers and injuring seven passengers. The National Transportation Safety Board found

1368-477: Is speeding towards a stricken bridge. The James Bond film franchise features monorails in three movies, all belonging to the villain. In You Only Live Twice (1967) there is a working ground level monorail inside the SPECTRE volcano base. During Live and Let Die (1973), a prop monorail is shown in the villain's lair on the fictional Caribbean island of San Monique. In the 1977 The Spy Who Loved Me there

1440-481: Is the straddle-beam, in which the train straddles a steel or reinforced concrete beam 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 m) wide. A rubber - tired carriage contacts the beam on the top and both sides for traction and to stabilize the vehicle. The style was popularized by the German company ALWEG . There is also a historical type of suspension monorail developed by German inventors Nicolaus Otto and Eugen Langen in

1512-464: Is to place a moving apparatus on top of a sturdy platform capable of bearing the weight of vehicles, beams and its own mechanism. Multiple-segmented beams move into place on rollers to smoothly align one beam with another to send the train in its desired direction, with the design originally developed by ALWEG capable of completing a switch in 12 seconds. Some of these beam turnouts are quite elaborate, capable of switching between several beams or simulating

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1584-567: Is under construction in Wuhu and several "Cloudrail" systems developed by BYD under construction a number of cities such as Guang'an , Liuzhou , Bengbu and Guilin . Monorails have seen continuing use in niche shuttle markets and amusement parks. Modern mass transit monorail systems use developments of the ALWEG beam and tyre approach, with only two suspended types in large use. Monorail configurations have also been adopted by maglev trains . Since

1656-709: Is using the BYD SkyRail design. Other significant monorail systems are under construction such as two lines for the Cairo Monorail , two lines for the MRT (Bangkok) and the SkyRail Bahia in Brazil . Modern monorails depend on a large solid beam as the vehicles' running surface. There are a number of competing designs divided into two broad classes, straddle-beam and suspended monorails. The most common type

1728-659: Is worked by a diesel locomotive built to resemble the original 0-3-0 steam engines. The locomotive and its train of replica coaches were built by Alan Keef Ltd. By 1875 Lartigue had built a 90 km (56 mi) monorail to transport esparto grass from Oran to Damesne across the Algerian desert, with mules pulling trains of panniers that straddled the elevated rail. The line was closed down in 1881. At exhibitions in Paris and Rouen in 1884, demonstration lines were showcased. These were electrically powered using either

1800-554: Is working monorail on the villain's supertanker (submarine dock). In 1987, Lego released a monorail among the Futuron Space line. Despite being the most expensive Lego set of its time (due to being massive and including electrical elements), it was very popular, with Lego releasing a Town themed monorail in 1990 and another Space monorail in 1994 among the Unitron line, as well as additional track. The monorail system

1872-596: The 1964–1965 World's Fair . This high-cost perception was challenged most notably in 1963 when the ALWEG consortium proposed to finance the construction of a major system in Los Angeles County, California , in return for the right of operation. This was turned down by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors under pressure from Standard Oil of California and General Motors (which were strong advocates for automobile dependency ), and

1944-494: The Bradford and Foster Brook Railway was built in 1877 and ran for one year from January 1878 until January 1879. Around 1879 a "one-rail" system was proposed independently by Haddon and by Stringfellow, which used an inverted "V" rail (and thus shaped like "Λ" in cross-section). It was intended for military use, but was also seen to have civilian use as a "cheap railway." Similarly, one of the first systems put into practical use

2016-537: The Centennial Monorail demonstrated in 1876, in 1877 the Bradford and Foster Brook Railway began construction of a 5 mi (8.0 km) line connecting Bradford and Foster Township, McKean County in Pennsylvania . The line operated from 1878 until 1879 delivering machinery and oil supplies. The first twin-boiler locomotive wore out quickly. It was replaced by a single boiler locomotive which

2088-516: The Changsha Maglev Express ). However, it is argued that the larger width of the guideway for the maglevs makes it not legitimate to be called monorails. Some early monorails (notably the suspended monorail at Wuppertal , Germany) have a design that makes it difficult to switch from one line to another. Some other monorails avoid switching as much as possible by operating in a continuous loop or between two fixed stations, as in

2160-719: The Docklands Light Railway , Vancouver SkyTrain , the AirTrain JFK and cable propelled systems like the Cable Liner people mover which run on two rails. Monorail vehicles often appear similar to light rail vehicles, and can be staffed or unstaffed. They can be individual rigid vehicles, articulated single units, or multiple units coupled into trains. Like other advanced rapid transit systems, monorails can be driven by linear induction motors ; like conventional railways, vehicle bodies can be connected to

2232-553: The Interstate Highway System . Monorails in particular may have suffered from the reluctance of public transit authorities to invest in the perceived high cost of un-proven technology when faced with cheaper mature alternatives. There were also many competing monorail technologies, splitting their case further. One notable example of a public monorail is the AMF Monorail that was used as transportation around

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2304-694: The Irish Civil War of 1922-23, but services continued. However, the failure to include the railway in the Great Southern Railways , the company created by the Irish Government to run the railways in the Irish Free State , left the financially struggling operation no choice but to close. The last train ran on 14 October 1924 and everything was scrapped, except a short section of the track. On 29 September 1889,

2376-609: The Lartigue Monorail , used steam locomotives. Magnetic levitation train (maglev) systems such as the German Transrapid were built as straddle-type monorails. The Shanghai Maglev Train runs in commercial operation at 430 km/h (270 mph), and there are also slower maglev monorails intended for urban transport in Japan ( Linimo ), Korea ( Incheon Airport Maglev ) and China ( Beijing Subway Line S1 and

2448-793: The Lausanne Metro has grades of up to 12% and the Montreal Metro up to 6.5%, while VAL systems can handle 7% grades. Manufacturers of monorail rolling stock with operating systems include Hitachi Monorail , BYD , Bombardier Transportation (now Alstom ), Scomi , PBTS (a joint venture of CRRC Nanjing Puzhen & Bombardier), Intamin and EMTC. Other developers include CRRC Qingdao Sifang , China Railway Science and Industry Group , Zhongtang Air Rail Technology, Woojin and SkyWay Group . François Truffaut 's 1966 film adaptation of Ray Bradbury 's 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 contains suspended monorail exterior scenes filmed at

2520-540: The Mass transit expansion pack of 2017, Planet Zoo and a rideable elevated monorail system in the 2020 video game Cyberpunk 2077 . From 1950 to 1980, the monorail concept may have suffered, as with all public transport systems, from competition with the automobile . At the time, the post–World War II optimism in America was riding high and people were buying automobiles in large numbers due to suburbanization and

2592-552: The North Kerry line at Listowel . It had one intermediate station and a passing loop at Lisselton . The line ran beside the main Listowel/Ballybunion road ( R553 ). It officially opened on 29 February 1888, public services beginning on 5 March. The track was prefabricated and easily erected, and the capital cost was £33,000, far lower than a conventional railway. No baronial guarantees were sought. However,

2664-482: The Seattle Center Monorail . Current monorails are capable of more efficient switching than in the past. With suspended monorails, switching may be accomplished by moving flanges inside the beamway to shift trains to one line or another. Straddle-beam monorails require that the beam moves for switching, which was an almost prohibitively ponderous procedure. Now the most common way of achieving this

2736-516: The Tate Gallery in London. In 1864, Langen met Nicolaus August Otto who was working to improve the gas engine invented by Belgian Etienne Lenoir . The technically–trained Langen recognized the potential of Otto's development, and one month after the meeting, founded the first engine factory in the world, NA Otto & Cie. At the 1867 Paris World Exhibition , their improved engine received

2808-693: The Transrapid and Linimo . Maglevs differ from other monorails in that they do not physically contact the beam while moving. The first monorail prototype was made in Russia in 1820 by Ivan Elmanov . Attempts at creating monorail alternatives to conventional railways have been made since the early part of the 19th century. The Centennial Monorail was featured at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. Based on its design

2880-491: The elevated train systems of New York, Chicago, and elsewhere, a monorail beamway casts a narrow shadow. Conversely, monorails can be more expensive than light-rail systems that do not include tunnels. In addition, monorails must either remain above ground or use larger tunnels than conventional rail systems, and they require complex track-switching equipment. Under the Monorail Society's beam-width criterion, some, but not all, maglev systems are considered monorails, such as

2952-518: The 1880s. It was built in the twin cities of Barmen and Elberfeld in Wuppertal, Germany, opened in 1901, and is still in operation. The Chiba Urban Monorail is the world's largest suspended network. Almost all modern monorails are powered by electric motors fed by dual third rails , contact wires or electrified channels attached to or enclosed in their guidance beams, but diesel-powered monorail systems also exist. Historically some systems, such as

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3024-578: The 1950s, a 40% scale prototype of a system designed for speed of 200 mph (320 km/h) on straight stretches and 90 mph (140 km/h) on curves was built in Germany. There were designs with vehicles supported, suspended or cantilevered from the beams. In the 1950s the ALWEG straddle design emerged, followed by an updated suspended type, the SAFEGE system. Versions of ALWEG's technology are used by

3096-535: The 1980s, most monorail mass transit systems are in Japan , with a few exceptions. Tokyo Monorail , is one of the world's busiest, averages 127,000 passengers per day and has served over 1.5 billion passengers since 1964. China recently started development of monorails in the late 2000s, already home to the world's largest and busiest monorail system and has a number of mass transit monorails under construction in several of cities. A Bombardier Innovia Monorail -based system

3168-509: The 2000s, with the rise of traffic congestion and urbanization, there has been a resurgence of interest in the technology for public transport with a number of cities, such as Malta and Istanbul , today investigating monorails as a possible mass transit solution. In 2004, Chongqing Rail Transit in China adopted a unique ALWEG-based design with rolling stock that is much wider than most monorails, with capacity comparable to heavy rail . This

3240-748: The Cologne Waggonfabrik van der Zypen & Charlier. He started the suspension railway system in Wuppertal in 1894. Listowel and Ballybunion Railway The Lartigue Monorail system was developed by the French engineer Charles Lartigue (1834–1907). He further developed a horse drawn monorail system, which had been invented by Henry Robinson Palmer in 1821. Lartigue had seen camels in Algeria carrying heavy loads balanced in panniers on their backs. This inspired him to design

3312-609: The French SAFEGE test track in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire near Orléans , France (since dismantled). The Thunderbirds February 1966 episode " Brink of Disaster " is about the financing and building of a high speed driverless cross-country monorail project. Two of the Thunderbirds-crew find themselves trapped on board the a monorail train, and with no possibility of escape, when it is discovered it

3384-514: The Grand Prize. After this first factory went bankrupt, Langen founded a new company for the construction of gas engines, Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz , which later became the group Kloeckner-Humboldt-Deutz (KHD). This became the current Deutz AG . Langen invented and applied new methods of production in the KHD factory. In the field of rail transport equipment, Langen was co-owner and engineer of

3456-618: The United States was in New York City in the early 1930s, scrubbed for an elevated train system. The first half of the 20th century saw many further proposed designs that either never left the drawing board or remained short-lived prototypes. One of the most interesting projects created on the layout was the ball-bearing train by Nikolai Grigorievich Yarmolchuk. This train moved on spherical wheels with electric motors embedded in them, which were located in semi-circular chutes under

3528-497: The beam via bogies , allowing curves to be negotiated. Monorails are sometimes used in urban areas alongside conventional parallel railed metro systems. Mumbai Monorail serves alongside Mumbai Metro , while monorail lines are integrated with conventional rail rapid transit lines in Bangkok's MRT network. Unlike some trams and light rail systems, modern monorails are always separated from other traffic and pedestrians due to

3600-487: The cause of the accident to be human error by both the driver and controller, contributed to by a lack of standard operating procedures. São Paulo , Brazil, is building two high-capacity monorail lines as part of its public transportation network. Line 15 was partially opened in 2014, will be 27 km (17 mi) long when completed in 2022 and has a capacity of 40,000 pphpd using Bombardier Innovia Monorail trains. Line 17 will be 17.7 km (11.0 mi) long and

3672-496: The exhaust steam from those cylinders. A smaller engine, nicknamed the "coffee pot", was used in the construction of the railway, having been used previously on a demonstration line at Tothill Fields in London. It can be seen in an early photo of 1888. The rolling stock, both wagons and carriages, were made by the Falcon Engine & Car Works of Loughborough . The track, installations and rolling stock were damaged during

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3744-418: The features and advantages of the system, including steep gradients, sharp curves, points and level crossings. A line 17 km (11 mi) long was built in 1895 between Feurs and Panissières , in the French département of Loire . However, it never opened after it failed certification testing in both 1895 and 1896. The track and equipment were scrapped in 1902. F. B. Behr's 'Lightning Express' concept

3816-569: The geometry of the rail. They are both guided and supported via interaction with the same single beam, in contrast to other guided systems like rubber-tyred metros , such as the Sapporo Municipal Subway ; or guided buses or trams, such as Translohr . Monorails can also use pantographs . As with other grade-separated transit systems, monorails avoid red lights, intersection turns, and traffic jams. Surface-level trains, buses, automobiles, and pedestrians can collide each one with

3888-568: The hand-operated monorails gradually disappeared and were replaced by narrow-gauge railways with steam locomotives as forest utilization changed. In the 1920s the Port of Hamburg used a petrol powered, suspended monorail to transport luggage and freight from ocean-going vessels to a passenger depot. Eugen Langen Carl Eugen Langen (9 October 1833 in Cologne – 2 October 1895 in Elsdorf )

3960-534: The later proposed subway system faced criticism by famed author Ray Bradbury as it had yet to reach the scale of the proposed monorail. Several monorails initially conceived as transport systems survive on revenues generated from tourism , benefiting from the unique views offered from the largely elevated installations. Monorails have been used for number of applications other than passenger transportation. Small suspended monorail are also widely used in factories either as part of moveable assembly lines. Inspired by

4032-497: The legacy systems in use today. However, monorails gained little foothold compared to conventional transport systems. In March 1972, Alejandro Goicoechea-Omar had patent DE1755198 published, on a 'Vertebrate Train', build as experimental track in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. Niche private enterprise uses for monorails emerged, with the emergence of air travel and shopping malls , with shuttle-type systems being built. From

4104-406: The main line. The now-closed Sydney Monorail had a traverser at the depot, which allowed a train on the main line to be exchanged with another from the depot. There were about six lines in the depot, including one for maintenance. Rubber-tired monorails are typically designed to cope with a 6% grade . Rubber-tired light rail or metro lines can cope with similar or greater grades – for example,

4176-540: The monorail car. A surviving suspended version is the oldest still in service system: the Wuppertal monorail in Germany. Also in the early 1900s, Gyro monorails with cars gyroscopically balanced on top of a single rail were tested, but never developed beyond the prototype stage. The Ewing System , used in the Patiala State Monorail Trainways in Punjab, India , relies on a hybrid model with

4248-486: The other, while vehicles on dedicated, grade-separated rights-of-way such as monorails can collide only with other vehicles on the same system, with much fewer opportunities for collision. As with other elevated transit systems, monorail passengers receive sunlight and views. Monorails can be quieter than diesel buses and trains. They obtain electricity from the track structure, whereas other modes of transit may use either third rail or overhead power lines and poles. Compared to

4320-537: The running rail or side rails for conduction to the locomotive. Following these demonstrations, a mineral railway was built at the Ria copper mines in the eastern Pyrenees. This was also electrically powered, with the electricity for ascending trains being generated by the trains descending. In 1886, to promote the Listowel and Ballybunion Railway, a demonstration track was built in Westminster , London. It showed off

4392-455: The system had significant operating drawbacks. Loads had to be evenly balanced. If a farmer wanted to send a cow to market, he would have to send two calves to balance it, which would travel back on opposite sides of the same freight wagon, thereby balancing each other. Another problem with using the Lartigue system in populated areas was that, due to the track's design, it was not possible to build conventional level crossings . In order for

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4464-741: The two largest monorail manufacturers, Hitachi Monorail and Bombardier . In 1956, the first monorail to operate in the US began test operations in Houston, Texas. Disneyland in Anaheim, California , opened the United States' first daily operating monorail system in 1959. Later during this period, additional monorails were installed at Walt Disney World in Florida , Seattle , and in Japan . Monorails were promoted as futuristic technology with exhibition installations and amusement park purchases, as seen by

4536-498: Was a 0-3-0 steam locomotive on this line. A high-speed monorail using the Lartigue system was proposed in 1901 between Liverpool and Manchester. The Boynton Bicycle Railroad was a steam-powered monorail in Brooklyn on Long Island , New York . It ran on a single load-bearing rail at ground level, but with a wooden overhead stabilising rail engaged by a pair of horizontally opposed wheels. The railway operated for only two years beginning in 1890. The Hotchkiss Bicycle Railroad

4608-487: Was a German entrepreneur, engineer and inventor, involved in the development of the petrol engine and the Wuppertal Suspension Railway . In 1857 he worked in his father's sugar factory, JJ Langen & Söhne, and after extensive technical training at the Polytechnic institute in Karlsruhe , patented a method for producing sugar cubes . In 1870 he co-founded Pfeifer & Langen , still in operation today. He sold this method in 1872 to Sir Henry Tate of England, founder of

4680-425: Was a monorail on which a matching pedal bicycle could be ridden. The first example was built between Smithville and Mount Holly , New Jersey, in 1892. It closed in 1897. Other examples were built in Norfolk from 1895 to 1909, Great Yarmouth , and Blackpool , UK from 1896. Early designs used a double- flanged single metal rail alternative to the double rail of conventional railways, both guiding and supporting

4752-430: Was also prominent in the unreleased Seatron Space line and prototype Wild West sets. Its popularity has still endured over thirty years later, where Lego has paid homage in promotional sets and fans have manufactured compatible components. The fourth season of the American animated television show The Simpsons features the episode " Marge vs. the Monorail ", in which the town of Springfield impulsively purchases

4824-406: Was always given priority. Passengers could not pass from one side of a carriage to another while in motion. A kind of footbridge was built into one end of some of the passenger coaches, while at least one such bridge was carried on a separate wagon. That allowed passengers to cross from one side of the train to the other when stopped at a station. Conventional railway points could not be used, so

4896-419: Was formed to construct the line. In 1901, the railway was approved by an act of parliament, however it included a clause which enabled the Board of Trade to require testing of the design at the company's expense to certify the system's safety. The company agreed to build 7 miles (11 km) of the route for this purpose, however the substantial cost of this scared away most investors, who did not want to finance

4968-434: Was not truly a monorail, since it was necessary to add two further rails, one on each side, lower down the A frames. These did not carry any weight, but unpowered stabilising wheels fitted to all the engines and wagons contacted these extra rails to prevent the vehicles from overbalancing. This was a 14.4 km (8.9 mi) monorail built on the Lartigue principle in County Kerry in Ireland. It linked Ballybunion with

5040-445: Was shown at the 1897 Brussels International Exposition . This was a development of the Lartigue system which enabled higher speeds using electric power, articulated chassis and two guide rails on either side of the trestle. This demonstration train reached speeds of over 75 miles per hour (121 km/h). In the northern Mojave Desert of California, the Epsom Salts Monorail was built in 1924. It ran for 45 km (28 mi) from

5112-417: Was that of French engineer Charles Lartigue, who built a line between Ballybunion and Listowel in Ireland, opened in 1888 and lasting 36 years, being closed in 1924 (due to damage from Ireland's Civil War). It used a load-bearing single rail and two lower, external rails for balance, the three carried on triangular supports. It was cheap to construct but tricky to operate. Possibly the first monorail locomotive

5184-463: Was too heavy and crashed through the track on its third trip. The third locomotive again had twin boilers. On a trial run one of the boilers ran dry and exploded, killing six people. The railway was closed soon after. Monorails in Central Java were used to transport timber from the forests of Central Java located in the mountains to the rivers. In 1908 and 1909, the forester H. J. L. Beck built

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