jonesy3001
Established Member
I'm also playing the monorail task on simpsons tapped out.
There are monorails at blackpool pleasure beach and Chester zoo.
There are monorails at blackpool pleasure beach and Chester zoo.
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Monorail?
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I'm living and learning! The Rhyl monorail to which I made reference was on the seafront. I heard about it, but never saw it. If you have a look, using the link below, you will discover that it was 600 yds long, 15ft above the ground and lasted for just 6-7 weeks in 1980 before closure! I was unaware of the Sun Centre monorail - does this still operate?
http://rhyl-life.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/monorail.html
The Planner
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The track is there at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, but it hasn't run for years.
Didn't it stop running after the 'House of Fun' through which it ran burnt down?
MidlandMainlie
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A little outside the UK but there is a Monorail in Las Vegas that links different casinos along the strip.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_Monorail
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_Monorail
jonesy3001
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The monorail at the pleasure beach still runs, reopened when nickelodean land opened.
61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
I remember riding on it as a kid, have a vague memory of there being a (disused) second station which was on the balcony of a former restaurant near the park entrance...?
jonesy3001
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It's only got the one station near the roller coaster, think the other got demolished when they built the big one.
craigybagel
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Not any more. It's now closed for good.
WatcherZero
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Peel wanted to build (or rather wanted others on their behalf to fund) one from the Trafford Centre into Manchester city centre shortly after the centre opened.
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Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
I just looked through their list and they've missed at least one out - the one in the caves at Betharram near Lourdes. It's a ground level monorail stabilised with conventional rubber tyres, so it's more a hybrid really - but it does only have one rail as can be clearly seen in the pictures via Google here:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=g...ved=0CAcQ_AUoAmoVChMIz6Wf6fjgxwIVD1nbCh0jlgFk
theageofthetra
Established Member
They also don't include freight carrying monorails such as the numerous vineyard ones on the slopes of the Cinque Terre in Italy.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I remember going to that Rhyl Sun centre when it first opened in about 1981, but don't remember a monorail. It was always going to be doomed- Stuart Hall did the opening ceremony.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I remember going to that Rhyl Sun centre when it first opened in about 1981, but don't remember a monorail. It was always going to be doomed- Stuart Hall did the opening ceremony.
They define monorails as having vehicles "wider that the guideway which supports them".
The Betharram system is a rubber tyred vehicle guided by a central rail (similar to many theme park ghost trains). If it were to run above ground then the structure would have to be wide enough to contain the outer wheels, making it not a monorail.
The monorail society only includes "transport" monorails which serve more than one station in their world list.
The Betharram system is a rubber tyred vehicle guided by a central rail (similar to many theme park ghost trains). If it were to run above ground then the structure would have to be wide enough to contain the outer wheels, making it not a monorail.
The monorail society only includes "transport" monorails which serve more than one station in their world list.
True, but they require a huge amount of structure to make them work in the first place. As a solution to the problem of making something not fall off they are still hugely extravagant compared to simply having two rails.
Not a good definition, since pretty well all trains are wider than the track...
WillPS
Established Member
Some of it did, obviously some adaptation was required, primarily new supports - then owner John Broome attempted to have these done on the cheap by a local supplier. The stresses of the track were not fully understood though, and the next closed season Von Roll themselves ended up rebuilding most of it.
No. That section was rebuilt.
It didn't close at all for that period, although it ran fairly irregularly for its last few seasons.
Sadly so, closed at the end of the 2013 season. The circuit is now incomplete, the former main station having been removed.
Is there a chance the track could bend???? 
Could not resist. sorry.
Is this classed as a monorail? (Schwebebahn Wuppertal) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb8Zqr6N3As
Really want to have a ride on it
Could not resist. sorry.
Is this classed as a monorail? (Schwebebahn Wuppertal) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb8Zqr6N3As
Really want to have a ride on it
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cjohnson
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Seem to recall a few years back there was a proposal to run a monorail along the A4 corridor from Hammersmith-Heathrow via a new proposed Brentford FC stadium by Kew Bridge station...?
Is there a chance the track could bend????
Could not resist. sorry.
Hey, it's not so daft. Primitive points on two-rail systems have been implemented like that. I've an idea I might even have seen a set, on a mine tramway. The incoming track flexes sideways by a few inches to align with one or other of the diverging tracks.
Certainly it's been done on monorails using a hinge to allow the bend. The Listowel and Ballybunion line for one.
Whether a monorail design has used actual flexing rather than a hinge I'm not sure, but I'd be surprised if it hasn't at least been seriously proposed.
It is.
Thanks for replying and giving a serious reply..
I will leave this here and see if you can keep it out of your head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDOI0cq6GZM
edwin_m
Veteran Member
The difference is that a railway point has to move or bend by a couple of inches, a monorail point by several feet. It's rather like if a heavy rail point had two tracks ending before they met, and a piece of flexible track that joined to one or the other.
I think the Listowel and Ballybunion "points" were turntables that allowed a straight piece of track to swivel out of the way and be replaced by a curved one. Still a pretty hefty bit of engineering especially if the curved route is to be useable at a reasonable speed.
I think the Listowel and Ballybunion "points" were turntables that allowed a straight piece of track to swivel out of the way and be replaced by a curved one. Still a pretty hefty bit of engineering especially if the curved route is to be useable at a reasonable speed.
thenorthern
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The now closed Sydney Harbourlink Monorail pretty much sums up the issues with Monorails.
It cost more than light rail to build and run, it was slower, there were many height restrictions for the roads it ran over, it ran in 1 direction, the stock had to be specially made and most of all it was more of a tourist railway than a meaningful means of transport.
The suspended monorails in Japan I am told are good.
It cost more than light rail to build and run, it was slower, there were many height restrictions for the roads it ran over, it ran in 1 direction, the stock had to be specially made and most of all it was more of a tourist railway than a meaningful means of transport.
The suspended monorails in Japan I am told are good.
The L&B didn't have "points" quite of the nature you describe. Switching between tracks was indeed effected by turntables but these, I believe, never had straight sections of track. The "turntable" comprised an arc of track pivoted at its centre which joined two sections of fixed track (say 'A' & 'B'). By rotating the "turntable" so that the opposite end of the arc aligned with fixed track 'A' the other end would align with, say, fixed track 'C' and thus the "point" would now lead from 'A' to 'C'. At Listowel and at Ballybunion it would also be expedient to use the device to turn the locomotive but I've always understood that pure turntables, as opposed to turntable/points, were not employed.
The attached link gives a view at Lisselton the principal (only?) intermediate station. There are quite a few books available on the subject.
Another oddity of this line was the existence of level crossings which worked like miniature "Tower Bridges" with the roadway being lowered to provide a crossing on the level with the naturally raised track.
Please feel free to add to/correct what I have written.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1452954551677478&id=1450728208566779
Mumbai seem to be quite serious about developing their monorail system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai_Monorail
5.5 miles long at the moment and growing to 12 miles a the end of the year, then 72 more miles planned in the next 15 years or so..
https://goo.gl/maps/aTxpF is the depot...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai_Monorail
5.5 miles long at the moment and growing to 12 miles a the end of the year, then 72 more miles planned in the next 15 years or so..
https://goo.gl/maps/aTxpF is the depot...
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L&Y Robert
Member
There used to be a commercial clip-together monorail system for use on building sites and so-on. Self-propelled vehicles something like a tipper wagon ran along a portable clip-together monorail track. I remember the system in use for the dualling of Church Street in Burnley in the fifties. There the skips were used to carry concrete from the batching plant out to the work-site, the track being altered to suit as the work proceeded. Recently I saw an example of the system in working order in a video taken at the Amberley Chalk-pits museum.
backontrack
Established Member
Not on your life, my forum friend.
Mumbai. https://youtu.be/HU3SZ7PV02U
I guess multiple hinged sections, but fascinating to watch.
Las Vegas looks simpler in comparison. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT80lCQQjGI
backontrack
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What about the braindead slobs?
DelW
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The Wuppertal Schwebebahn is well worth a visit - I was there last month. Also spend a bit of time at the terminal stations to see how their 'points' work (to get trains in and out of the depots) and to see how tight a radius the trains can traverse. The Wuppertaler Brauhaus is also worth the short walk from Alter Markt or Werther Brucke stations but that's going even further off topic!
There are also two smaller but more modern systems nearby, built by Siemens and referred to as H-bahn. One connects Dusseldorf Airport terminals to a car park and main-line station, and the other connects parts of Dortmund University campus to an S-bahn station. I missed the latter as it only runs on weekdays :cry:
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Indeed, i remember going to the skegness one near its demise. It only had one stop and seemed to run very rarely!
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