Monorail?

[sarahj]

What about the braindead slobs?

I've heard there could be cushy jobs.

 

[backontrack]

I've heard there could be cushy jobs.

Were you sent here by the devil?

 

[work-traveller]

As late as last year Central Station on the Merry Hill Monorail was in almost perfect condition... Some kid was given permission to go inside it. I presume that as the lift there is still in use, the shopping centre staff have access to carry out maintenance when needed to the lift

http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/Merry-Hill-s-ghost-station/story-21254198-detail/story.html

Alas, all that remains is the enclosed central station and adjoining track, which is above the main shopping centre:

https://goo.gl/maps/t9NOL

The inability to efficiently de-train passengers in an emergency killed the system off. Then after some years it was chopped up and shipped off to an Aussie shopping centre I believe.

 

[sarahj]

Were you sent here by the devil?

I think I'm on the level.

 

[backontrack]

The ring came off my pudding can...

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The ring came off my pudding can...

Take my penknife, my good man!

 

[nidave]

Monorail... MONORAIL... MONORAIL!!!
...
...
...
Mono... DOH!

 

[backontrack]

I swear it's this forum's only choice
Throw up your hands and raise your voice...

500th post,
500th post,
500TH POOOOST!!!!!

500TH POST!

500th...d'oh!

 

[bspahh]

Is that the RTV-31 Hovertrain?

There is a 15 minute video on the test track for this Hovertrain, that next to the Bedford canal near Earith here

http://www.elystandard.co.uk/news/t...ment_of_the_60s_and_70s_in_the_fens_1_4891302

 

[swt class 450]

Are there, or have there ever been, any monorails in this country apart from the one at Alton Towers? (Been playing the Simpsons 'Tapped Out', which inspired this question).

Perhaps this belongs in another thread, so mods do move it if you want.

Is the one at Gatwick Airport (on the South Terminal to North Terminal shuttle) a monorail?

 

[northwichcat]

Chester Zoo has a monorail: http://www.chesterzoo.org/plan-your-...e-zoo/monorail

 

[northwichcat]

Flamingo Land has *two*

Alton Tower's track and rolling stock, plus, I understand, associated buildings and spares, came from the Vancouver Expo 86 Monorail

So we sent over a Pacer train and came back with a monorail and an unwanted Pacer?

 

[northwichcat]

Monorail... MONORAIL... MONORAIL!!!
...
...
...
Mono... DOH!

Marge: So will the monorail crash on it's first outing?
Man from North Haverbrook: That depends if you have a good conductor.
(Cut to Homer in the cab of the Monorail train.)

 

[Yew]

Butlins Skegness and Minehead has Monorails, both opened in the 1960's and closed in the late 90's or early 2000's when the camps were redeveloped. At least towards the end they were pretty unreliable.

I remember going on the skegness one, Probably in the early 2000s. The second station had been closed, and it was generally jsut used for sight-seeing of the park

 

[HSTEd]

To be honest I am not sure what advantage such systems would have over simply building a ropeway these days. Since we can get Funitels and 3S Gondolas that can move up to 8.5m/s.

 

[MarkyT]

Is the one at Gatwick Airport (on the South Terminal to North Terminal shuttle) a monorail?

No, it's a rubber tyred elevated automated people mover (APM). Cars, power, platform doors, control and comms were replaced in 2010 by Bombardier.

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/gatwick-airport-peoplemover-shuttle-reopens.html

https://youtu.be/dFLBPVk9cm4

 

[3141]

Don't forget the bonkers Bennie Railplane. A test track ran for a short distance near Glasgow I believe.

I have a short history of that somewhere but I can’t find it, so here is some info about it from an article in Eagle Annual no. 1 (1951) – a well-known authority on railways!

The article is headed “Railway with the speed of aircraft”. It starts by saying that you are lucky if a train averages 50 mph, “for during the last forty years railway timetables have shown little, if any, sign of a general speed-up”. The “cars” on the Bennie system have an airscrew at each end and can propel 50 passengers at between 160 and 200 mph. The monorail is supported by concrete pylons.

The inventor, George Bennie, built a demonstration track over the LNER at Milngavie, near Glasgow, shortly before the Second World War. As a result there was a government recommendation to use the system to link London with its airport at Heathrow (the article says, but I don't know how accurate that is). Comparative estimated costs were £27 million for a road and £35 million for an underground railway, but only £6 million for the monorail.

As well as the rail from which the car is suspended, there is a “sway rail” below the car, and a pair of horizontal guide wheels either side of this rail eliminate any tendency to sway.

It appears that they envisaged the system as being suitable for a shuttle. There’s nothing about the practical problems of points, as raised by some other posters here. But long-distance routes were also considered, because a drawing shows the monorail “as it would look spanning the deserts of Africa”. “Enquiries are coming in from all parts of the world, and in the near future we should see the railway operating in places as far apart as Syria, Saudi Arabia and Western Canada.”

Which of today’s transport schemes will have proved equally mistaken in 65 years’ time?

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Under hung monorails are more stable than wheel on rail trains. Barring a massive structural failure there's no way for them to derail.

There are plenty of ways for them to derail with a simple derailment leading to catastrophic results.


https://www.bing.com/images/search?...Index=0&qpvt=schwebebeahn+accident&ajaxhist=0

 

[najaB]

There are plenty of ways for them to derail with a simple derailment leading to catastrophic results.

I'd class leaving a pair of steel blocks where they shouldn't be after doing repair work as a structural issue.

 

[30907]

Just discovered this thread.

There was a (slow) monorail at the Gateshead Garden Festival back in 1990 or so. Which probably got reused....

 

[Busaholic]

I worked at Butlin's Minehead in the summer of 1967, and I don't remember seeing a monorail operating.

 

[swt class 450]

No, it's a rubber tyred elevated automated people mover (APM). Cars, power, platform doors, control and comms were replaced in 2010 by Bombardier.

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/gatwick-airport-peoplemover-shuttle-reopens.html

https://youtu.be/dFLBPVk9cm4

Thanks for the info. Everyone (as in the general public at Gatwick Airport) seems to refer to it as the monorail!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I worked at Butlin's Minehead in the summer of 1967, and I don't remember seeing a monorail operating.

Plenty of pictures of it online.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=....825.0..0j35i39k1j0i30k1j0i8i30k1.Eh8cCoipU1k

( Link goes to Google Images search results for "Minehead Monorail" )

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Wasn't there, unusually, a large swimming pool/splash centre in Rhyl which had a monorail?

 

[mark-h]

I worked at Butlin's Minehead in the summer of 1967, and I don't remember seeing a monorail operating.

According to Butlins Memories it was built in 1967. It is also shown on the 1967 map

No date of opening is given.

Pathe News features the Butlins Skegness monorail

 

[Merthyr Imp]

This page of the Butlins Memories website gives the opening date of the monorail at Minehead as 13th May 1967:

http://www.butlinsmemories.com/other/monorails.htm

 

[randyrippley]

Historically, rural Ireland had a rural monorail in Co Kerry.
Here is video of what is described as the Ballybunion monorail
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/along-the-line
More details about the line here
http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/Listowel.html (called the Listowel monorail). Its been reconstructed / reopened - see
http://www.lartiguemonorail.com/

I've also seen reference to another strange "monorail" in Ireland which consisted of a train balanced on a single ground-level rail using a wheel with a grooved profile. The train was stabilised by small outrigger wheels under the rolling stock perimeters running on wooden boards. I saw a photo of it ~30 years ago in a book or journal but can't find any reference now.
Not really a monorail in the sense usually intended, as despite only having one metal rail, there was effectively three lines of contact, two being wooden

 

[craigybagel]

Wasn't there, unusually, a large swimming pool/splash centre in Rhyl which had a monorail?

Correct, the Rhyl Sun Centre. It's being demolished now having closed a few years ago but one of the monorail cars is being preserved.

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/rhyl-sun-centre-monorail-car-11743595

 

[kevjs]

Butlins Skegness and Minehead has Monorails, both opened in the 1960's and closed in the late 90's or early 2000's when the camps were redeveloped. At least towards the end they were pretty unreliable.

I'm sure the latter used to be in John Player Special and McQuewens Lager liveries when I was a kid (1980s) - can't imagine you getting away with that form of advertising nowadays.

 

[Ianno87]

Once upon a time (1970s I believe) a Monorail was proposed for Manchester, running from Middleton to Wyhenshawe via the City Centre. Got replaced by Picc-Vic, then by Metrolink.

A couple of years ago, sone bright spark proposed a Monorail for Cambridge, with an artists impression of a Monorail (and track) crossing right through the middle of the world famous view of the west window of King's College chapel...